Skip to Content
 

Initial Funding

3 replies [Last post]
Wed, 03/14/2012 - 19:28
PioneerJustin
Offline
Joined: 03/09/2012

Hi again,

I was wondering how some of the developers here put together their initial funding to create their games. Was it all personal and family investments? Did you find venture capital somewhere? Or did you use borrowed money in the form of loans or credit? I feel like the first is probably the most likely given the low profit nature of this business but I'd like to hear some of your stories.

Cheers :)

Top
Fri, 03/16/2012 - 11:15
#1
Dralius
Dralius's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/26/2008
I am currently working with a

I am currently working with a start up that is going the venture capital route but they are will be selling to the mass market segment and needs a large sum of money to develop new technologies.

Allot of startups are very small and use their own money to make the first print run of 1,000 or less copies. Or at least that was how most people used to do it. Now of days crowd funding sights are allowing small publishers to pay for a print run up front.

Top
Fri, 03/16/2012 - 16:37
#2
pandasaurus
pandasaurus's picture
Offline
Joined: 03/12/2012
Venture Capital is going to

Venture Capital is going to be hard to come by unless there is big upside to your profit model, which in this hobby doesn't really exist. Unless you want to make party games, it's not likely to happen. and even then, it's not likely to happen.

I personally went with savings that I have and am going to leverage those into crowdsourcing for my first couple of games.

Just don't overlook the fact that kickstarter isn't "free" by any means, you are going to have to spend a good chunk of change up front for art, marketing, etc. to have any chance of hitting production costs in funding.

And even then, setting your fundraising goal to the level that it takes to get a print run may not be the best idea ever. Most projects that fund set goals well below their actual production costs.

My advice would be: don't spend money you can't afford to lose.

Top
Fri, 03/16/2012 - 16:48
#3
Fhizban
Fhizban's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/11/2009
well, i fund my projects out

well, i fund my projects out of my own pocket

thank god i have a very good job, so i can afford a piece of high quality artwork every now and then.

being a designer myself, designing game components is challenging but not impossible for me, this helps to reduce costs.

all in all the lessons i learned are:

* you need high quality artwork to be competitive
* you have to spend real money to get high quality artwork
* you will never find someone who is willing to invest in your projects

and most important:

* you will never make enough money to cover your costs from a single project
* your projects will never reach big sales figures

wich brings us to:

* all the money you invest in your projects is lost

and finally:

* all work and money you invest into a project has to come from passion alone, as trying to make money from boardgame design usually does not work

this is a hobby scene, and we should take the hobby approach - time to get rid of those weird dreams!

just my 2 cents
(being a lone-wolf who has not tapped into crowd-funding yet and who is against releasing games via a publisher)

Top
Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut