Funding Indie Game Development: Strategies For Solo And Small Teams

Bootstrapping Your Indie Game

Bootstrapping refers to self-funding a startup through personal finances rather than external investors. For indie game developers, this often means relying on personal savings and limited credit to finance your projects.

Using personal savings to fund development is a common starting point. Carefully tracking expenses against a development budget can help maximize available resources. Developers should set milestones and prioritize features based on available savings.

Utilizing personal credit including credit cards or lines of credit is an option, but should be approached cautiously. Interest costs can quickly accumulate and negate potential returns. Approach credit with clearly defined budgets and repayment strategies tied to project milestones.

Living frugally enables more personal funds to be directed towards game development. Minimizing expenses by economizing on housing, transportation, and lifestyle choices retains more capital for creative projects.

Key Strategies

• Use personal savings wisely across defined milestones
• Cautiously leverage personal credit with repayment plans
• Economize daily costs to dedicate funds towards development

Crowdfunding Platforms

Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Fig enable developers to raise funds from interested backers. Developers create a campaign page with a pitch video and descriptions of the proposed game and content. Backers pledge money, often gaining rewards or special benefits in exchange.

An attractive campaign page quickly conveys key gameplay features, aesthetic elements, and overall vision to build confidence in potential backers. A short, high-quality video can effectively demonstrate planned mechanics and artistic style. Descriptions should be focused on planned content and features along with bios of the developers.

Stretch goals are extra features or content that will be added if funding exceeds target amounts. These can incentivize existing backers to pledge more. Offering compelling rewards for certain pledge tiers can also improve conversion rates. Rewards often include the final game, but can include merchandise, name inclusion, early access, and more.

Marketing the campaign through social media engagement, influencers, and community connections raises visibility and referrals for new backers. Making use of the crowdfunding platform’s internal traffic and running ads to relevant external sites also gathers momentum.

Key Strategies

• Create an attractive campaign page and video
• Establish stretch goals and backer rewards
• Market campaign page through various channels

Publishers and Investors

Traditional game publishers provide funding in exchange for partial ownership of the game IP and a share of revenue. Developers pitch publishers with demonstrations, artwork, team details, and projected budgets. Publishers accepting pitches front developer costs in exchange for a split of profits.

With increasing competition among indie titles, developers may also attract venture capitalists and angel investors by pitching their team talents and abilities to successfully execute on game ideas. These pitch meetings require thoroughly valuing the game IP and the development studio itself.

Accepting publisher or investor funding often entails giving up ownership equity, creative control, and revenue shares. The developer must carefully evaluate if the funding provision aligns strategically with the studio’s overarching vision. Funding through defined milestones can mitigate risks for both parties.

Key Considerations

• Publisher and investor negotiations require IP and studio valuation
• Equity, creative control, and revenue shares must be weighed
• Milestone-based funding optimizes accountability

Grants and Programs

Grants and programs exist to fund indie developers creating artistically novel games. Government and private arts councils provide grants to nurture cultural contributions across various mediums including video games. Incubators and accelerators accept promising projects in exchange for equity.

Examples include awards conferred through the Independent Games Festival, arts council grants for interactive narratives exploring new themes, and university game incubators that provide student developers with funding and workspace resources.

Compared to publisher deals, these sources provide funding under favorable terms given the focus on funding experimental games pushing creative boundaries. Awards typically have few strings attached. Grants may require inclusivity initiatives or spotlighting certain causes. Incubators trade workspace and mentor access for modest equity shares.

Key Benefits

• Funding for artistic/experimental games
• Awards have minimal obligations
• Grants prioritize developmental purposes
• Incubators offer workspace and advice

Revenue Sharing With Storefronts

In revenue share agreements, digital storefronts like Steam, Epic Games Store, Itch.io, or console marketplaces cover upfront development costs in exchange for a percentage cut of post-launch game sales. These deals provide funding while leveraging the storefront’s built-in audience.

Negotiating a favorable revenue split is vital, as the storefront cut directly reduces profits. Development costs must align strategically with the projected sales revenues possible from placement on a given storefront. Fostering positive storefront relationships can enable higher revenue share ratios.

With storefront funding, development costs can usually be repaid solely through sales to players on that store. Marketing development costs this way eliminates relinquishing IP rights while benefitting from the store’s organic traffic and communities. Ongoing post-launch sales further increase potential total revenues.

Ideal Outcomes

• Favorable revenue share ratio
• Development costs recouped through sales
• Relationship building with storefront

Post-Launch Monetization and Self-Funding

Successsful launches empower developers to self-fund future projects through setting prudent launch prices, managing discounts and promotions, and reinvesting profits.

Set fair prices based on production values, aesthetics, mechanics, and gameplay longevity. Start higher and discount later. Consistently update and expand content to justify maintaining price points. Adopt premium expansions and minimally intrusive voluntary ad models when appropriate.

Healthy post-launch revenues, managed responsibly, enable developers to self-finance their next projects. This creative independence is the ultimate goal for indie studios. Annual revenues that significantly outpace costs allow teams to expand through hiring, equipment, and technology investments.

Self-funding brings full creative control. The indie studio sets project timelines, requirements, and release strategies based solely on their creative vision rather than external party obligations.

Owning the Future

• Price deliberately based on value
• Reinvest profits into future development
• Creative independence through self-sufficiency