Double Fine’s glorious Amnesia Fortnight event is back, offering up 25 original game pitches now available for fans to vote on. Like the most recent Amnesia Fortnight event in 2014, Double Fine’s partnered withHumble Bundleto take care of the front-end of the event. By contributing just $1, fans will get to vote on which of the pitches should be made into a prototype. Voting ends on Friday, April 7, so get in soon.
For those unfamiliar with the event, Amnesia Fortnight is a two-week game jam within Double Fine. It starts with game concept pitches. Any employee can pitch a game, making a short video to try and persuade community members and fellow employees to support their project. This year there are four winners: two voted in by the public, one voted in by employees, and one chosen bystudio head Tim Schafer. Then all, or at least most, employees break off from their previous work, split into groups, and work only on these four projects. Depending on how popular and successful the prototypes are, one, none, or all could eventually be made into full games.
What makes Amnesia Fortnight great ishow involved Double Fine allows their fans to bein the process. Not only do fans get to help pick what games get prototyped, but, at least in recent years, Double Fine livestreamed parts of the game jam and turned it all into documentary-style video. Unfortunately this year there won’t be daily livestreams, but daily videos will be made available for those who donate $5 to the project.
This year’s projects are as diverse as ever. Some pitches are traditional concepts with interesting twists, like the 2D platformerJacinda, the co-op FPSUrchin Squad, or the video game development simVideo Games Inc. Others are more profound, like the ecosystem sim about growing plantsMega Flora, or the VR puzzle game about manipulating plants back into seeds to recreate them stronger inSoul Garden. Then there’s some games that are just what they seem, like card gameTarokyor VR charades titleI Have No Idea What I’m Doing.
With 25 game pitches, there should be an idea for everyone to support. Humble Bundle has short descriptive videos for each of the 25 games, putting them all on an even playing field. The finalists will be announced on April 10, followed by two weeks of development with daily documentary videos. Then the prototypes will debut and launch on April 28. It’s a great opportunity to look into the development process, shrunk into a two-week jam. Mostly though, it’s just fun for everyone involved.
Amnesia Fortnight’s crowdfunding site islive right now via Humble Bundle. Past games to get made as a result of Amnesia Fortnight includeCostume Quest,Stacking,Iron Brigade,and most recentlyHeadlander.
