With a few hours left for the Project Eternity Kickstarter, it would probably be fair to call the campaign a success. The crowdfunded RPG from Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol developer Obsidian Entertainment has raised more than $3.75 million in its month-long campaign, more than triple its initial goal.
Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told Polygon he couldn't help but worry in the beginning that gamers wouldn't be taken with the idea, or wouldn't believe in the studio enough to contribute. Those fears begin to abate around the $750,000 mark, however.
Speaking of unbelievable sums of money, Project Eternity managed to eclipse the record-holding campaign that kicked off the flood of independent developers to Kickstarter: the Double Fine Adventure, which raised a bit over $3.3 million in March.
"We are really thankful for Tim (Schafer) and the rest of the people at Double Fine for trying Kickstarter out," Urquhart said. "If he hadn't there would have always been a big question about how far you could take it."
Schafer, the founder of Double Fine, is pleased to see the idea grow and help out fellow developers.
"I'm really happy for them and glad they broke the record — not just for them, but because I hope that the Kickstarter funding of games just keeps growing and growing," Schafer told Polygon. "It's the best thing to happen to the games industry — and the whole entertainment industry — in a long time."
The team at Obsidian responsible for Project Eternity may grow a bit, but Urquhart said his studio is committed to pursuing the original vision of a relatively small, dedicated team as best it can, for as long as it takes.
"Thinking about having a team of 15 before, maybe we will take that to a set number like 20 or 22," he said. "I don't think we're going to push it to huge number, so it may make the game come out later … We just want to be smart in how we do it and make an awesome game."
