Such creative financing has enabled the company to get at least five different game efforts under way at once.

"It is complicated to keep straight, but we have crowdfunding, self-publishing, the mobile studio, and some legacy business," said Bailey. "We are now majority-funded by crowdfunding or outside investment. By next year, hopefully that transition will be complete," with almost no traditional publishers or work-for-hire deals funding the games.

But if it raises a further round of money from outside investors, such as venture capitalists, then Double Fine could experiment further and take its games to all the platforms where people want to play, said Rice. VCs often bring a lot of partnerships with them that could prove very valuable to indie gamemakers. And while venture capitalists have funded a lot of fresh mobile and social game teams, Double Fine has a team that has had a longer track record.