Crowdfunding fuels game industry
Ottawa’s indie developers get cash, keep control
Step aside video-game publishers. Small independent game-makers don’t need your deep pockets anymore.
Crowd-funding services such as Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com have helped provide close to $500,000 to Ottawa-area indie game developers over the past year so they can release their titles to the masses.
While much has been made of using such crowd-funding platforms to help fund small businesses through their early stages, other industries and businesses are finding huge benefits to crowd-sourcing funds. In Ottawa alone, where dozens of small, independent video-game studios are desperately trying to raise the money they need to release their creations, crowd-sourcing funds for indie game development yield big returns.
‘It gives us … the funding needed without a whole lot of extra business complications.’
TYNAN SYLVESTER
Founder of Ludeon Studios
Ludeon Studio’s RimWorld collected $268,132 through a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter. Conatus Creative collected $217,643. Genesis of Legend Publishing attracted $11,668, and others, such as Snowed In Studios Inc., have collected more than $11,000 only days into their campaigns.
Before platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, indie studios would need to back projects with their own money or money from large investors, such as game studios that would often take a large portion of ownership of the studio or game to secure their investment. Doing so also gave the publishers significant decision-making authority over development of the game, a significant deterrent to many indie game makers.
“The traditional route is to use these giant publishers, but they have a habit of absorbing a massive amount of your profit and exerting creative control that I didn’t want exerted over what I was doing,” said Tynan Sylvester, founder of Ludeon Studios and creator of a game called RimWorld. “It gives us the opportunity to get the funding needed without a whole lot of extra business complications.”
Sylvester started working on RimWorld months ago. The idea for the game was to merge a Minecraft-like world with cutting-edge artificial intelligence that changes the world around gamers as they play through the title. The game changes based on the players’ choices, becoming more difficult as they progress.
The Ottawa native, who is moving to Montreal for personal reasons, said he hit a wall a few months back while trying to finish the title. Sylvester admits that, although he is a professional game designer and a talented code writer, he is not an artist or a musician. Making a video game requires those disciplines.
“It’s not my specialty,” he said. “That I needed to pay people for.”
Kickstarter allowed Sylvester to pre-sell copies of RimWorld while collecting the cash he needs to finish the title. He set a $20,000 funding goal and waited. After a month he had raised more than $268,000.
“I was thinking, if really squeezed the budget I could get the game done for $12,000. I was hoping for $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000 to give a little bit of breathing room,” said Sylvester, adding that the pace at which the campaign’s donations surpassed his expectations was a little surreal. “Even if you said, ‘I need $60,000 and that’s it’, you can’t cut it off. I’m going to roll the excess forward. I don’t intend to spend that kind of money on a game. I got into indie games to develop a game.”
Sylvester said everybody who donated to his campaign will get the gift they were promised. Depending on how much a person donated, they got a perk. Some are getting copies of the game, others are getting their name in RimWorld’s credits. Sylvester said, he will use some of the extra money he’s collected to support online play and updates
Ifor RimWorld. The rest of the funds will go to support future releases from Ludeon Studios. Several companies in Ottawa are hoping for the same kind of success. Snowed In Studios is trying to raise funds for its much anticipated title WindForge, for PCs. Another title, developed by Ottawa native Phillip Meyer called King Voxel, is in the early stages of a campaign that has raised more than $800. The King Voxel campaign, for a game like Nintendo Inc.’s popular 1986 title the Legend of Zelda, is looking to raise $20,000.
However, these types of campaigns aren’t always successful. This is Meyer’s second attempt to raise money for his game; his first fundraising campaign for King Voxel ended in July and raised only $593.
The ability to crowd-source funding comes at a time when the number of indie game developers in Ottawa is booming. Dozens of small game companies are being created to take advantage of new gaming platforms such as iPhones, Android devices, tablets and ultrabook laptops, which are causing unprecedented demand for video games and related content. Also, new gaming consoles such as the Xbox One, Wii U and PS4 are putting more of a focus on distributing independent games to consumers, making the industry that much more attractive to small companies.
To help support those firms and expand the industry in Ottawa, Magmic Inc. has opened a $4-million fund for game developers.
Canada’s game development industry is ranked third in the world, behind United States and Japan. More than 16,000 Canadians are employed in game creation, and the industry’s annual economic impact is more than $1.7 billion. The average salary is $62,000. Blockbuster titles such as the FIFA and NHL franchises, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect were all made in Canada.