Encouraging Linux releases of games with Humble Indie Bundle - but backwards?

[PsynoKhi0]

Kind of wild idea, but...
Would there be any way to make some kind of "Linux gamer pledge pot"?

People vote for a game they'd like to see ported to Linux, under a limited period of time they pledge to give the game's devs X amount of money if the port is completed within Y months, and the money is transfered once the port is available for download.

So:
1. Who'd be interested in participating in such a deal?
2. Any suggestion as to the "logistics"? Because right of the bat, the system to manage this should make sure players at least pay the amount they promise, while devs can't get away with murder and release some unfinished junk, and the entity that handles payments should be cool with the "if"s and "but"s...

What say you?
Oh and... Constructive comments please

[Setlec]

the idea isn't bad but it's not a new idea, Svartalf and LGP do ports of games... But not many companies actually are linux friendly. There were online petitions to port some games or even to open source them to it ended in deaf hears...

[snuwoods]

Yea, I think a system like kickstarter is ideal.

[PsynoKhi0]

the idea isn't bad but it's not a new idea, Svartalf and LGP do ports of games... But not many companies actually are linux friendly. There were online petitions to port some games or even to open source them to it ended in deaf hears...

The premise is a bit different though: LGP games are ported before anyone knows exactly how commercially successful the port will be.

The idea proposed here works more like a bounty, i.e. "port this game to linux and that much money is yours, guaranteed".

[PsynoKhi0]

Here's something: http://www.kickstarter.com/
I saw that mentioned on a Free Gamer Blog post.

[whizse]

I've been thinking about something along these lines. A good candidate for such a project could be a title where source code for the game has been released under a free licence, but where no Linux port has been made. For example Arx Fatalis.

Doing a port of an already free/libre game would mean no problems with publishers, and you you might get some interest from the Free Software community. (Another sneakier way would be to contract for a combined OS X/Linux port and get that community to chip in.)

I guess the biggest hurdle is that Kickstarter needs a fixed cost for the project, and I guess these things are hard to estimate. Then again, I could be wrong, you might want to throw the idea around to Svartalf and icculus.

[PsynoKhi0]

I guess the biggest hurdle is that Kickstarter needs a fixed cost for the project, and I guess these things are hard to estimate. Then again, I could be wrong, you might want to throw the idea around to Svartalf and icculus.

Actually that was something I was expecting, i.e. that the port cost/total pledge amount had to be decided in advance with help from the contracted programmer. It was maybe naive of me to think it was piece of cake though