Double Fine's Spacebase recoups investment in just two weeks

Indie Fund has revealed that Double Fine's recently announced Spacebase DF-9, currently on Steam Early Access, has recouped its investment in its first two weeks. Developed for $400,000 -- an amount raised by Indie Fund together with several individual developers and small studios -- Double Fine's Spacebase is one of two projects first announced at Horizon opposite E3 this past June. Headed up by J.P. LeBreton, it released onto Early Access on October 15th. Indie Fund says that Early Access went on to contribute 85 percent of the investment in the ensuing two weeks, with the remaining 15 percent coming from direct sales. "This is an important milestone for us because the success of this experiment opens the door for us to support more projects of this magnitude in the future," Indie Fund said in an update. "It also provides an encouraging data point about bringing together larger groups of people to support larger projects, and we are mulling over what this might mean for the future of Indie Fund." Other Indie Fund recipients have recouped investment in record time, including The Swapper, which earlier this year made back its investment within two days of release. The fact that Spacebase, a much larger project, has also been able to recover its investment with little difficulty is a promising sign that Indie Fund -- and other prospective investors -- are able to take a chance on these bigger-budget independents outside a crowdfunding model.