20 Crowdfunded Video Games That Made Millions

There was once a time when the only way to gain the large amount of funding required to make a video game was either cough up the cash yourself - if you're working as an independent developer - or have a big publishing company pay the costs. Before 2012 there had been instances of indie game developers using Kickstarter and other crowdsourcing methods to raise money for their projects too, but these typically earned no more than $10,000 - with highest total ever accounted for being in the area of $100,000. This all changed on February 8th 2012, when Tim Schafer (the mind behind such classics as Monkey Island and Full Throttle) and his company Double Fine Productions initiated a Kickstarter campaign with an original goal of $400,000. Within a month the total fund stood at $3.3 million, and so a new age of crowdfunded games had begun. While it is true this method of raising finance for development isn't without its risks - for both the developers and the backers - it is becoming an evermore common way of creating games without the need for huge publishers; which can often mean more creative freedom and no unrealistic deadlines for the game makers. In the history of crowdfunding, which games ended up getting the most money from their backers? Here are the 20 that had the most successful campaigns.