Yesterday I got an email alert from Kickstarter about a Cyan games project called Obduction. Cyan are the makers of computer games Myst and Riven which I had fun playing 10, 20 years ago. I immediately backed the project to get their new game even before I watched the video and read about the rewards for the various levels of pledges. I then had to change my pledge because further down the list I found the following:
Become the Artist ============================
Help us design an item in Obduction! Your personalized item has a chance to be seen by anyone playing Obduction. You’ll provide the look (some restrictions apply), and we will put your item in the game. Your name will also be in the “Additional Design” section of the credits. (+ all previous rewards)
So if the project goes ahead I get to design an ‘item’ in their new world, plus get the game, signed poster and postcards, t-shirt, book of design images and more! I do understand the wording which suggests that my ‘item’ may not necessarily be chosen to be front and centre of gameplay, and that I am paying for the privilege. But that’s a great challenge as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve always thought it would be fun to ‘collaborate’ with other visual artists/designers so this is an incredible, fun first step!
The Kickstarter project for Obduction has reached more than a third of its goal in 2 days so fingers crossed that it will go ahead!
An artist's practice 
I do worry that this puts people, whose career it is to create games, out of work. You should be getting a small percentage.
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I guess I saw it as these guys (Cyan, the creators of these particular types of games) aren’t willing to be screwed over by the games funding monopolisers, so this is their way of crowd-sourcing funds so that they can employ their own team to make the games they want to make without being dictated to by big business. For me, it’s for the bio, so I’m happy. The worlds they create are incredibly detailed so I don’t expect to be adding much, but look forward to the process!
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I saw this campaign yesterday too and immediately thought of you D, knowing your love of their earlier games. Look forward to seeing your ‘item(s)’ in Obduction.
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I hope they manage to get enough pledges – after the initial excitement it seems to have slowed down!
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