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Interesting story, but I'd hardly call this "sacrificing his fortune." The title led me to believe that perhaps there was some sort of looming intellectual prop

Interesting story, but I'd hardly call this "sacrificing his fortune." The title led me to believe that perhaps there was some sort of looming intellectual property or non-compete battle -- instead, he just spent his money in development efforts for his next game. That said, the game looks great -- and I'm sure he'll be very successful with this one, too.

lambda 12y ago
Yes, this could be more accurately described as "investing his fortune", or if you want to focus more on the risk (as game development is a risky business), "bet his fortune." Loved Braid, quite interested in trying out The Witness; hope it doesn't take too long to come to a platform I can play it on, as I have neither a Windows machine, nor any consoles, nor an iOS device.
- saganus 12y ago
  I think part of the reason they consider he is "betting" or "risking" his fortune, is because it probably has a lot more risks than a "simple investment". i.e. he's not taking his money and putting it in a Fidelity investment account, he's spending money to create a game that might very well not sell more than a few copies and not make the money back. I guess people see him as "winning the lottery" with Braid, so now spending that "lottery money" is seen as a foolish move. However I think that spending/investing your hard-earned money in something you enjoy (developing games) is the best investment one can do, even if you do lose all your money.
- icefox 12y ago
  At the same time it is sobering to learn that one of the more recent wildly successful indy games only made a few million at most.
  - swah 12y ago
    I thought he hadn't made millions. I thought only notch had became truly rich w/ a single game?
    - yoklov 12y ago
      IIRC Braid made a couple million. I think less than 10 though. Minecraft, OTOH, made Notch over a billion dollars. So it depends on your definition of truly rich.
Kurtz79 12y ago
I agree, but on the other hand you have examples of possibly richer and more famous developers that in order to make their next game decided to pull off millionaire kickstarters, when they probably could have financed it with their own money if they decided to do so, so the guy deserves some respect for that.

lambda 12y ago

Yes, this could be more accurately described as "investing his fortune", or if you want to focus more on the risk (as game development is a risky business), "bet his fortune." Loved Braid, quite interested in trying out The Witness; hope it doesn't take too long to come to a platform I can play it on, as I have neither a Windows machine, nor any consoles, nor an iOS device.

saganus 12y ago
I think part of the reason they consider he is "betting" or "risking" his fortune, is because it probably has a lot more risks than a "simple investment". i.e. he's not taking his money and putting it in a Fidelity investment account, he's spending money to create a game that might very well not sell more than a few copies and not make the money back. I guess people see him as "winning the lottery" with Braid, so now spending that "lottery money" is seen as a foolish move. However I think that spending/investing your hard-earned money in something you enjoy (developing games) is the best investment one can do, even if you do lose all your money.
icefox 12y ago
At the same time it is sobering to learn that one of the more recent wildly successful indy games only made a few million at most.
- swah 12y ago
  I thought he hadn't made millions. I thought only notch had became truly rich w/ a single game?
  - yoklov 12y ago
    IIRC Braid made a couple million. I think less than 10 though. Minecraft, OTOH, made Notch over a billion dollars. So it depends on your definition of truly rich.

Kurtz79 12y ago

I agree, but on the other hand you have examples of possibly richer and more famous developers that in order to make their next game decided to pull off millionaire kickstarters, when they probably could have financed it with their own money if they decided to do so, so the guy deserves some respect for that.