--Update--
The news is out, Danny Wallace has done all the voicework for the game! It's in the bag, and I'm not in debt! Thanks everyone, you are all awesome.
Who is Mike Bithell?
Mike Bithell is not a veteran game developer, and is in no way responsible for any of your favourite games. He is not afraid to jump on a bandwagon. He is, however, a game designer who's worked in professional dev for nearly 5 years, and is just about to release his first indie project, Thomas Was Alone. He hates talking about himself in the third person.
What is Thomas Was Alone?
Thomas Was Alone is an indie puzzle platformer about friendship and jumping. You guide a group of rectangles through an array of dangerous and puzzling environments to make it to the end. Initially planned for release on PC and Mac, the game is due out in late May / early June.
The game's received some fantastic press already, with very positive previews on Indiegames.com and Hookshot Inc, and coverage on most of the major gaming blogs. It even made The Huffington Post's top 10 anticipated Indie games of 2012.
A couple of previews:
http://indiegames.com/2012/03/preview_thomas_was_along_mike_.html
http://www.hookshotinc.com/thomas-was-alone-a-quadrilaterals-quest/
Find out more at www.thomaswasalone.com
Why crowdfunding then?
Thomas is a project I've been working on for a year, balancing it around a full time day job in the games industry. Myself and a couple of awesome collaborators have worked on the game for free, and (fingers crossed) hope to make some money back when we launch. Unfortunately, as we approach the final months of dev, there are a couple of upfront costs we can't avoid.
We need to record voiceover, we need to pay some legal fees, and we need to cover some marketing costs.
If this campaign is unsuccessful, I'll take out a loan to cover these costs, but I thought that given the massive appeal of crowdfunding right now, I might give this a go first.
What do I get for my money?
Well, love, obviously. But we're prepared that this might not be quite enough for you. For that reason, We've lined up some rewards on the right. You can get a credit at the end of the game, or pay more and get a DRM free copy of the game when it launches (digital download, PC/Mac). I'm also willing to buy you a pint for an extortionate amount of extra cash.
But I have no money, can I help in another way?
But of course. Follow me on twitter @mikebithell, and be sure to tweet this page. It's a relatively small amount, so hopefully it can happen. All money earned will go into making the game more awesome!
