Early access, Kickstarter or Publisher?
March 11th, 2014
OK, you know we got nominated at Game Connection USA… this event is mainly for developers and publishers to find each other… In order to win the honorable prize as “best hardcore pc & console game” we have to do a 5 minute pitch towards an audience of investors and publishers.
This made us think about how we should release our game…
About a year ago, we decided to make the game Woolfe. We knew we wouldn’t have enough money the make the complete game the way we wanted to… The only solution we could think of was to chop the story into 3 chapters and develop/release them one-by-one as Episodes of the game or via Steam Early Access… Every chapter contains 3 distinct levels of about an hour gameplay each.
Of course, at the time we had no idea you would be so enthusiastic about Woolfe… we are literally blown away. But, the expectations are so high, we can’t help but want to improve every little detail we can… We figured there are 3 ways to do this.
- Steam Early Access:
We release one level at a time, try to polish it as much as we can, hope enough people are interested so that we can polish the next level, and the next, and the next… We’ll probably want to upgrade the first levels while building new levels. But in short it would mean taking it one small step at a time. There is one possible downside we can think of: If you feel our first test levels do not meet your expectations, you might choose to no longer support us… and we won’t have enough financing to finish the next levels… Game Over? - Kickstarter:
Well if a Kickstarter campaign would go as smoothly as our Greenlight went, this should be a breeze… We could raise enough financing to finish and polish the complete first Chapter, maybe raise enough to finish the next two Chapters too? But, what if we don’t reach our initial goal? Back to square one? Will you loose faith in us? - Publisher:
If we could find a publisher willing to invest in Woolfe, we could build the complete game in one go! We might even get a boxed version out, we might get a console license, we might even get enough support to make Woolfe better than we could dream of ourselves. We could find the coolest publisher ever, a fantastic synergy where 1+1 is more than 2. Or, we might lose our artistic freedom to marketing tactics. (Give her bigger b**bs?)
So, with this in mind we’ll be going to Game Connection USA, we will pitch Woolfe the best we can (a first award would be so cool), get all the info we need to make a wise choice on how we should release Woolfe… and who knows, we might even find our dream publisher! In the meantime please give us your opinions and suggestions… We’re very curious on what you think would be the best way to go!
On a different note… we’re releasing another sneak peak gameplay video VERY SOON, so stay tuned!
PS. You can also reply on our Greenlight announcement: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/updates/217463630/1394554042
Solution 2 seems the best to me, or possibly number 3, even if that means bigger b**bs 😀
I’d say that the KickStarter would be the way to go. Don’t release the game per chapters, or else you risk people losing interest on the following chapters. Just set a realistic goal for all 3 chapters to be completed and polished, and see where it goes from there. If it fails, then there’s little to no down-side.
Going for a Publisher is a double-edged weapon. IF you can find a Publisher willing to release your game with your full creative control, then go for it. But most likely, they’ll want to chop down the game to something less hardcore, more digestable, and easier to sell.
Finally, Steam Early Access… they keep a big chunk of the money you earn, and there’s not much room for you to actually pitch the game to its full potential. Also, like you said, having people “feel” an alpha of a game can mislead them. I wouldn’t go for this option unless you’re really desperate.
Early Access is bogus, why spend hours and hours playing a broken game only to be sick of playing and lose interest before it’s even officially released?
Kick Starter has no failsafe and is being abused. Legit devs should avoid it for that alone, but even legit devs could crumble before completion leaving supports S.O.L. I WON’T support a Kickstarter at all, but as long as the game gets completed and I can buy it after it’s released then no problem. Should it be made available to ONLY Kickstarter supporters then, well, I won’t be buying it.
I have no problem with the publisher formula.