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Double Fine Adventure Will Be Available DRM Free For IOS, Android
New submitter Garth Smith writes "Tim Schafer has a video update for his crowdsourced project, Double Fine Adventure. Because of the nearly $2 million in funding, the budget is now large enough for language translations, voice acting, music, and more platforms. The XBox and PS3 are absent. I wonder what would the chances of a DRM-free release have been if funding had come from a traditional publisher?"
Mac, Linux, and PC. With both Steam and DRM-free versions to be available for all-purpose platforms.
The last word was "Linux". Tim Schafer had already let it be known that OSX and the PC (obviously) would be supported.
If you want to support DRM-free Linux development, please consider financially supporting the project!
I would believe that this project would not be able to come from a traditional publisher on the basis that a "traditional publisher" nowadays feels that a game is not able to survive without DRM. Behold the brave new world of independant publishing ( am i showing my optimism there?)
Stay tuned for new sig...
Excellent, one customer ready to buy.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Steam games don't necessarily have DRM -- not even the kind that Steam itself provides. See for example DOSBox games on it, Witcher 2, VVVVVV, and a few others that allow you to copy the game files and play without Steam, without the need to crack them.
Hey, they'll lay off the shitty commentary if you'll lay of the shitty comments.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Steam's DRM is ... sign in to play.
The game will likely allow you to play offline, without the need for a CD Key, jumping through hoops, or installing rootkits that slowly shred your hard drive and CD Rom.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Somewhere between zero and the temperature (in Kelvin) at which Hell freezes over.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
I find your sig + your statement + the context an amusing combination.
If you've downloaded one of the DRM free games (like VVVVVV), you can run it directly from your Steamapps directory even if Steam does go down.
I read the internet for the articles.
The title originally included "and Linux" but it got cut off for whatever reason. Slashdot could use a character limit in the title field of new submissions if this is a common issue.
The word "investor" is not used anywhere. They ask for backers or "donations" though most people who backed the project are thinking of it as a pre-order.
I would imagine that, much like some of Double Fine's previous titles (Stacking, for one), it would be available as a downloadable title. No disks needed.
It would mean he can. Doesn't mean he has to. If he wants to show support for this kind of thing by purchasing it on multiple platforms, more power to him.
If you bothered to check out the Kickstarter page, the "returns" start at getting a copy of the game. They even had a level of $10,000 donation which would get you lunch with Tim Schaffer. If you went to Double Fine's site, they had even higher levels than that. $15,000 would get you dinner with the dev team and Tim Schaffer. $20,000 would get you dinner and bowling.
I too wondered this. The only reason for EFIGS I can think of is that it must be easier to release the game for the EU market as a whole than it is to prepare releases for individual markets around the world. I don't know if this is for legal or regulation reasons. Perhaps Double Fine has more experience dealing with EFIGS than it does for Russian. E.g. they might not have anyone in the office that is fluent in Russian. Backers have offered to do translations to other languages themselves if they get access to all the text in the game.
I look at the web page and I see talk about funding, platforms and DRM.
But I haven't a clue about the game itself other than that it appears to patterned on the old-school low-res Lucas Arts graphic adventures.
What I need to know as an investor is whether you have a story, characters, setting and design as original and compelling as Grim Fandango. What I want in a developer is someone who can say no to the crowd and it make it stick.
Duke Nukem Forever is the perfect example of the game as fan service.
Not sure about PSN, but I know we recently had a discussion about the cost of Xbox patches.
This makes me wonder how much it costs to get a game onto XBLA. Does anyone know?
That's true for the most part. DRM is a major function of Steam and the vast majority of games there are dependant on Steam allowing you to play them, but there are exceptions. Obviously games that run through some sort of VM (such as ScummVM, DOSBox, Snes9x, possibly Flash, etc) can be run independently of the Steam service, but there are also a handful of native games that don't bother asking for Valve's permission to play. Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy, Dungeons of Dredmor. The post to which you are replying also gives VVVVVV and Witcher 2 as examples. Those are all games that Valve cannot take away from you (well, I suppose they could in theory push an update that turns the client or some of your games into a backdoor and then go into your computer and delete stuff, if we really want to go into paranoia territory, but then your backups of those particular games will still work even on computers without the Steam client).
Steam has DRM and, while it seems to cause no problems for many people, it has been more intrusive for me than any other anti-piracy system that I have ever encountered (running a game usually forces the client to start first, client takes long to load and much longer to log in, trying to start a game bring us a "Preparing to launch" message that lasts anywhere from 90 seconds to 10 minutes before the game even begins to load, games are often "unavailable" for unspecified reasons, offline mode often demands a connection to the internet, automatic updates are appalling in every way possible, there's a risk of having games revoked, there's a risk of losing your entire account). However, despite all that, Drinking Bleach is absolutely correct in that Steam gamed don't necessarily have DRM.
You can always run games straight from the SteamApps directory - they just launch Steam first. Have you confirmed that Steam does not launch when you run the game?
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Apple does not allow that. Or are they selling it only on the Cydia store and skipping the apple store? That would be interesting if they only sold to jailbroken Apple owners.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
They said XBLA won't happen because they only work with licensed publishers. 360 won't happen because patches cost $40k each.
People who donate $15 or more will get a copy of the finished game. For all purposes it is a pre-order with the option of paying more if you want. He is perfectly open about his motives and his goals for the project. In fact, with the documentary being made about the development of the game, as it's being developed, you could say this is one of the most transparent development processes ever. Scam? Opposite! If you don't like the terms don't pay the $15+. No reason to start name calling.
Exactly! That's how the Slashdot guys were able to get all those private jets and mansions and stuff.
You are welcome on my lawn.
But what if you're not the two biggest names in adventure gaming? How is some unknown supposed to get funding for a really good game? Double Fine didn't give any information about what the game will be -- they didn't have to, because they're who they are. But an unknown backroom programming squad is going to have to give more info than that... then watch as some big budget software house dedicates umpteen corporate programmers to producing something to his spec and making a fortune....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'