Confession: At the time of writing I’ve not yet worked my way through all the course material. Having run a small R&D department for a scientific instruments company for a few years I’m relatively comfortable with this topic already; especially as my entire department was funded by InnovateUK for the entirety of my tenure (and beyond). Part of my role involved working with the Board and Directors to bid for funding. Owing to the nature of the business and the experience of the team I was working with, we wherever successful too. With the funds secured, the other part of my role was to deliver what we said we would develop.
Of course, whether I can carry this experience through into Indie Game Studio space is an entirely different concept. There is far more pressure this time around as it’s my own business and livelihood on the line. Funding will also be typically much smaller amounts than the 6- and 7-figure awards we previously secured.
My plans are far from finalised at the moment but will very likely involve some form of multi-phasic approach: initially bootstrapped alongside the day job then leading into a partially funded scenario through a grant or crowd funding and ultimately, if I can make it happen, becoming fully funded by a business angel or publisher.
That’s all very vague at the moment as (a) I don’t want to give the game away — excuse the pun — and (b) many grants have eligibility criteria attached that can preclude prior funding arrangements.
I’ve always seen the funding aspect of Indie Game Development as one of the biggest barriers to entry. My responsibilities as a husband and father combined with the need to provide for my family mean going full time is only possible if it guarantees a certain income. I also don’t want to spend 5 years developing something only to find it doesn’t sell.
Looking back, now, the material we’ve covered over the last few weeks has reignited my desire to make this succeed. I also found the story behind the development of Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian Entertainment both enlightening and thought provoking. I was surprised to hear how even an established studio could run into unforeseen problems and the fact they managed their way through them, subsequently delivering a great game was very motivating. It also changed my view of KickStarter as a possible vehicle for funding a project. I’m a lone wolf (at the moment) and don’t have the personnel nor experience behind me that Obsidian had so I don’t for one moment expect I could raise the amounts they raised but crowd funding is going to feature in my strategy. I particularly like this method as it invites engagement from the target audience from the outset and as a result is an invaluable source of market intelligence that’s available pre-launch.
It’s been a good, productive and very educational week 🙂
References
Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash
