Topic: Al Lowe and Jane Jensen jump on the Kickstarter bandwagon.

[Stupot+]

Krikey, they're all at it.  Yesterday I noticed that Al Lowe is turning to Kickstarter to help fund the Leisure Suit Larry remakes (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1451923705/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again), and then today it turns out that Jane Jensen is using it to fund her new game studio (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005365109/jane-jensens-pinkerton-road-2012-2013-csg), which sounds more like a dodgy adventure game time-share scheme.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

lol...Why am I not surprised.  It's a shame because these higher profile (or celebrity) developers are going to put a strain on kickstarter for start-ups (imo).

[Armageddon]

This is getting really old to be honest.

Maybe Kick starter should get a reviewing process? Maybe all this jumping up and down on the band wagon is good.

[Radiant]

I'd be more impressed if Al would do a new game rather than a carbon copy of the first Larry with improved graphics.

[Corby]

I'd be more impressed if Al would do a new game rather than a carbon copy of the first Larry with improved graphics.

I agree, this will be the third version of Larry 1. 

[Anian]

lol...Why am I not surprised.  It's a shame because these higher profile (or celebrity) developers are going to put a strain on kickstarter for start-ups (imo).

I agree, I think nobody of the "after Schaffer" party thought through of how saturated things will become and instead maybe they thought of going with the wave.

Although this pledges are somewhat (at least in some ratio) indications of how well adventure games sell.

[Eggie]

lol...Why am I not surprised.  It's a shame because these higher profile (or celebrity) developers are going to put a strain on kickstarter for start-ups (imo).

No way, it's helping them out. A lot of small games by unknowns on Kickstarter are getting funded by people who only have accounts because Doublefine got them there. I heard that. From the FACT GOD.

Hmmn... This Jane Jenson thing. Best pitch video ever? Best pitch video ever.

[JD]

I'd be more impressed if Al would do a new game rather than a carbon copy of the first Larry with improved graphics.

From the FAQ:


I love the game but I would pledge more if you guys made a brand new Leisure Suit Larry game instead of a re-make of LSL 1

We would LOVE to make a new version of Leisure Suit Larry!!  We thought about making LSL 4 (the missing floppies) or 8, or even 69!!  The problem is, Codemasters, the publisher that owns the rights to Leisure Suit Larry and sold them to us wants to see what we can do with the game first.  They said if we do a good job at a re-make then we'll have total freedom to do what we want on the next game.

[Snarky]

I agree, this will be the third version of Larry 1. 

Fourth if you count Softporn.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Why not just make a new game, Al, instead of treading the same tired ground?  Make a fresh lounge lizard for today's audiences or go in a completely new direction.  Larry has pretty much done everything he can do except genre jump at this point (oh no, I hope I didn't give them an idea to do Leisure Suit Larry:  Boobs and Dinosaurs or Larry's Space Boner Adventure).

[Mods]

So Codemasters want Al Lowe to remake LSL1 to prove he/his team can do it before they let him make an original LSL title. And only then will they release the rights, rather than give him a budget to work with to produce a new title straight up - presumably Codemasters are still getting the profits from both possible games? What weird video-game company beauracracy.

"Hi, I'm Al Lowe, I invented LSL. I'd like to make a new one."
"LSL? Let me check with accounts. Yeah do we have an um, LSL there? Huh? Oh, it was a computer game? Yes I've got a man here who claims he wants to make a new one. Thanks. Sorry sir, apparently we'll need to see a demo first before we can discuss this further. Did you say you make videogames?"

He and Jane Jensen should be getting deals straight out IMO. I suppose going it alone and just trying to re-aquire rights is worth helping to fund. It could almost be interesting to see this begin to dismantle the mainstream video-game scene a little, point n click genre has always been good at that - re-writing the books No damage, I just mean in terms of studio focus towards these kind of projects, they won't take that risk - which gives the smaller studio the oppurtunity to flourish. P&C has a big garden with several big guard dogs in it, luckily keeping the harsh finger of mainstream gaming at bay for a long time, hopefully further still.

But goddamn. Yes watering it down is right, I swear all news now is just kickstarter projects. I'm guuilty too This is a good way to help society. My friend is disabled and needs 20,000 to be able to walk again via an operation in America. I need 2000 to get my business working. You can see why 500k and 3m point & click kickstarter projects piss me off as much as impress me.

[Stupot+]

But goddamn. Yes watering it down is right, I swear all news now is just kickstarter projects. I'm guuilty too This is a good way to help society. My friend is disabled and needs 20,000 to be able to walk again via an operation in America. I need 2000 to get my business working. You can see why 500k and 3m point & click kickstarter projects piss me off as much as impress me.

I wonder if there is a kind of Kickstarter clone specialising in helping people fund personal charitable causes, such as operations in America... if not, there bloody well should be.

[Victor6]

Has Al Lowe actually bought the rights, or has he just purchased permission to remake an existing game?

If he's got the rights, then surely Codemasters can go f*ck themselves, and Al can make a new game?

[Jared]

The charity argument has come up before and... eh. I'm giving around $100 across three charities a month, which I think isn't too bad considering I'm only guaranteed $208 a week with my part time work right now. So my conscious is clear as to whether I'm allowed to spend the rest of my money frivolously.

I think it comes up with Kickstarter because the line is blurred between charity and consuming. Everyone giving money is basically paying for a product (assuming that conditions are honoured) and I see it more as cutting out the middlemen producers than a charity for game developers. The money is provided by the customers BEFORE the game is released, the game is developed with that money. Everyone gets what they want! Unless the developers want a profit. Perhaps. Nobody's gotten that far yet.  

I'll be collecting a few more pay slips and weighing up what I need to spend on annoying real life crap before deciding on what I'll help Kickstart - I'm pretty sure I'll be funding LSL, though, and my interest is very taken with Shadowrun Returns


Also, I'd have to assume Al Lowe does not have the rights and I'd guess he doesn't have the means to purchase them. Josh Mandel and the SQ7 pursued the idea of purchasing Space Quest as a property when Vivendi were selling off the Sierra IPs, and the quote at the time was "Unless somebody has an eccentric millionaire relative, it ain't gonna happen".

I don't know if that's just a matter of Vivendi playing hard ball, though, because apparently the Shadowrun guy obtained the rights back to the series which I thought would have been tougher what with it being used by Microsoft recently..

[blueskirt]

Larry I will most likely back, to what extend I have no idea since I don't own an iphone. Now if it was certain it would land on PC I'd back them just as much as I backed Double Fine, both for them to make another game and to compensate for all these times I pirated their games. I'm not starving for another of Jane Jensen's game, seeing as I could just give Gabriel Knight a third try if I wanted more of her, so I won't bother with her kickstarter.

So Codemasters want Al Lowe to remake LSL1 to prove he/his team can do it before they let him make an original LSL title.

It's not Al and his team. It's Replay Games and Al. It's Replay Games that asked Codemasters if they could revive Leisure Suit Larry ages ago, Codemasters agreed for a remake, and later on Replay Games asked Al and (even later) Josh if they were interested in working with them.

It would have been better if they got Al involved right off the bat but I suppose Al was not interested in interrupting his retirement to experience yet more refusals from publishers and investors. It's a bit like Catch-22. You need Al to get a sequel and you need approval to get Al.

See it from the bright side, it won't just be an HD treatment, we'll get more jokes, puzzles, locations and girls, and if it's successful, they won't have to remake another game ever again.

I don't know if that's just a matter of Vivendi playing hard ball

Vivendi's dead. It's Activision that owns it all now, except Larry. And the Shadowrun guys are in a much different situation, they're dealing with a pen and paper RPG company, not Activision, and they offer an up to date, multi-platform RPG, not an old school PC adventure game, like most people proposed when they tried to deal with Activision.

[JD]

I'm pretty sure they are having the PC in mind, with "XBLA, PSN, Android, iPads, iPhones, Windows Phones, Kindle, Linux and of course, Mac!" as an extra.

[Victor6]

I don't know if that's just a matter of Vivendi playing hard ball, though, because apparently the Shadowrun guy obtained the rights back to the series which I thought would have been tougher what with it being used by Microsoft recently..

I think Microsoft just stopped paying for the rights, It's not like they did much with them. The MW and MC series ended up with the online communities IIRC.

Regardless of how everything turns out with all the celebrity developers barging out the smaller independents, all this kickstarter nonsense might drag the mainstream industry back to genres that it's long neglected (adventure games being one of many.)

[Kweepa]

Hmmn... This Jane Jenson thing. Best pitch video ever? Best pitch video ever.

Sounds like someone has a little crush on Jane's daughter!

[Stupot+]

Hmmn... This Jane Jenson thing. Best pitch video ever? Best pitch video ever.

Sounds like someone has a little crush on Jane's daughter!

She's pretty hot.  And not a shabby actor either.

[Anian]

She's pretty hot.  And not a shabby actor either.

And pretty good pipes on her as well:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzNe41iLijQ