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[BrixxieBee]

EDIT: New Video:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/YDpap3vddwo


Like classic video games? So do we. Want to help starving indie game developers get the resources they need to complete their classic-style video game? We want you to too!

Not to beat a dead horse, but we need funding for our freeware game. The art style we want to achieve is costly. You'd think 16-bit style graphics wouldn't be hard, but we'll need to pay someone to get the results we want. And, if you help us out there's cool things in store for you too (but you'll have to check the page out for that). Any amount will help really, and if you want to contribute we'll be very grateful. The project has been going great, but my programmers art won't cut it. So, as we develop the game and continue to put in my programmers art, we'll slowly begin to start replacing it with nice, fancy graphics if we get the funding we desire, and I think we all win (in my world anyway).


Technical stuff
Moldering is big and ambitious, and we can handle everything but the graphics. We have hours of game-play mapped out in story-boards and the engine is extremely solid, efficient and is pixel perfect where it counts. We've finished the game engine, the level editor, and all the other tools we need to finish this, and have already started development of the content. All we need now is art, and it's a large project with lots of different locales. $6,500 will fund about 400 hours of artwork at a meager price, and will retroactively give back to those who have volunteered their free time in the past to contributing art and music.


When we can afford it, I know each team member has contributed to other indie game developers with money and resources that I know helps. We're hoping others will afford us the same luxury.

Anyway, thanks for at least taking a look.
We hope to see you in the credits!

James


Link:
http://www.8bitfunding.com/project_details.php?p_id=85

About Moldering:
http://devblog.projectmoldering.com/post/145726658/about-moldering

[valis]

When we can afford it, I know each team member has contributed to other indie game developers with money and resources that I know helps. We're hoping others will afford us the same luxury.

Why did you not just save your own money and fund it yourself?

Don't know what I think about this whole trend of donation begging.  Or, actually, that's not true.  I do know what I think about it.  6 grand is not that much dough.  Rather than beg, just save and then pool your resources.  Since it doesn't need to be made all at once, and in fact can't be made all at once unless you hire 20 artists, the amount you're talking about, spread over several months, is in fact trivial.

Indie gaming is fast becoming the Craigslist Free Section of the entertainment industry.  If you can't afford it, scale down your expectations before expecting other people to fund your dabbling.

[Booger]

Interesting, since I'm currently working on a single-player isometric RPG and have allocated $7000 worth of savings to be spread over the course of the year (so far, 5 months and $2000 worth of art expenditure has passed).  I was debating with myself whether to join but figured there's nothing more respectable than shouldering this risk entirely on my own.

I am very curious about the generally accepted amounts of money people ask for certain projects, though.

At the very least, this is very different from Indiefund which targets $200,000 projects made by small studio teams. -- these are what you expect to be indie hits on consoles.

I'll be eyeing 8bitfunding for a while and see what comes of it.

(And I'm not a pure naysayer since I pitched in for 3 projects at the site).

I say get rid of the $500 projects.  Jeez, that's just one month rent.  $500 is a lot only to a highschooler.

[valis]

Amounts like these make me wonder what kind of person I'm funding.  I can think of numerous ways of pulling up 6000 in funding.  Tops on my list for handling that problem, though, would be doing something that didn't require 6 large worth of whatever, and then using that less ambitious project to fund something better.

Face it, if you can't think of a way to come up with 6 grand, you aren't resourceful enough to be developing games anyway.  Gamedev is really attracting a very different crowd than it used to.

[Peevish]

As Paul pointed out in one of the other 8-Bit Funding announcements, if you're not interested in funding the project, why turn someone's announcement thread into a debate? Peoples' resources vary, $6000 or even $500 can be a lot of money depending on who you are and where you're living.

Best of luck to you, James!

[BrixxieBee]

They way I see it, this is just an outlet for people who are interested in helping support projects like this. There really wasn't one before for my project, but I have to put the word out somehow or else no one would know it's there. As much as I don't like doing it, it's a nice way to passively gain money while I'm in school. I can't work since I'm going to school full-time and I still want time to work on my game; completing this game is a dream of mine and if people do want to contribute at least they have a way to now. It may work out, it may not, and I don't mean to offend anyone by posting my project here, begging for money, but it would certainly help. I figured I could at least come up with some cool things to give back to people who contribute.

