Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Searching for gold: how to fund your indie video game

An increasingly popular option for independent developers blends the lines of venture capitalism with community support. Kickstarter, a "crowd-funding" website, provides the opportunity for site users to support "creative ideas and ambitious endeavors."

Logas discovered the site and is currently trying to raise the money necessary to stop working as a contract developer and sit down for two months to work on her untitled project.

"A friend of mine sent me a link to their buddy's Kickstarter page," Logas told Ars. "I saw what people were doing there and got incredibly excited. I had been planning on just self-funding the project, working on it on my 'free time.' Unfortunately for my future game, I have a family and am the primary breadwinner. There is no such thing as 'free time.' But I figured if I could fund my life for two months via Kickstarter, I wouldn't have to take on new contract work for those two months and could devote my life just to making this game. So that's what I'm trying to do."

Logas's proposed game is an ambitious one, which is why it's understandable she needs so much time to actually create it.

"The idea of the game came out of the desire to create the role-playing experience you have from a table-top role-playing game in a digital format. You begin by creating your character's personality, then as you move through the story you are presented with choices for actions that are appropriate to that personality. The actions you choose have far-reaching consequences in the game world and story. The game is a bit like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except that the choices you make are based on a personality that you create and have real consequences to the game world.

"The story itself takes place in a dark dreamlike world...
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