The biggest revolution in gaming might not be virtual reality or the rise of mobile or new hardware. According to some industry watchers, the most exciting change is in how games get funded.
Game developer Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions, which has raised money on Kickstarter for its games, said as much in a podcast in June with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
“Lately I’ve been most excited about how things have changed as far as business goes, which sounds weird because I’ve always been on the creative side of things,” he said. “But what happened with us and crowdfunding has allowed us to have so much more creative control and a more natural relationship with people who we make games for.”
The assertion caught the attention of Tristan Handy of RJMetrics, a data analytics firm. He decided to have his team scrape the data from Kickstarter’s website and crunch some numbers to look at how much crowdfunding is going on and what are the leading factors for success.
So what’s the big factor that gets you funded on Kickstarter? Experience. Handy said that, far and away, the best predictor of a game campaign’s success is having a big name behind it.
Developers with proven track records — and sometimes their own fan bases — were the most successful fundraisers. In terms of total game funding on Kickstarter, developers from inXile Entertainment have raised more than $8 million for their titles; Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi comes in second with $5.5 million. Double Fine has raised $4.5 million for its games.
“The way to break out on Kickstarter is by building up years of credibility and doing good work,” Handy said.
Based on Handy’s analysis, Kickstarter isn’t necessarily the best way to break into the industry. While the bulk of funding isn’t for amateurs who are designing games in their spare time, he still maintains that Kickstarter is a democratizing force in funding for games — particularly for smaller studios. Fifteen games every quarter raise at least $100,000, he said.
