The first project I became aware of being overfunded was the Order of the Stick reprinting, which as of this posting had raised over $750,000. The original goal was $57,750 to allow the webcomic artist to reprint all of his books and have them in stores. There is still a week to go on this drive, and the score is currently at about 1300% of being funded. As he writes in one of his updates, however, at least $200,000 of the funds will be going to postage in sending out all of the items purchased, still making this one of the top five Kickstarter projects.

And it looked to be well on the way to being the largest amount of money raised by the website…until a video game company led by Tim Schafer sought to raise money to create a new adventure game. This is the mind behind such awesome (and under-rated) games such as Brutal Legend, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, and Full Throttle. Oh, and he co-created Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey Island. Not a bad creative resume, if one likes adventure games. And I do. Oh, how I do.

Double Fine’s goal was higher than the Order of the Stick, but they still raised $400,000 in eight hours. And again, with 27 days to go, their project will be incredibly overfunded. They’ve only raised 400% of the goal, but that is still nearly $1.8 million dollars. In less than a week. They hit one million dollars in around 24 hours.

This gives me hope. And encourages me to scrounge up $15 to pledge for the game when it comes out, even if they are releasing it through the Steam engine.

Were the majority of the files on MegaVideo illegally shared content? Possibly. Was it a fairly safe source for streaming content without requiring users to download additional plugins or fill out spam-creating surveys? Yes. Does the shuttering of this website mean the end of the sharing of unlicensed uploaded content? Of course not.

MegaUpload, by contrast, had far more legitimate users and uses, and the loss of the file sharing site is unfortunate, especially as this bust seems to signal that the US government is once again cracking down on alternative uses of technology that disadvantage outdated business models.

The Supreme Court recently upheld a decision stating that works may exit the public domain, being covered under Copyright laws once more. The outcry over the poorly written and overbroad legislation known as SOPA reflects just how far behind the times the US Legislature is at the moment.

This year may well be a banner year for arresting individuals and closing down hosting sites. After all, it’s not like that tactic has ever failed to make a difference before…

Sadly, my laptop does not have the power to run the game that came out last week, but I’d no doubt be able to get this tribute to play…if it actually existed.

The Phoenix Wright series is an odd take on an “Attorney Video Game” but it is quite enjoyable once you get into it. The above video shows a clip from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and in that fighting game, some of Phoenix’s moves include throwing the book at his opponent, an assistant coming out to do damage on his behalf, and the “Objection!” word balloon doing actual damage. Not sure I’d buy the game, but the video looks interesting enough to hang out somewhere else and watch it for a bit.

Contains some Adult themes and major spoilers for the first book of the series/Season of the TV show.

Of course, the amusing part isn’t the idea that the creator of the Monkey Island games and Psychonauts (to name at least two of my favorite games of all times) would have to pitch a new idea…but the reaction of the “producer” controlling the funding.

And it’s true! Zombies are so 2007…

Updated: Found another source of the video…I think. Live as of 4pm 8/5/11.

I hesitate to make this blog focus mostly on examples of fan-based mash-ups of video games and other nerdly endeavors, but this concept combined two fan favorites into one adorable mash-up. What if there had been a Portal gun in Link to the Past?