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[Erabos]

Looking forward to making YouTube content on this game or might even try streaming it upon release.

[io3 creations]

Congrats on the 95% Yes! 

So ... what is exactly Square Enix's role?  It seems like they help you with visibility but overall, are they essentially a publisher?  i.e. do you have to sign contract if or some kind of agreement if you wish to go with them?


(slightly off topic)
Of course we all know what SqEX is about!    

[Erabos]

So ... what is exactly Square Enix's role?  It seems like they help you with visibility but overall, are they essentially a publisher?  i.e. do you have to sign contract if or some kind of agreement if you wish to go with them?

They say they're willing to give their support to the Kickstarter or Indigogo campaign when it goes live and if there is enough positive feedback.

Each game’s campaign ends after 28 days, and if the response is strong, we may lend our support as well when it lands on Indiegogo or Kickstarter.

[io3 creations]

Yes, I've seen that.  But what is their role afterwards?  Are they just a charity the help with exposure or ultimately run a business (e.g. as a publisher)? 

A quick web search shows a few games that are going to be published by Square Enix, so I'm guessing that's what they are really after at the end of the day.  That probably only happens if they're also interested in the game.  But then, it'd be at least it's beneficial for everybody.

The main question I have is though, is it implied somewhere that they expect something in return?  What if they help with fundraising and would like to publish your game ... but you prefer to self publish?  Probably the SQEX terms explain that so instead of me spending a lot of time on finding that info, hopefully Moonlighter's devs can answer that question.

[zed]

TLDR: The feedback phase is free. They ask 5% from a successful crowdfunding campaign, and 10% revenue share if they publish your game. Both are optional.


http://collective.square-enix.com/about

"And then it’s into the Funding phase, when we’ll continue to help drive awareness of your campaign as a ‘Square Enix Approved’ project. At the end of the campaign, if you hit or exceed your initial funding target, we’ll ask for 5% of the net funds raised (ie, the amount you receive from Indiegogo or Kickstarter after fees are deducted). This isn’t because we’re trying to use crowdfunding to make money, but it does help us to cover our costs and keep the initial Feedback phase free for everybody. If you don’t hit your target, no fee is payable.

If you’re successful, we may also offer to help distribute your game, which involves getting your game onto PC digital platforms, helping with QA and managing the sales administration. This is in return for 10% of revenue, net of taxes and digital platform fees."

[io3 creations]

TLDR: The feedback phase is free. They ask 5% from a successful crowdfunding campaign, and 10% revenue share if they publish your game. Both are optional.


http://collective.square-enix.com/about

"And then it’s into the Funding phase, when we’ll continue to help drive awareness of your campaign as a ‘Square Enix Approved’ project. At the end of the campaign, if you hit or exceed your initial funding target, we’ll ask for 5% of the net funds raised (ie, the amount you receive from Indiegogo or Kickstarter after fees are deducted). This isn’t because we’re trying to use crowdfunding to make money, but it does help us to cover our costs and keep the initial Feedback phase free for everybody. If you don’t hit your target, no fee is payable.

If you’re successful, we may also offer to help distribute your game, which involves getting your game onto PC digital platforms, helping with QA and managing the sales administration. This is in return for 10% of revenue, net of taxes and digital platform fees."

Thanks zed!  That's exactly what I was looking for.

[DigitalSun]

Congratulations! Amazing to see you getting some love from PC Gamer and Kotaku too 

Thank you

Hope everything is going well with your KS campaign! By the way, I saw few days ago that you know ludipe. He's an interesting person, with super GameJam skills. I know him too, from some events 

[DigitalSun]

Looking forward to making YouTube content on this game or might even try streaming it upon release.

Hahaha! Don't worry, as soon as we start the press phase (provably before or during crowdfunding) we will share at least a presskit, and provably something playable, with you and other people interested   

[flipswitchx]

Awesome.

[DigitalSun]

TLDR: The feedback phase is free. They ask 5% from a successful crowdfunding campaign, and 10% revenue share if they publish your game. Both are optional.

http://collective.square-enix.com/about

"And then it’s into the Funding phase, when we’ll continue to help drive awareness of your campaign as a ‘Square Enix Approved’ project. At the end of the campaign, if you hit or exceed your initial funding target, we’ll ask for 5% of the net funds raised (ie, the amount you receive from Indiegogo or Kickstarter after fees are deducted). This isn’t because we’re trying to use crowdfunding to make money, but it does help us to cover our costs and keep the initial Feedback phase free for everybody. If you don’t hit your target, no fee is payable.

If you’re successful, we may also offer to help distribute your game, which involves getting your game onto PC digital platforms, helping with QA and managing the sales administration. This is in return for 10% of revenue, net of taxes and digital platform fees."

Thanks zed!  That's exactly what I was looking for.

Hi there. Sorry for the delay, we've been super busy.

Well.. As zed said, those are the regular conditions. It goes step by step:

First of all, you can submit your game at SQEX Collective, usually one time a month. Of all the games submitted, only one goes to feedback phase on Collective.

After Collective and depending on your results (number of votes, implication, and provably others) during feedback phase, Square can offer you to help during a future crowdfunding campaign. As zed said, they use to take a 5% of the final amount achieved during the campaign.

