If this were a popular blog with readers and not a personal writing exercise/portfolio, I'd apologize for the lack of recent updates due to end-of-the-semester projects. This summer I should be updating once a week on Wednesdays.
If you want to develop a game independently with no intention of seeking out a publisher, any expenses are likely going to come from your pocket. It can be a great investment, especially if you manage to create a huge hit like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Hell, now you can apparently get a grant for your game. Even still, independent game development is a tough business that can easily result in lost time and money.
The good news is that with more and more professional development tools becoming easier to access, the indie games scene is growing every year. Indie developers are finding new ways to fund their development. Two developers have taken a new approach to getting the funding they need by allowing players to pay to play early builds of the game before it's released. It's basically beta testing that requires a credit card instead of an application with your computer specs attached.
Minecraft needs no introduction. Minecraft is the success story any independent developer must remind himself of while he cracks away at his unique game on his own time while maintaining a day job. If you're into video games and haven't given it a try, you've either acknowledged it's appeal with a humble nod of approval yet decided you'd rather not get into it like me or you've been living under a rock. The game has a freaking song and it's success is so unheard of that a documentary is currently in production. I don't mean to repeat everyone else, but it seriously hasn't been released yet. The game that has garnered over one million sales since it began development in 2009 is still in beta.
So how did this happen? Well, for one thing it's a great concept that absolutely deserves all the praise it's getting. Also, it turns out if it's fun and playable, players are absolutely willing to pay to play a game that isn't finished. Think about how all the beta testing opportunities you've submitted for. Chances are they were for a game you just couldn't wait to play. Would you have paid ten bucks to guarentee your spot? I know I would have, especially if that was ten bucks off the final price when the game was released. That's certainly a better preorder bonus than a piece of ingame content you're probably going to forget to download. I still haven't downloaded the golden guitar that came with my Brutal Legend preorder.
Minecraft isn't the only game that has benefitted from this player-funded development process. Overgrowth from Wolfire Games offers its players who preorder it (for the full game price of $30) the chance to play the game in its current alpha state throughout the development process. Every week if you preordered the game, you can download the latest build and fool around with it freely complete with a set of basic modding tools. While it hasn't quite met the success of Minecraft, over 7,000 preorders have been sold and it's popular enough that the weekly development diaries end up on Gametrailers. $200,000 is a pretty good budget for an indie game.
I bring this up because I think it's a great way to both market and fund a game in development. You get constant player feedback, you're basically getting free testing, and of course any development costs can be covered as long as you know what you're doing. There are of course downsides as well. Someone could introduce this method to a game too early in development to even know where the project is going leading to some disappointed preorderers.
I have a feeling we're going to be seeing more of this development style. For the most part I'm excited, but you never know where new concepts like this can go. I haven't quite reached a conclusion, I guess my objective was to promote discussion. So if I had readers I'd say, "Discuss!"
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