Rahul

Chrome is far from a minority browser - last week, it overtook IE as the #1 browser worldwide. And even if it isn't #1, it's definitely one of the three major browsers. We had to choose one, and the one we chose is also the one that uses the Webkit rendering engine, which is the best engine right now to develop HTML5 games for.

Er, what? No we didn't ;-) Not sure what you've been hearing. Fronzel, of course we (Q42) have different motivations for doing this than the Two Guys. But they're not mutually exclusive. We honestly want to help them put out these prototypes as quickly as possible so they can show their progress and learn from them. In fact, the prototypes were our idea. But in order to produce them as quickly as possible, we had to place some limitations on what they could do. We're not getting paid anything for spending time on this - we're doing it because we're huge fans of the Two Guys and want to see them succeed. So we opted to release them in the Chrome Web Store and focus on one specific rendering engine, Webkit. We never expected there to be a backlash over Chrome. If any of you have any questions, I'm active on these forums so you can ask me directly, or you can go through Chris. But please don't make up reasons for things you don't know the full details about. Don't view "Q42" as some distant faceless organisation working for the Two Guys. Even though we're a 40+ employee company, the two people working on these prototypes are myself and Martin, just two fans of Space Quest and classic adventure games like you and we want to contribute our skills to help the Two Guys bring this new game to everyone - including ourselves.

I'm aware of that and that isn't the point. The point is the badge - you get to call yourself an Ultimate Fan because you put down money without needing anything in return, unlike those puny *regular* fans who want some "Orat on a Stick". Psh! It labels something that is currently unlabeled. It's called "Ultimate Fan" because you "don't get anything in return" - but of course you get something in return: the Ultimate Fan badge. Many people in the Kickstarter comments are asking for new tiers "so they can increase their pledge". All the while, they could just increase their pledge anyway, but they seem to need some kind of stamp of approval or other social proof that they can use to convince themselves to put down more money. This helps with that situation.

My idea: Ultimate Fan tiers for, say, $8, $80, $800 and $8000 where you put money in and get *nothing* in return. Except, of course, that the game gets made. And that the Two Guys think you're awesome. Because ultimately, we're all here to get this game made, not get free swag.

Dave has always been a pretty avid supporter of classic adventure games, so I think it's pretty likely it is actually him. But you're right that we don't know for sure.

I think it would be cool to try and see if we can make some mini-goals. We have nearly 2500 $15 backers. What would it take to turn that into 3000? We have 618 $30 backers. What about 750? etc. How can we focus and double down on increasing the smaller numbers, which will in turn increase the big important number? Perhaps that will help us focus on some short term goals rather than sitting here staring at the $211k slowly ticking away. PS. StellarSoul, there is nothing stopping you from pledging $200 anyway if that's what you can spare. You don't need a tier to increase your pledge. Remember, we're in this to get the game made, which means doing anything and everything we can to reach that $500k. I personally don't need anything in return for that except the knowledge that the game is going to be made. And honestly, all these rewards are cutting into how that $500k will be spent. I'd prefer if they spent it making a great game, not sending t-shirts, registering stars and printing coins. But that's me ;-)

I love the idea of a sarien.net meetup :-D You could even make it a collaborative, multiplayer playthrough of SQ1 since that game is completely available. It could be crazy hectic and chaotic, but a lot of fun and definitely something that could be recorded for posterity.

One thing that sets this Kickstarter apart from the others, and can really be used to form a different compelling narrative, is that the prototypes show something actually being made. As Penny Arcade and others illustrated, it can be hard to trust your money to some guys whose last major product was released in the early 90s. It's been 20 years - how do we know they still have what it takes? A series of prototypes that shows the Two Guys working on a game is a great way to make clear early on - before the money has been committed - that they're focused on actual game development, not just talking about it. If you guys can help form that narrative towards the media, I think we might be able to create an interesting additional angle. "Hey! These guys ARE the only ones putting out something before the Kickstarter is over! What about the others? What have they got to show for it? A bunch of videos?" There's an interesting conversation there waiting to happen.

Hey guys, glad to see everyone trying it out! I'm one of the two guys from Q42 building this thing with the Two Guys. It's been a lot of fun so far, but we still have a long way to go. e1ven seems to have a good idea of how HTML can be used for a game engine and what kind of features we still need to work on. We're really looking for your thoughts on where you'd like to see this going next. Is inventory important? Death sequences? Music and sound effects? More things to do? Text parser?