Creating a game on your own is no easy task. Aside from making sure you have all the artistic and programming skills necessary—or that you can assemble a team to handle those responsibilities—there's the ever-constant need for funding to make such a project a reality.
Next to raising the necessary money to get a project off the ground, it's comparatively easy to teach yourself how to create the elements of a game. And if you've got a workable demo or a finished product, you can shop it around or show it off at the Game Developers Conference in an effort to pique the interest of a publisher that will hopefully pick it up for distribution. But if you're starting from scratch, getting someone to support nothing more than an idea is a hard sell, especially in this financial climate.
Of course, the simplest approach is just to use your own money. If you have the cash available, that's a fine approach; working a full-time job and crafting a game in your free time is a safe option.
"Most of the indies I know personally have either bootstrapped their projects on their own or, if they are working in a hot market [like the iPhone or Facebook], have turned to publishers," said Heather Logas, a contract game developer who is also working to get her own game off the ground.
So if you don't have the personal resources available to fund a game's development, what are your options? Unfortunately, there aren't many outside of either finding a publisher to help you or trying to scrounge up some venture capital funding. But here are a couple less-obvious ideas.
Relying on the kindness of strangers... and people you know, too
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 which takes a great deal of inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's dream stories. The player finds themself in the middle of an ancient struggle between two dying cities, and undertakes a quest that will ultimately save one of them."
The way Kickstarter works is that the person seeking support sets a financial goal of any amount and a timeframe to raise the funds (with a maximum limit of 90 days). People can then pledge any amount of money to the project; if the goal is met, Kickstarter will collect the promised funds from the credit card that was put on file at the time of the pledge. If the goal is not reached, all pledges are canceled.
So far, Logas's project has gotten a reasonable amount of attention, but it hasn't reached her goal. "Like anything, it's up to the individual to get the word out," she explained. "That's been the biggest struggle. Kickstarter on its own has given me a minimal amount of attention, I think. I do have a couple backers who just stumbled on the project while browsing, but the vast majority are either friends of mine or else had heard about the project via word of mouth and were intrigued. As for funding, I'm up to 30 percent funded, so that's exciting. I still have a few weeks to go, and am hoping for the best."
Grants: the often-overlooked friend to developers
As unsexy as it sounds, developers looking for some startup cash can do well by applying for grants. The benefit is that creating software that meets the parameters of a grant results in a fair amount of money, sometimes enough to keep a developer in business during the early days of a new product launch. The trade-off? Grant-seekers have to be willing to work on titles that probably aren't as exciting as their dream game would be.
It might be a humble way to operate, sure, but it's also a pragmatic one: a developer can apply for a grant, use the cash to fund its first project, then use the leftover money to start working on other software titles. That's the approach taken by Pennington Ingley, founder of Irrational Number Group. ING is a startup publisher of casual games and educational software, and Ingley doesn't have a problem making something unexciting, provided it allows him to work on something more fun in the future.
Ingley got the idea when he worked with The Guild Hall at Southern Methodist University. When the program was first established, he worked behind the scenes to make sure it was running properly and also helped secure student funding. "We did a lot of similar [work with grants] at The Guild Hall when I was there," he said, "so I knew how to look for funding that way."
By applying for education grants at both the state and federal level, Ingley was able to finally secure funding for his company that came outside of his personal resources. "I was able to bootstrap myself with my life savings for the first year," he said, before finally being able to secure outside support for the company.
As a result, ING's first project is software designed for continuing education in the electrical inspection industry. "We have to make sure [this project] is more than just a game—it has to transmit the information effectively," said Ingley.
Eventually, Ingley plans to publish more exciting projects, but he knows ING needs a solid financial foundation before it can do so. "It costs X amount to get the education software done," he said, "and there's a small amount of profit that we'll re-invest in order to audition new IPs."
(Ingley made a point of mentioning that he's happy to talk to any developers or publishers about how to search for software development grants. If you're interested, send an e-mail to Press At Theirrationalnumber Dot Com.)
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