We tell a lot of stories about Kickstarters that go horribly wrong. For a change of pace, here’s one that’s doing just about everything right.
Last November, Monkey Island designer Ron Gilbert launched a Kickstarter for an old-school point-n-click adventure called Thimbleweed Park. He set a realistic funding goal—$375,000—as well as a reasonable estimated delivery date—June of 2016. They succeeded, raising $626,250.
Although Thimbleweed Park isn’t done yet, Gilbert and crew have been doing a few things that make it stand apart from your average Kickstarter.
* They’ve scoped out a hard budget—and then made that budget pretty transparent.
* They’ve been posting regular updates over on the Thimbleweed Park blog, ranging from hire announcements to granular posts about the intricacies of how they’re programming save files.
* They’re showing gameplay—and it looks fantastic.
At risk of counting my Kickstarters before they hatch into actual games, I must say I’m super-impressed by this one. It’s been both interesting and professional. Wish I had backed Thimbleweed Park instead of Unsung Story!
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.