I guess we'll have to see how it goes. Like Valis said, 6 grand is not a whole lot, and if people chip in only a little bit here or there it does all add up. As far as funding it myself, I have been, but I have a very small income and I wouldn't be able to fund the entire thing myself.

[BrixxieBee]

We've received our first donation. Please keep them coming!

[Theon]

Uh. I'm afraid I have to agree with most other people here on tigsource; I find this unnecessary begging a bit repulsive.
I would be able to understand it if you somehow REQUIRED money to release something that is basically finished, without selling out to some big company, but this is not the case for the "games" on 8bitfunding. Most seem less ambitious than most of the free (and often open sourced) projects on this site.

If you had something to present, though, like a playable and constantly updated alpha/beta build I could understand that you'd start selling the product before it's finished (like Minecraft, Overgrowth, Miner Wars, Silas, Cortex Command, etc.), but begging for money to make a game almost from scratch..., that's just not very nice.

[Christian Knudsen]

So don't donate! I don't have a project on 8 Bit Funding, but I'm still getting really annoyed at these posts in each and every 8 Bit Funding thread. If you don't think the project is worth donating to, then don't donate! Other people may find it worth donating to (and obviously have), and they should be free to do so.

And did you even read the description for this project? They're not "begging for money to make a game almost from scratch", they've "finished the game engine, the level editor, and all the other tools we need to finish this, and have already started development of the content". They primarily need money for artwork.

[Fallsburg]

So don't donate! I don't have a project on 8 Bit Funding, but I'm still getting really annoyed at these posts in each and every 8 Bit Funding thread. If you don't think the project is worth donating to, then don't donate! Other people may find it worth donating to (and obviously have), and they should be free to do so.

And did you even read the description for this project? They're not "begging for money to make a game almost from scratch", they've "finished the game engine, the level editor, and all the other tools we need to finish this, and have already started development of the content". They primarily need money for artwork.

And I'm getting annoyed at THESE posts on each of the 8bitfunding pages.  Just as they don't have to donate, you don't have to bitch at everyone who professes a dislike for the begging for money.

[Christian Knudsen]

There's a very big difference between begging for money and asking for donations/preorders in order to make/finish your game. These aren't dirty bums standing by the side of the road with a sign begging for money. These are people passionate about game making, but lacking the funds to complete their games.

The concept of donations and preorders has existed for a very long time in the indie gaming world. For some strange reason people now feel that this concept is "repulsive" or "doesn't make sense" when presented through 8 Bit Funding.

If people want to complain about the concept of 8 Bit Funding, how about doing that in the thread dedicated to 8 Bit Funding itself instead of negatively polluting every thread where people are simply trying to spread the word about their projects?

[Chris Pavia]

If people want to complain about the concept of 8 Bit Funding, how about doing that in the thread dedicated to 8 Bit Funding itself instead of negatively polluting every thread where people are simply trying to spread the word about their projects?

Unfortunately arguing takes precedence over common courtesy on teh interwebs. Particularly when it's obvious that no one is willing to change their minds on anything

Good luck with your funding guys, I wish you the best!

[Fallsburg]

There's a very big difference between begging for money and asking for donations/preorders in order to make/finish your game. These aren't dirty bums standing by the side of the road with a sign begging for money. These are people passionate about game making, but lacking the funds to complete their games.

The concept of donations and preorders has existed for a very long time in the indie gaming world. For some strange reason people now feel that this concept is "repulsive" or "doesn't make sense" when presented through 8 Bit Funding.

If people want to complain about the concept of 8 Bit Funding, how about doing that in the thread dedicated to 8 Bit Funding itself instead of negatively polluting every thread where people are simply trying to spread the word about their projects?

