If you haven’t heard of the term “crowd-funding” before, it refers to the collaboration of several people to pool their resources — this could be in the form of money or other assets — together to help fund an initiative. Disaster relief efforts are one example of crowd-funding.
8-bit Funding, a new crowd-funding initiative for games, announced today that they hope to extend the benefits of crowd-funding to game developers and facilitate the development of game-related projects. Any individual that desires to work on such a project can create an account on 8-Bit Funding, requesting an amount to fund development of their project, and users can choose whether or not to contribute.
Projects aren’t limited strictly to video games. They could be for a video game website or even to fund a board game or a card game. In return for their contributions (made through PayPal), users will be able to avail certain perks. What perks are to be offered will be left up to the judgement of the developers themselves on a game-by-game basis.
For projects that meet their funding goals, 8-bit Funding will avail a 5% fee from the developers. Should a project only reach halfway to its funding goal, 8-bit Funding will get in touch with the developer to ask if they can complete the project. If they can, 8-bit Funding will release whatever funds they’ve acquired, and take a 10% fee as a reminder to the developer to remain realistic about their goals. In addition to these will be PayPal’s transaction fees, amounting to 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction.
While anyone can start a project on 8-bit funding, it does require you to provide certain proof that you’re serious about your work. This includes (quoted from the 8-bit Funding FAQ):
- A video, preferably with gameplay if you have it.
- A thumbnail image approx. 500×300 wide.
- A well thought our description.
- Perks for contributors.
- Your ability and willingness to complete your project.
- Your ability and willingness to market your project.
Developers will have the ability to continually update their contributors on the progression of their projects and are actually encouraged to do so. In turn, contributors can provide feedback for the developer to take into account if they so wish.
You can view the developer and contributor FAQ for 8-Bit Funding if you’re interested in diving in. Additionally, you can visit their official website here. It has a list of projects already in development under the 8-bit Funding initiative, one of which you can see in the video above.
