Double Fine Productions, the studio behind Psychonauts and Costume Quest, has initiated a Kickstarter campaign for its Amnesia Fortnight game jam initiative. This move comes after the studio's departure from Microsoft's Xbox umbrella and a period of layoffs affecting 25% of its staff. The crowdfunding effort aims to secure funding for experimental indie projects, a necessity following the severance of its direct funding from Microsoft.
The Amnesia Fortnight campaign is set to run for two weeks, during which fans can vote on and support the development of various game prototypes. Double Fine has stated that if the Kickstarter reaches an ambitious $100 million goal, the studio will develop a sequel to its 2009 real-time strategy title, Brütal Legend. Currently, the campaign has raised over $275,000 towards its $400,000 goal, with 29 days remaining.
While the $100 million target for Brütal Legend 2 is considered highly improbable, Double Fine has clarified that it continues to work on larger game projects in the background. The Amnesia Fortnight crowdfunder is intended to support the team's immediate operational needs and allow for creative exploration while larger funding is sought. The studio did retain the rights to its back catalog after splitting from Xbox, suggesting that Brütal Legend 2 could indeed be among its larger, as-yet-unfunded projects.
Fans can explore pitch videos for over 25 unique game prototypes on the Kickstarter page. These prototypes span a wide variety of genres and concepts, including Architactics, a tactical city builder with mobile structures; Astro Slam Intergalactic Pro Wrestling, a deck-building game with story elements; and Bard Crawl, a co-op adventure that blends a bar crawl with a dungeon crawler. Other pitches include Brouroboros, a multiplayer party game with a shared snake body; Centauride, a 2v2 scavenging and racing game; and Cosmic Bonsai, a horticulture-themed simulation. The list also features Dragons, Gels, and Bear-Owls, Oh My!, a chaotic co-op survival game; Echo, a music-based multiplayer platformer; Emergency Foley Artist, a party game for creating cartoon soundtracks; and Fermi's Playground, a simulation game focused on habitable worlds. Additionally, players can find Friendslap, a multiplayer arena game; Golem Hero, a roguelite blending Dynasty Warriors and Castle Crashers; Insolation, a survival game with a spider-bot protagonist; Lesbian Sled Death, a four-player racing game; Lucid Gardening, a supernatural gardening simulator; and Mochimochi Line Dancer, a Mochi-collecting game. Further prototypes include Muscle Madness, a four-player fitness-themed game; Plot Armor, a turn-based RPG/visual novel hybrid; Quokk 'n Roll, a co-op escape game; Reluctance, an arena shooter that adapts to player actions; R.U.N, a third-person action platformer; Super Power Performance Evaluation, a co-op puzzle game with assigned superpowers; Tonight We Feast, a co-op caper about urban foraging; Tractor Takedown, a four-player tractor battle game; and Uprise, a kite-flying platformer. Virtual Pet Manifesto, a social idle game, rounds out the presented prototypes.