The Binding of Isaac Dev Gives Away Bath Water for Support on Kickstarter
Bathwater as a gift for supporting a Kickstarter campaign? That's the idea Edmund McMillen came up with while collecting money for The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls - Requiem. And this is only a part of an unusual action advertising this project.
The release of the warmly received expansion was supposed to end the story of The Binding of Isaac, but that's not at all apparent from Edmund McMillen's recent activities. On the contrary, in recent weeks the creator has been very busy, organizing broadcasts (not necessarily) related to the brand every now and then and fundraising for a huge expansion for the card game The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, subtitled Requiem. The latter has become a kind of entertainment for him, which is highlighted by one of the campaign rewards. Here's the thing: people who will donate $2,000 or more for the campaign will receive - among other gifts - Edmund McMillen's bath water.
The developer is by no means the originator of this kind of - let's call it - unusual gift. The idea was borrowed from the Internet "celebrity" Belle Delphin, and the Internet - as the Internet does - quickly began to play with the concept. However, in the case of McMillen's campaign, it is only a part of a much more interesting phenomenon. For while the fundraising takes place on Kickstarter, the real fun and battle for the bonuses took place on social media.
For some time McMillen has been encouraging fans on Twitter to take up various "challenges". These boiled down to posting every more meme-worthy pictures, videos and jokes, and in one case, posting bath photos with the hashtag #buymybathwater, while of course being "PG" acceptable. If you think this more challenging (so to say) task scared off internet users... well, the number of tweets speaks for itself. The rewards, for example, included special cards inspired by popular indie games, including such iconic titles as Cave Story and Spelunky and last year's hits like Among Us and Friday Night Funkin'.
That's not to say that the Kickstarter campaign has been forgotten in the flood of merry Internet creativity. So far, nearly $5.8 million has been pledged by over 40,000 people, even though the minimum goal was set at "only" $100,000. In addition to water (not the holy kind, by any means), the more generous participants of the fundraiser will receive copies of The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls - Requiem and - depending on the amount pledged - exclusive game boards, posters, T-shirts, collector's editions, hand-designed cards and other bonuses. Details can be found on the campaign's Kickstarter page.
