0:19
That's a really good question because the truth is,
you don't actually just have to bootstrap it, right.
There are ways that you can make money ahead of time.
So, one of the ways that you can fund game development is work for hire, right?
So you get contracted to make a game, right?
So you or your company, so the question becomes,
well, whose game are you making, right?
And are you really passionate about that person's game?
1:14
You're taking your hard earned money and investing it in learning something.
Well, you might take that money and invest it in making a game, right?
So, this is what a lot of people,
when they're talking about startups, are talking about when they say sweat equity.
So, you've heard that word before, right?
That you're putting in the labor and
the time and that's your investment in your company, in your game.
And really,
that's where a lot of games come from is some from sweat equity, right.
Some people will call this bootstrapping, all right,
where you're taking your money and you're investing it in a project.
And hopefully, you'll see a return on that later.
So we might refer to this as OPM, right.
And the idea is that you're going to trade equity, and
control of your company, of your game for money, right.
And so traditionally, this would be where you're going and talking to either
an investment firm, maybe an angel funder, or a venture capitalist.
2:11
And so the question becomes, like what are they in it for?
And the answer is they're looking for a return on their investment as well.
They're looking for money.
And the truth is, a lot of investors are pretty risk averse.
Right?
So this can be really difficult money to get.
Oftentimes, you've already had to bootstrap a company or
find other forms of money before you can even get here right?
The idea that an investor's just gonna come along and
can plunk a bunch of money down on a game is pretty slim.
We're also talking about, there are other opportunities here, right?
And so, often times people will talk about the three Fs,
right, the FFFs of funding, friends, family, and fools.
All right, so friends and family, you can ask them to help fund your game.
Say hey, I've got this great idea, I'm really working hard and sometimes,
that just comes in the form of living at home, not ideal.
Or asking a partner, say hey, I'd really like to do this creative thing,
I think there's a chance I can do it, I think I'm really good at it,
will you give me the time to do it, and let me do it.
Things like venture capitalists, I'm not calling any of those people fools,
but right?
There's a lot of risk that goes in this kind of thing.
So, another opportunity and actually this is one that I've made quite a bit of
use from, right, is that you can get funding from grants.
That there are agencies out there that will give money to make games.
3:35
So, for me, that money came from largely from the National Science Foundation,
National Institutes of Health and
they come in the form of what are called SBIR or STTR grants.
You can go google those if you want to but the reality is hey, they do fund games.
Other countries may actually have other funding formats as well.
Sometimes it's military, sometimes it's non profit ,maybe theyre are foundations.
There are actually foundations that fund very specifically, creative endeavors.
I don't know if you played it but the game Fez for
example, was funded by a Canadian grant.
Wasn't to say that it paid for the entire development, but
it certainly enabled that game to be made.
And so that's an important source of funding, right?
And so you'll see things that come out that are called call for proposals.
And you can put your proposal in there, right?
But writing grants is a very particular kind of skill.
And it's not all that much fun, I must say.
But hey gotta say, if somebody's giving you a lot of money to make your game,
of course you're gonna have to jump through some hoops to get it.
And the other piece of this is that oftentimes the game is just one part
of a large sort of research or outreach component so you end up partnering
with people and so it may or may not work for something you might be interested in.
You've got things like government seed money, right?
Some governments are interested in seeding money to help grow particular industries.
Some states will actually have incubator programs, right?
And some of those incubation programs may actually target specifically things like
entertainment technologies, some places will have what are called incentives or
incentive programs, right?
Tax breaks, tax credits.
You can look at the state of Georgia, for example.
The state of Michigan used to have them, right?
Lots of places do these kinds of things as a way to grow industry, to make jobs.
So, all right, that the reality is that you sort of need money to make money,
and that takes time, and it's either gonna be your money, or somebody elses.
So, another option, that's a relatively recent one,
would be something like Kickstarter, which is called crowd funding.
All right, so kick starting a project.
The nice thing about this is that hey, it's free money for
you to make your thing.
6:07
those crowd funding projects can be really difficult, unless of course you manage to
do something that sort of sets you apart and gets you to kind of go viral.
Right, that's the point of crowd funding is getting the one to five dollar
to $20 people to invest in your project.
So next I am going to talk about some more models because there are a lot.
I will see you on the next clip.
Casey O'DonnellAssociate Professor
