How do kickstarter projects with 20-40k make a game

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I am working on my first game which will be a platformer for the WiiU and maybe steam. Right now I am making a prototype while I learn the ropes of Unity and C# and working on my Game Design Document.

For funding I would have to resort to kickstarter since I don’t have that much money to spare after bills. On kick starter I see a lot of games on asking for 10-40k of funding and I am wondering how they can make a game with a small team for that little.

Are they only paying them a little bit and a share of revenue? If so how much is reasonable for the different roles in the team. I think my team will be developer (me), writer, composer, 2d/gui artist.

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I think the idea is that the low asking amount will encourage people to back it.

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Also that likely isn’t the entire budget for the game - there will be sales after the game is released as well.

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That makes since but even when they make over they still usualy make around that much. It’s rare to make more than 40k from what I have seen.

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Kickstarter isn’t used to fund the game entirely. People are going in the red and self funding, and using kickstarter as that extra boost to get them to a releasable state, then hoping to break even again with revenue from the game. You should get a solid working prototype, with some art and music already done, before you even go to kickstarter (which is now kick-finisher, in my mind). Then you get enough to pay your team a minimal living wage for the remainder of the development time, and hopefully gain back the rest via game income. Also, kickstarter doesnt pay you if you dont make your goal, so aiming low can be a good thing.

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Then how do they get the money to hire the people? Are they getting investors outside of kickstarter or is it common to share the revenues? In watch case how much do people expect? 10% 30%?

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Investors, loans, credit cards, etc. Revenue share is also a possibility, but it depends on many circumstances.

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I plan on doing a good prototype and think I could afford to pay for music but I only have $200 to spare every month which is not enough to get a 2d artist right?

I figured I would have to make a prototype with cheap music and graphics and do kickstarter to redo the music + graphics

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Is there a document or guide out there on ways people fund indie games?

I have credit so I could probably get some loans if needed but I would probably only get 10k or so with how much I make.

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Art before music then, you can show screens and videos with other music overlaying pretty easily. Unless you’ve got a wildly awesome gameplay concept, its going to difficult to get crowdfunding without decent art. That doesn’t mean it needs to be ultra HD photorealistic, but something consistent and fun.

You can try motivating artists to help out with a solid prototype in collaboration.

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Good point. I wont do music until art is done and I plan on making a metroidvania style platformer. Ill probably post a rough GDD on the forums to get peoples input in a few weeks.

Is it common to do collaboration for prototype but then hire for the real thing?

I thought I couldn’t post in collaboration if I plan on making a game that I will sell.

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You can definitely post in Collaboration for a game you plan on selling.

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Sweat! then ill try my best to get the first prototype (basic mechanics) with a rough GDD done this weekend.

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“Collaboration” isn’t referring to the forum here in particular. It just means “working with other people”.

For plenty of games being developed by a team the whole team is behind the game. So it’s not one person struggling to somehow pay the others properly, it’s a number of people all going without pay for the duration. The KS funding is meant to make that easier and/or help them buy/hire in whatever they can’t do themselves.

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What do you think is the best way to get artist/composers for a project like that?

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I imagine you’d need a pre-existing, close working relationship with everyone involved, and come to the decision to start your own thing as a group.

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Where have you seen that?

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Personal observation nothing legit. When I browsed successful game projects on kickstarter I didn’t see that many that raised more than 40k.

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Oh you’re talking about the funds raised on KickStarter. I was mistaken and thought you were talking about the money raised by the game after getting funded and released.

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Often people ask for money to finish the game not create the whole game.

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