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googlymooglymaster · 04-03-2013

I've been working on a TF game for the past year or so, and I'm fairly confident once I'm finished, it should be a pretty good hit enough to have people download it for free (being worth enough for their time). By the time I'm finished though, I feel I'd have spent over 2000 hours which is extremely taxing on my motivation. I wanted to see if I could get compensated a bit for the time and effort I put into it - custom artwork being the main time sink. I wouldn't dream about charging for it (especially since I've been anonymous and no one will back me before actually playing the game).

So the question is: what's the logical way to get funding for a project? I was thinking about making a blog site once the project is complete, opening the download for everyone for free, and just asking for donations of $1-5 to my paypal account if people enjoy it - since that's about the amount of money you'd pay for a small indiegame on steam or game app. I'm not sure if this would be the best method, however since it's highly likely people will forego donating since they already have the full product and possibly nothing to look forward to. Nor do I know if it's fine to just post your paypal account to donate to, or if you have to use a secondary company to handle the funds.

I'm aware this isn't a legitimate way to get money - I work, and the time I put into this hobby can never even get to $1/hour - it's just a labor of love. I just thought it'd be good for my morale to see how much people are willing to put into it and fund the snacks I eat while working on this game. I'm not posting any details about my project yet since I want it to hit all at once rather than say "this 3 year project is now 30% complete" or end up not completing it at all. So this is just a discussion about methods raising funds, excluding whether or not this particular game would be worth it.

04-03-2013	#1
googlymooglymaster Lurker Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 11	Discussion on how to fund a TF game I've been working on a TF game for the past year or so, and I'm fairly confident once I'm finished, it should be a pretty good hit enough to have people download it for free (being worth enough for their time). By the time I'm finished though, I feel I'd have spent over 2000 hours which is extremely taxing on my motivation. I wanted to see if I could get compensated a bit for the time and effort I put into it - custom artwork being the main time sink. I wouldn't dream about charging for it (especially since I've been anonymous and no one will back me before actually playing the game). So the question is: what's the logical way to get funding for a project? I was thinking about making a blog site once the project is complete, opening the download for everyone for free, and just asking for donations of $1-5 to my paypal account if people enjoy it - since that's about the amount of money you'd pay for a small indiegame on steam or game app. I'm not sure if this would be the best method, however since it's highly likely people will forego donating since they already have the full product and possibly nothing to look forward to. Nor do I know if it's fine to just post your paypal account to donate to, or if you have to use a secondary company to handle the funds. I'm aware this isn't a legitimate way to get money - I work, and the time I put into this hobby can never even get to $1/hour - it's just a labor of love. I just thought it'd be good for my morale to see how much people are willing to put into it and fund the snacks I eat while working on this game. I'm not posting any details about my project yet since I want it to hit all at once rather than say "this 3 year project is now 30% complete" or end up not completing it at all. So this is just a discussion about methods raising funds, excluding whether or not this particular game would be worth it.