The video game industry, apart from being composed by the people that make the games we like, is a billion dollar market. It was not built in a day, and the companies running it at the highest level are, for the most part, ones of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. And the way they create the content we like so much, was not devised in a day. Every step of the game development is a well thought process involving thousand of actors, ranging from the artist to the communicator. So when new development trends like crowdfunding appears, they threaten the pre-existing and fragile ecosystem that had been built through years of evolution. In this column of New Trends in Game Development, we will explore the emergence of this new establishment, one that tries to put the players and customers at the center of the development process.
Every gamer… no, every video game enthusiast on the planet pretty much knows how everything works in the video game industry. A game project is first put in the hands of a team of designers by a publisher or a producer. The designer’s job is to create the outline of the game as specified in the contract handed by the publisher. It includes the general art direction wanted for the game, the gameplay or even the ambiance of the game.
Do you want a MMORPG? Or maybe do you want a FPS? Everything is decided at this stage. When the project is finally defined, it’s brought to the development team, which job is to conceive what the designers described for the game. The programmer develops the core code of the game while the artistic team forge the world in which it will be played. The level designer then constitute the different parts of the game with the tools that have been given to him by the other teams.
Finally, it is the work of the various testers to bring the game from the early stages, where everything is mostly unplayable, to the final product. The finalized game is granted its golden badge and the marketing work begin with demos and the production of trailers, making the game known to the customers: the players.
A few of the biggest game publishers
Since the video game development has become a profitable industry, not much have changed in the process of development. Long gone are the days when the game was developed from start to finish by a single programmer. Now everything revolves around the great publishers we all know (Activision, EA, Ubisoft,…). Everything? Not anymore. But it’s not easy for a lone developer that is convinced to have a great idea to create a game out of it. Especially a game with a great magnitude. Because with the evolution of the industry came the notion of risk management. But since a couple of years, things have changed.
Do Kickstarter or IndieGogo rings a bell to you? Most of us have already heard about these companies that emerged with a solution to a generalized problem: how can I ask the customers if they are willing to take the risks inherent in creation with me? Without having to go through a company that can’t take the same risks I’m prepared to take? The internet and the globalization of worldwide communications have given us the means. Now, let’s try to make it happen.
Two companies aimed at one goal: give control to the customers.
And this is exactly what these companies did. They created an internet platform where everything is about innovation and the involvement of the customers. Still, the money is where everything become complicated, because nothing is created out of thin air. So these platforms came up with an ingenious system: letting the customers participate in the creation of the project. Basically, this is how it goes: you supported us and gave us your money to create what you wanted, now that everything is finished, we deliver to you the final product we promised. Because, of course, no one would give its hard earned money without counterparties. Anyway, the initiative was a blast, and now, the various sites proposing these services, are well established in the economy, and in the head of the customers.
Crowdfunding has now become a billion dollar business
So, where does it come to gaming? Well, some game projects cannot simply stay at an independent level. A few of them are too ambitious for that. As a little reminder, bear in mind that a multi-platform game cost between US$20M and US$30M to make. And it can even go up to $500M for the most ambitious triple A games. After a while, some game proposals appeared on these wealthy sites. Most of them were all about what we call indie gaming. But these projects didn’t need much. Just some money to put the game into publication. However, the tide has changed with the appearance of multi-million dollars crowfunded games.
Some of you might have heard about them, even just whispers. Some of these games might be Star Citizen, or Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse and made their way to public release (or not yet for some of them) only thanks to the passion their long term fans shared with the developers through their pledges. But what made the fans grant their trust to the developers? Broken Sword, for example, is a renowned adventure game series. The 4th installment of the series was released in 2006. Everyone thought the game series to be finished. To never be heard of again. However, Charles Cecil, its creator, decided to give Broken Sword another shot and put the game on Kickstarter, asking some $400,000 for its development. The campaign was a success with the game receiving nearly two times its goal with the $771,000 collected. And the game did come out in 2013, giving the fan what they bid for.
Star Citizen is a little different. Chris Roberts, creator of the notorious Wing Commander and Freelancer series made is thoughts clear through the crowdfunding platform. His game was meant to be a revolution, a rebirth of the long dead space simulation genre. But a revolution for PC only. In the month of activity of the campaign on Kickstarter, Chris Roberts and its crazily ambitious idea of a game raised a little over $2,1M. Rather then stoping here, the campaign continued on the Star Citizen site at an extraordinary rate reaching the previously unreached bar of $59M just a few days before the publication of this article. If you ask a lot of the first hour pledgers, they will simply reply to you that the reason they donated money for a game that’s not about to be released for another year and a half, is not the ships or the game items included in the package. No, for most of them, it was just the idea such a game could be made, even at the start of the campaign back in 2012, that moved them. They never had someone asked what game they dreamt of. And there response was to give money to the man that gave them the opportunity, and they felt, dreamt just as big as them.
Star Citizen’s funder, Chris Roberts has become a rock star among the community.
For a long time, making a game without going through the traditional channels, outside of the industry, was considered madness. A team of developer couldn’t imagine creating the game they wanted, or the fans wanted, mostly because of a lack of financement. Thanks to the emergence of crowdfunding and the globally connected platform to support them, these developers have been able to get in contact with the fans, even before the designing stage of their game. Ten years ago, trying to reach out directly to the fans would have been a crazy bet. Now, it’s becoming more and more viable, and some of the successful games of this decade are here to prove it. Is everything blue in the sky? And is this the best way to go now when creating a game? That’s a story for another column of New Trends in Game Development.
Are you confident in the potential of crowdfunding? Do you plan on one day pledging for a crowdfunded game? Let’s discuss in the comment section down below!