Besides all the crowdfunding thing, SQEX is also indie publisher as SQEX Collective. They have several models of publishing, and as any other publisher, you can discuss an agreement. As publishers, they can help with PR & marketing and also could help with funding.

And... More or less that's all.

Of course, if you want to know more I believe that they will answer you anything. Collective's team is not very large, and on our experience, they want to work with good indie teams.

Hope this helps. If you have any other question, you know where to find us! 

[DigitalSun]

Awesome.

Thank you! 

[io3 creations]

Hi there. Sorry for the delay, we've been super busy.

Well.. As zed said, those are the regular conditions. It goes step by step:

First of all, you can submit your game at SQEX Collective, usually one time a month. Of all the games submitted, only one goes to feedback phase on Collective.

After Collective and depending on your results (number of votes, implication, and provably others) during feedback phase, Square can offer you to help during a future crowdfunding campaign. As zed said, they use to take a 5% of the final amount achieved during the campaign.

Besides all the crowdfunding thing, SQEX is also indie publisher as SQEX Collective. They have several models of publishing, and as any other publisher, you can discuss an agreement. As publishers, they can help with PR & marketing and also could help with funding.

And... More or less that's all.

Of course, if you want to know more I believe that they will answer you anything. Collective's team is not very large, and on our experience, they want to work with good indie teams.

Hope this helps. If you have any other question, you know where to find us! 

An answer within 24 hours (especially when considering various time zones all over the world) is not what I'd call a delay.

Thank you for your answer.  After zed's and your post, I decided to look more into it.  I really like the part where you can keep your IP.   On the about page it said:
"If you’re successful, we may also offer to help distribute your game, which involves getting your game onto PC digital platforms, helping with QA and managing the sales administration. This is in return for 10% of revenue, net of taxes and digital platform fees."
I only heard a few numbers here and there but that sounds quite good.  Have you heard of other publishers' numbers (in general)?

Also:
"the Submission must refer to a concept for the development of a game for replay either on PC Windows format for digital download distribution, digital console (eg XBLA or PSN) or mobile, although Projects do not need to be created exclusively for those formats;"
Sounds like they can help with other platforms (at least digitally downloadable versions) as well.

Overall, sounds interesting.  You mentioned they have several models of publishing.  What if you don't need help with the funding aspect but would be interested in help with the others?  Do you know if they have that kind of publishing model?

[DigitalSun]

I only heard a few numbers here and there but that sounds quite good.  Have you heard of other publishers' numbers (in general)?
(...)
Overall, sounds interesting.  You mentioned they have several models of publishing.  What if you don't need help with the funding aspect but would be interested in help with the others?  Do you know if they have that kind of publishing model?

Well... yes. We're looking for a partner/ publisher that helps us with PR & Mkt. For now it's not clear, but Square is a very nice option. Of course, we have talked with several publishers, and depending on the publisher, what you need and a lot of other variables (it's a negotiation like any other) they will make an offer. It is super variable, but usually, the  more the publisher is involved in the project (investment, services, brand...) the more revenues they will want to take. It's easy to understand, because they are investing more resources to the project and taking more risks.

About SQEX as publisher, of course they can be publishers without being also investors. It all depends on what you need, and what can they offer for your project. On our experience, the Collective team are really nice people.

"the Submission must refer to a concept for the development of a game for replay either on PC Windows format for digital download distribution, digital console (eg XBLA or PSN) or mobile, although Projects do not need to be created exclusively for those formats;"
Sounds like they can help with other platforms (at least digitally downloadable versions) as well.

Sounds like that, yes... We're pretty new to all the "digital console" thing. That's another reason for finding a publisher. 

Hope that helps!

[io3 creations]

Thank you for answering my questions and confirming my assumptions.  I'll definitely keep them in mind! 

[DigitalSun]

Thank you for answering my questions and confirming my assumptions.  I'll definitely keep them in mind! 

You're welcome! 

[DigitalSun]

#8 Looking for a music composer and/or sound designer!

Hi there!

We're finally back after Moonlighter's Collective campaign, and more busy than ever! At this moment we are planning our next steps on our way on making Moonlighter an amazing and successful game.

We think that it finally is the moment to find a good Game Music Composer and/or Game Sound Designer! Let's make Moonlighter sound amazing! 

Please, if you are interested, contact us at our mail: [email protected]

[elisof]

Ah awesome! I was wondering whether you'd already approached somebody for those. I'll definitely send something over soon, from what I've been reading and keeping updated on this is still very much up my way, haha.
And belated congrats for the 95% on the Collective! Extremely deserving and great to see that lots of people are interested in the game 

[TonyManfredonia]

Congratulations, once again, on making history ! It's so fascinating to see how the Square Enix Collective will contribute to Moonlighter, truly, and I anticipate all of the steps they will take to assist you.

Regarding your call for music / sound, I just sent you an email. It's an exhilarating time for Moonlighter, and I hope to speak to you soon amidst all the excitement!

[bbtombo]

Hey! Just wanted to post to make sure I'm following this )

I can tell you probably have gotten a lot of emails today about the game audio, but I hope you get a chance to read through mine! We're all super excited about Moonlighter with you.

[ashtonmorris]

Wow  Congratulations on your historic Square Enix Collective score. ╭( ･ㅂ･)و   I am happy to see that things are going well and that you're getting such positive attention!