Funding New Games

Reedo writes "RPG Vault has an interesting article about securing funding for new games. The article was put together by Doug Mealy, the President of Online Marketing and Public Relations. It covers points of view from investors, as well as game developers who have succeeded in landing funding. A good read if you're curious about what's involved when trying to get a game funded."

Re:What the fuck is this?

[joFFeman]

let's be fair here. masturbating in an office in california never hurt anyone but said offices janitorial staff. well, perhaps a receptionist, but this is neither here nor there. the point is we all need to go to california before it falls into the ocean [salon.com]. reminds me of a song...

Don't worry guys...

[Paranoid Cheese Sand]

...I'm sure that these companies are working hard to bring you the next Daikatana.

On second thought, worry.

Notes from Underground

[sm.arson]

With typical game budgets being in the $500,000 range, I'm wondering if there still is a place for the "garage" game developer.

Take my little project [banarnar.com], for example. I'm currently trying to scrape together $3,000 to: 1) buy a decent soundtrack, 2) buy some decent sound effects, and 3) advertise on a few websites. The rest of the time and effort required to bring the game up to a "marketable" level (adding lots of eyecandy and gameplay extras) comes directly from me, so I don't include that in the final price.

I'd like to be able to simply take out a personal loan, but for that I'd have to be pretty sure that the game could sell at least 300 copies online at $10 a pop.

If this little game works, it's not that much of a stretch to pull together $30,000 (about the size of a car loan) for a game, if you could expect to sell 3000 copies at $10 each. It then becomes like real estate, I suppose.

If it were only that easy. I suspect that the distance between a finished game and a sold game is just as long as the distance between an idea and a finished game... Clearly, big budgets don't necessarily equate to big sales, but does that mean that small budget titles don't even stand a chance at profit?

Re:Notes from Underground

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh the practice where I live is to borrow half of the amount of the car and have the rest already. Otherwise you are overspending your limits. If you cannot come up with 3,000 for advertising, what makes you think you are gonna get a 60,000 car??

Re:Notes from Underground

[eglamkowski]

What you need to do is take a good solid demo (that is to say, a game that is basically is beta stage) to a small but professional development house (such as... HDI [holistic-design.com] and see if they wouldn't be interested in helping you finish and publish it.

HDI reviews outside development stuff (not just computer games, but board games too) with an to publishing, so they would be more then happy to give you a fair shake.

Re:Notes from Underground

[smeenz]

I know this is being picky, but 'coming' is spelt with only one m (has two on your web pager)

Re:Notes from Underground

[Anonymous Coward]

Even $500,000 is far too low, except for a very small niche game. Of course, if you're talking about selling 300 copies then you probably don't mind about small niches.

As far as your project "Vortex" goes, you probably will be able to sell 300 copies, only because I think that someone can probably sell 300 copies of almost anything. But selling 3000 copies is going to be a lot tougher.

My advice is to make your own sound effects, pay some musician friend to make a little soundtrack for you, and keep the advertising money. Then you will have something that might be a workable demo for you to get an intro into a game developer. That's the best way to really get into "The Industry", especially since Demos are key. I've met a lot of programmers who have the resumes but couldn't make games for shit, and also seen great demos come from nowhere. Of course, I've also seen people with great resumes and great demos, they aren't exclusive properties! :)

I'd also like to make a few suggestions for your game. First, brighten it up, it's way too dark. Secondly, add some textures or decorations, especially around the edges of the screen. The flat shaded polys have that retro look going, but they aren't enough. Bring your game into the 1990s at least!

Also one thing about your "business plan". You're looking for $3000 to spend on a game that you're projecting to bring in $3000 in revenue. At that rate it's going to take a LONG time to raise your $30,000...

--A game developer on my lunch break from the 2003 Game Developers Conference

Can we get another Zero Wing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone set up us the funds.

I provide game developers with funding...

[moreiwant]

... on a monthly basis. Between $30 and $70 each time. Usually it happens at T'rUS, during the weekend. I tend to take samples of their work (nicely wrapped in a plastic box) rather than shares of the company. I don't believe in shares...

Cower under a table?

[Hubert_Shrump]

I thought you were supposed to throw money at a sequel and wear a blindfold.

No, that's Hollywood. What am I thinking of?