Did you ever think about developing the new Angry Birds? A new, revamped, popular concept in a game like that of combining blocks such as Candy Crush Saga? Don’t have the money to start your project? Then crowdfunding may be just for you.
Big names in the industry have raised big bucks. The largest crowdfund project ever, Star Citizen, falls perfectly in this category, a game created by a big name. Led by Chris Roberts, the man behind the highly acclaimed Wing Commander from the early 1990s, raised no less than US$ 82 million to develop a game for Linux and Windows. There are A-movies and game blockbusters that don’t reach such big budgets.
Another big name from the early 1990s game industry has also found big success this week. Koji Igarashi, aka IGA, producer of several Castlevania games since Chronicles (though not involved with the first Castlevania games for Nintendo, he’s got a name for himself in the video games industry after that), launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a new game for the franchise, Bloodstained. He hit his $500,000 goal within few hours and now stands at $1.6 million with 31 days to go. A surefire way to become a millionaire.
We’re talking about two big projects here, but the fact is that gaming is probably the most popular and funded category in any crowdfunding platform. Most are authored by people with a strong background in the industry and they have some common traits.
First, the projects are well detailed and some art is already produced beforehand. There are character bios and arts, some suggestions for scenarios and, of course, authors résumés. So, if you want to be successful, but doesn’t have a background in the industry you’re aiming for, be advised to contact and get someone that has this background involved in your project before posting your crowdfunding campaign. That is guaranteed to help you! And don’t neglect the art side of this type of project. Consider joining someone with serious skills on that area and partner with them.
And don’t forget, the more of the game you show, the more convincing you will be. If you can release a short prototype showing the game concepts in a simple way and/or a detailed video showing how the game will work, that’ll help you a lot!
Last, but not least, if you know what you’re doing you can be successful with games of all kinds. Exploding Kittens is a paper card game authored by people in the industry… but not in card game industry. Who said it needs to be an electronic game?