Look, I never said it was wrong, I just think that promoting it here is at best misguided.  Like I said, I a lot of people here are scrounging money for their own projects, so a)to come here and request money (not demand, request) is tin-eared and b)they aren't going to find a lot of takers.
And while you might not like the connotation of the word begging, it is what they are doing.  To quote Wikipedia, "Begging is to request a donation in a supplicating manner."  Seems pretty apt to me.  I know that it isn't strictly a donation system as they are offering something in return, but they are still asking for donations.
I wish them success, I hope they make the game they want to make and it does well.  That doesn't mean that I fully support their use of 8bitfunding and their decision to broadcast it here.

I don't have any problem with 8bitfunding.  My biggest question is how successful it will be (it's also my biggest question with kickstarter).  One always hears about the success stories, but kickstarter likes to hush up their failure rate (which I imagine is disturbingly high). 

[valis]

The problem with this sort of system is that when everyone is using the system, it becomes no different from each person funding his own project-- in other words the financial power of the system becomes diluted.   

Don't listen to me, though-- do whatever, and like the guy said, I'm free to either read it or not.  I guess I'm just irritated by how pathetic the constant groveling is.

Revolutionary idea: if you can't fund it yourself, maybe you shouldn't do it.

[Oddball]

Revolutionary idea: if you can't fund it yourself, maybe you shouldn't do it.

That's an extremely defeatist attitude. I'm not making any comment on 8-bit funding, as I have no opinion on it yet, but just giving up because there are some obstacles in your way means you'll never get anything done. What if the technical side becomes to complex for you? would you just give up? Or would you learn the required skills to overcome it? What if you get designers block? Would you just give up? Or would you do something to help get those creative juices flowing? I see very little difference between these obstacles and the obstacle of lacking finances. If it's a lack of finances that's preventing your project from getting done then what's wrong with doing something to overcome that obstacle?

[valis]

Au contraire-- the defeatist attitude is the attitude that promotes begging.  My attitude promotes self-reliance.

Clue: game development is much harder than scraping together small sums of money.

If it's a lack of finances that's preventing your project from getting done then what's wrong with doing something to overcome that obstacle?

Like what, getting a job and saving your money?  Bearing your own risks rather than relying on the kindness of strangers to bear them for you?

[Oddball]

Like what, getting a job and saving your money? 

Yes, just like that. I'm not saying one method of overcome a lack of funding is any better than the other though, unlike you. BTW is game developer not a real job? You sound just like my father.

[Zaphos]

They way I see it, this is just an outlet for people who are interested in helping support projects like this.

8 bit funding is such an outlet.  The tigs announcement forum isn't really though -- or at least it hasn't been, and I would be sad to see it transformed in to that.

I don't think there's any mystery why people respond badly to threads started with basically no new content other than a request for money.  It's arguably spam ... and people have usually reacted negatively towards spammers in forums.  It's a sign people care about the forums.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

giving people things for preordering the game and other perks is different from begging; begging is when you get nothing in return

also in case anyone forgot, we're in a recession right now, with the highest rate of unemployment since the great depression. getting a job isn't a trivial thing; my mother and brother were both laid off and have been looking for jobs for over two years and have been unable to find anything except temp stuff, so saying 'just get a job' is insensitive considering the working conditions right now and how few positions are open

another consideration is that even if you have a job making a game requires non-trivial money, particularly if you're paying for art assets or development kits. braid and super meat boy for instance could not have been funded just based on normal jobs (braid cost 180,000$ to create, super meat boy almost that much).

[valis]

super meat boy almost that much

Any idea what the cost breakdown was for SMB?  That seems like an awful lot for a platformer with pseudo-pixelated graphics.

With Braid, and the fact that the backgrounds are done with oil paint or some such, it's a little bit different.  But even so... I'm questioning the idea of spending 180 large on such a thing.

Then there's Azteka or whatever the name is, where they spent some egregious sum of other peoples' money on 4 years of development, painted backgrounds and the rest of the yadda yadda.  Now they're being forced to do more begging post-facto in order to recoup the massive sum (> 200 grand) that they borrowed to fund the game.

In a way, the 'release game when I receive x amount' is a viable business model particularly in the age of widespread piracy.  Releasing the demo and telling people the full version will be released when you've made enough to live on... maybe not so bad when you think of it like that.