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[^DJ_Link^]

I don't know if this will work as well for just videogames, time will tell.
Will people be willing to give $20,000 to a project that might take ages to get finished or peter out like most amateur videogames projects do?
Is it USA only?

It's worldwide. My own project is there http://8bitfunding.com/project_details.php?p_id=64. Altough we are asking for 20k We are estimating 10 months of development, it's not a several years project.

[tametick]

I don't know if this will work as well for just videogames, time will tell.
Will people be willing to give $20,000 to a project that might take ages to get finished or peter out like most amateur videogames projects do?
Is it USA only?

It's worldwide. My own project is there http://8bitfunding.com/project_details.php?p_id=64. Altough we are asking for 20k We are estimating 10 months of development, it's not a several years project.

I'm in Europe as well (Austria) - that was obviously a pretty important reason for picking 8bf rather than kickstarter for my project.

[Dustin Smith]

to put it bluntly, i wouldn't spend a cent on anyone that hasn't already made a game i've enjoyed immensely. i'd throw money at jajitsu, for example, because jables's adventure was a great game with a lot of promise. random person off the internet? not so much.

[John Sandoval]

to put it bluntly, i wouldn't spend a cent on anyone that hasn't already made a game i've enjoyed immensely. i'd throw money at jajitsu, for example, because jables's adventure was a great game with a lot of promise. random person off the internet? not so much.

Pretty much, yeah. Unless the developer has already made something near and dear to me (Petri Purho and cactus are the only two that come to mind immediately), my money's just too dear for me to drop it into what could potentially be a never-ending hole.

[tametick]

Pretty much, yeah. Unless the developer has already made something near and dear to me (Petri Purho and cactus are the only two that come to mind immediately), my money's just too dear for me to drop it into what could potentially be a never-ending hole.

I think they are a lot less likely to actually need your money, given their renown.

[John Sandoval]

I was speaking in hypothetical terms, but you're right. Still, if the event ever occurred, I'd be there to support em. I've enjoyed far too much of their crap to do otherwise.


Good luck to all of those who've entered, though. 

[broadcastbrian2]

awesome

[ithamore]

I wish people would post more about who they are or give links to past projects they've completed. If I don't know who people are why should I give them money? I don't know if they've finished a game before, so can I trust them to finish one that's up for funding? A video is all well and good, but it doesn't show me that you can make games.

I agree.

I wish Gibson had gotten in touch with more developers to have more projects available at launch.

Like others have said, I like the international mindedness of it. I also like that they will be reviewing games before approving or denying their projects.

[dontkickpenguins]

Hold on, I'm confused. What do you need in order to qualify for this? Could anyone apply? Who checks that the games and/or perks really exist?

It seems like it would make sense for things like freeware PC indies moving on the Xbox Live or mobile development or something.

[Zaratustra]

with Zeboyd Games claiming it'd cost them $3000 to do the 2-3 day job of porting an XNA X360 game to XNA PC

Really? You think it takes three days to port a game over to keyboard input, test that it works just as well as the console, call publishers and distributors all over again, and redo the marketing?

[floatstarpx]

with Zeboyd Games claiming it'd cost them $3000 to do the 2-3 day job of porting an XNA X360 game to XNA PC

Really? You think it takes three days to port a game over to keyboard input, test that it works just as well as the console, call publishers and distributors all over again, and redo the marketing?

Yeah, he's exaggerating - but he's not massively off the mark there.. it's not a massive job - certainly not on par with developing a project from scratch, or even on par with porting from PC to iPhone, for example...
If you're developing for XBLIG, you'll more than likely be doing most of your debugging on a PC build any way.. that's how most people do it.

We developed EGV for PC and X360 alongside each other... so, we never had a "port" job at the end.. but if I look at the code differences between the two - it's around 200-300 "lines", if you can measure it as such (video mode/aspect ratio fix for PCs which may run at different resolutions, input handler slightly different, PC version has extra stuff for online awards - this is the bulk of it, stuff to load different tutorial text - "press space" rather than "press A").. it really is absolutely minimal, other than the 'extra features'. On the PC version we also load in a crude sketch of a cock - we had to censor it on XBLI.. the cock probably took us 2-3 days to crudely sketch. It's a fine art, y'know.

[Peevish]

To answer some questions people have asked:

The reason I put One-Eyed Monsters up on 8-Bit Funding even though I haven't got a completed game to show anyone (save a little Mini Ludum Dare entry) was just a matter of timing. 8-Bit Funding was going to go live and I figured it would never have more attention than when it was brand new. I asked Geoff what he thought, and he said to leave it up to the public if I deserved money. It's why I'm making the smallest ask on the site.

I think it's valid to want to know if someone can finish a project, and if Kickstarter is any indication, people who've never finished anything before aren't as likely to get Kickstarted. I'd have preferred to have some small projects or at least released prototyped under my belt, but 8-Bit Funding was going live, so I took a chance. I've adjusted my expectations accordingly.

As for how it's screened, every time a new project is submitted or an existing project is edited, it goes through a review process. Here's what Geoff emailed me when I asked about it:

when you edit something we have to go back and activate it again. It’s a stupid failsafe right now to ensure somebody can’t create a project collect donations and then edit all their perks.

[Booger]

Geoff Gibson, can you set a minimum amount to at least $1K or $1.5K?  I see no reason why the $500 projects won't just swallow the risk themselves, unless they're a developer based in Bangladesh or some remote corner of Africa, maybe.

[Peevish]

$500 means different things to different people. Where I am in my life right now, $500 is a very large sum. For other people I know, it's a pittance.

[Netsu]

Where I live $500 means one person can work full time on the game for a month. That often makes a difference.