Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is opening some amazing doors for indie developers. First Double Fine for an all-new adventure game and now inXile to get a sequel to Fallout precursor Wasteland underway. While Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter journey has, for the time being, come to an end, inXile CEO Brain Fargo is still riding the roller coaster. With his project currently sitting at over $US1.5 million, he’s enjoying the absolutely hell out it, so much so he wants to help other Kickstarter projects with a new initiative called “Kicking It Forward”.
The concept is laid out by Fargo at the initiative’s website, but the essential idea is that Kickstarters that sign up will give five per cent of their profits to other crowdfunded projects. “Profits” means money that comes in from selling the final product, not the funds raised by the initial Kickstarter, so projects that don’t make money for whatever reason won’t find themselves indebted.
There’s no iron-clad rules forcing a developer to contribute, even after they’ve signed up. As Fargo himself puts it:
Ultimately, this is an honor system at the end of the day. No one is going to audit their books to make sure they complied. In many ways Kickstarter is an honor system too, so this is no different. Of course some unscrupulous developer may not follow through with their promise but I believe the development community sticks together.
Double Fine’s already signed up, along with Cipher Prime and its co-op light and sound game Auditorium 2: Duet. It looks like the initiative is aimed at all Kickstarter projects, not just games and given the success of Double Fine and inXile, it could become a generous source of funding for worthwhile projects that don’t quite make it into the spotlight.
Kicking It Forward [Official site]
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