Double Fine launches prototype-based bundle

Psychonauts studio Double Fine has opened up its internal game pitching process through a Humble Bundle promotion.

The developer is offering gamers an insight into its annual internal game jam, dubbed 'Amnesia Fortnight', that helps the studio decide which titles it is going to work on next.

Every year, Double Fine splits its staff into smaller teams headed up by whoever feels ready to take on a production lead role and gives them all two weeks to create a working prototype for a game of their choice.

This experimental prototyping process has resulted in the creation of titles including Costume Quest, Stacking and Iron Brigade.

For a pay-what-you-want price, Double Fine will allow people to vote on 23 different game pitches to decide on which four will get made into prototypes over the two weeks. Bundle buyers will then be able to download the finished prototypes and vote on an overall winner.

The creation of the prototypes will be filmed and shared daily by 2 Player Productions, the documentary crew behind Minecraft: The Story of Mojang and the video updates for Double Fine's adventure game Kickstarter project.

'I love Amnesia Fortnight. It's like an explosion of creativity with a really practical result at the end,' said Double Fine studio head Tim Schafer.'I'm really excited about letting you guys see the process, we've never shown it before so I'm a little nervous, but that's part of the fun.'

At the time of writing, pitches for a space station building simulator, a computer-hacking-based dungeon crawler and an ambient platform game set in a dark forest are leading the charge in votes.

The studio is also offering up prototypes the for Costume Quest and Happy Song, which ultimately became Sesame Street-based Kinect title Once Upon A Monster.

The Humble Bundle has been used to showcase a game jam before with collaboration from Mojang, Oxeye Game Studio and Wolfire Games in which those who bought the bundle could vote on the theme of the 60 hour jam, watch the creative process being streamed live and download the finished prototype.