Aah okay good to hear, that gives a little peace in my mind :-). Also, is it only for United States this funding project or could I also post my project on it from where I am living?(Netherlands)
We hold no bias over different locations, however, we will have it stating where you're from. This way members have the options to see the laws, and everything in place for your location, and we will be sure to mention on the site that laws can differ from location to location. So, whilst you can go to jail and be fined in the US for stealing money, it might not be the same in other countries. However, we won't not allow you to post something based on your location. I believe everyone should have a chance to raise money for their game, not just people in one area. We all have dreams, and desires for a game, why should you get punished for being born in an area, you can't control that. It isn't fair to you, and something I refuse to partake in. :)
Am I right when you are saying that the probability of people posting "rubbish" will be the same as is happening on for example Kickstarter, I can see that it would indeed be a chance. For that reason maybe it would be a solution to create some sort of application process in wich a developer needs to show their plan and progress to the admins or so, in this case
@Xyphien so that they would be able to screen it and approve or denie that certain project on the chance of succeeding or maybe just to check if it is a "serious" project.(don't know if that is even possible though). I would at least like to help XD
Not me.
Because we already have Indiegogo and Kickstarter; if there is a successful niche to be found specifically for game crowd-funding it's already catered for by both these services.
The problem of unsuccessful game projects due to inexperienced developers will still carry over, even if you brand it as "game developers only" you'll still get the same people who have no idea how much it costs putting up pages for "Chronicles of the Tales of Echoing Fantasies: Eternal Soul Quest for the Sky Wars" built with RPG Maker XP and the default RTP promising that "Retro SNES experience that gets you so nostalgic that you'll throw money at us - remember Final Fantasy VI? DO YOU REMEMBER FINAL FANTASY SIX???".
There's clearly a format template that's been crafted specifically for these types of generic projects to get funded (yet never completed) on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, if a new service appears and becomes successful then this template formula will get carried over in just the same way. There's no smart-game-developer-certification-license that you can check for, you're going to get these kind of projects regardless of what label you put on the service.
What I'd rather see is a service with people who know how hard it is to carry through a game production project that rates the viability of Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns by assessing how large the scope of a project is against the budget, time-frame and demonstration of prior skills and experiences (including budget management).
The biggest issue isn't that there's no place for serious game developers, it's that the clueless public throws their money at anything that gets their nostalgia rhubarb rubbing (a brief look at the marketing of these projects will show you that, also the marketing of the terrible Ouya console is notorious for using this angle).
I don't see what the relevance of running a forum nor what game programs a forum supports has on this.
We're going to have in the rules stating your post must be of good quality or higher. You have to provide pictures, as well as a clear indicator on what you will be spending your money on. This means, if they post a single picture of rpg maker, and then for the text saying "Give money pl0x w3 n33dz 1t!" it will be removed. We won't have an approval list, however, we will go through it and look at all the posts and make sure they meet the quality standards, as well as explain where the money goes, and everything. I will be able to explain more once one of my other partners finishes up with the rules :)
Xyphien threw in the "SEO" buzzword earlier, but it's going to take a heck of a lot more than writing clever page meta-data to get going; especially when you're going against two established, well-indexed websites that are at the point where they no-longer need to apply SEO as search engines have already hit them as highly-positive results, so competing is going to be very tough.
Well, to start things off. Kickstarter charges 5%, which is how they get so many people, what they don't know is that they also charge another 3-5% for transaction fees, and a base pay of at least $30 I do believe. We explain where everything is going, we have no even slightly hidden fees, etc. We're taking 10%, 3%+.30 is going to all transaction fees. 2% is going back into backing projects, and pledging to the site to help, this way it helps out the community as well. We will ONLY take 10%, the 3% and 2% is coming out of the 10% we take, and not out of the backers end. This way you can estimate how much you truly need from the site, and can do the math with ease. With KickStarter, you can say you need $1,000 because you know they take 5%. However, you get $830 back, now you're short $120 or so and go through and re-read their terms to find out they ALSO take the other fee's. I think with this, it should appeal to a lot of other members who are posting their games, etc. on Kickstarter to come over to us, or check it out at the very least.
And for that exact reason, this project may actually be viable. The major problem with the top three crowdfunding companies is that new indies get lost in the large massive sea of projects. I have backed many projects, some that made it, and others missed the goals, and there is one major thing I did not like. I did not like seeing all the small indies getting engulfed by all the larger already recognized companies. I have seen RPG Maker projects get funded for over $100,000. Likewise I saw awesome projects that had $500 goals, and they had awesome demos, and unfortunately raised less than $55. It may be the time for a specialized game design crowdfunding option.
@Xyphien Maybe have part of the crowdfunding company have a personal touch, a personal feel, may make the people creating the projects feel like less of a 'number.'
We will have a weekly newsletter, and staff picks. Where we go through and pick out some projects that look very promising, and that we feel should be raised. Most of Indiegogo and kickstarter I noticed, their staff picks are ones that are making the most money. This of course just benefits them only by making them more money. However, we want to show what games truly matter, and what games should be funded vs. what games are making the most money for us.
something inspiring and individual for everyone. We need a creative design for this and well written "introduction/rules" something what makes one feel special, something what makes the crowdfunding site special and different from the others.
One of my partners has already written the about us, and why we're here post, that is sheds a lot of light on this, and made me want to go and pledge on it XD I cannot wait to share that page when we have it up :D
Mighty No 9 raked in millions and is allegedly using the money to fund their own silly little cartoon series.
This is why we will have in the ToS and rules stating the money you make MUST go towards the project at hand.
and I can't see a reason to fund them since most of them just use default resources and other people's plugins. I guess for more privileged spenders it wouldn't be much of an issue to gamble on a newbie dev that has no proven track record.
This is why we will have them post pictures, and have a good quality post explaining what they will be using the money for. They could have the default RTP right now, however their main reason to make money is to get custom graphics, and scripts. This is why a lot of RPG Makers need the money. They use the program because they might be bad at graphics or scripting, and would like to pay someone to customize it. They could have an amazing idea, and all they're missing is the custom graphics and scripts which they might not have the money to fund.
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Just made the logo for it.
Here is a demo of what the site will look like to an extent. We do not have it up, or made yet (Currently working out some problems). This is a photoshop edit, and things will most likely change. Such as the recent projects will be hot projects, or staff picks, etc.
Once again, this is a photoshop edit. All projects such as
@ZeroRyoko999 and
@samorious were just put in as a reference of how it'd look.
