You probably heard about the recent success from certain classic developers into making new games with classics in mind through independent crowdfunding. It all started when Tim Schafer (designer of classics such as <i>Full throttle</i> and <i>Grim fandango</i>) decided to <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure" target="_blank">open a campaign in Kickstarter</a>, and it grew to become a huge hit. He announced he needed 400,000 dollars (much higher than most Kickstarter projects), and over 3 million dollars were raised by fans alone (nobody here is "investing" for interest for example).<br />
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Publishers go with budgets of over 10 million dollars for the blockbuster games, they retain rights over the creation of the talented designers, they choose arbitrarily to move classics out of the market to help sell newer games and systems, they pack games with stupid DRM systems, and most importantly, they decide what goes into a game and what doesn't. We the fans have no say in these matters.<br />
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Tim Schafer and his "Double Fine Adventure" campaign came to teach the world a lot of facts about the current state of the game industry. Gamers still want classic games mechanics (like point and click adventure games). Gamers can successfully fund great indie developers. Game development is expensive but a lot can be achieved with smaller budgets (even hiring Tim Schafer to design you a game is possible). Fans will pay ahead of time if they know they're putting their money into something they collectively want. It's still all business though: great rewards are offered in exchange for the donations.<br />
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Is Tim Schafer the only one capable of doing this? Not at all. Right now, apparently, it only takes the promise of bringing back something gamers remember fondly. They're bringing back great franchises through other Kickstarter campaigns. Brian Fargo raised about $3M for a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2" target="_blank">Wasteland 2 game</a>, Jordan Weisman is raising over $1.5M for new <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns" target="_blank"><u>2D Shadowrun game (campaign still active)</u></a>, Al Lowe already got $500k pledged for his own campaign of <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again" target="_blank"><u>remaking Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (campaign still active)</u></a>, Jane Jensen (creator of Gabriel Knight) is close to completing funding of her <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005365109/jane-jensens-pinkerton-road-2012-2013-csg" target="_blank"><u>new adventure game or games (campaign still active)</u></a>, and there are many others popping out every week now.<br />
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This sure is a great time for classic gaming. Perhaps a revival of classic gaming with polished new games is just ahead of us. Wouldn't that be great? I think everyone should take a look and pledge a few dollars to a classic gaming Kickstarter campaign.