Crowdfunding for Indie Developers: Kickstarter

 Almost by definition, an indie developer is probably going to have a very limited budget for producing their game. One exciting new source of funding is crowdfunding, like Kickstarter. It has been successful for several indie games already, including FTL. We'll talk about what exactly crowdfunding is today.

What is Crowdfunding and Kickstarter?

Funding by the people, for the people.

Crowdfunding is seeking funding for a specific project from the general public, sometimes in exchange for certain rewards (for instance, many games funded by Kickstarter will give you the full game for slightly less than the planned retail price at release). If you have the media to demonstrate your project, and an exciting, interesting, or revolutionary new concept, Kickstarter could work great for you.

Crowdfunding is a powerful tool because it lets you get the funds you need to complete your project without having to to go through a major publishing company and shackling yourself to their creative overview. By creating a Kickstarter project, you can also gauge public interest in your concept; if your project cannot garner public support on Kickstarter, it's possible it would not be financially successful regardless.

In addition to being a useful option for generating funds to create your game, Kickstarter is great at creating positive word-of-mouth among the gaming community, as that is where funding outside of close friends and family will generally come from; using Kickstarter can be an effective part of advertising your game while seeking funding for it at the same time.

If you are interested in creating a Kickstarter project or looking at current and past successful Kickstarter projects, you can of do so right here at the Kickstarter website.