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Independent game stars like World Of Goo's creators, Braid's Jonathan Blow and Flower's Kellee Santiago have revealed Indie Fund, an 'angel'-style funding source for indie game makers.

According to the Fund's official website, "Indie Fund is a brand new funding source for independent developers, created by a group of successful indies looking to encourage the next generation of game developers."

The Fund was established "as a serious alternative to the traditional publisher funding model", and its aim is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.

The current list of investors backing Indie Fund includes some of the most successful independent game creators of the last few years, as follows:

- Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler, 2D Boy (World of Goo)
- Jonathan Blow, Number None (Braid)
- Kellee Santiago, thatgamecompany (Flower)
- Nathan Vella, Capy (Critter Crunch)
- Matthew Wegner, Flashbang Studios (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari)
- Aaron Isaksen, AppAbove Games (Armadillo Gold Rush)

The Indie Fund has already backed unnamed independent game projects, and will be announcing the name of them soon. Additional details about the need for Indie Fund and the rationale behind it will be shared at next week's Game Developers Conference, at Ron Carmel's talk during the Independent Games Summit entitled 'Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System that Never Worked.'

Alongside the announcement, we caught up with Indie Fund spokesperson and World Of Goo co-creator Carmel to discuss the announcement and its ramifications:

There are certainly a number of methods out there for developers to get funding - from Kickstarter through publisher signings. Why set up this methodology - what is it bringing to the table?

Ron Carmel: Most developers today fund their games by bootstrapping or by signing a publishing deal. In many cases, those indies that sign a publishing deal don't really need a publisher; they just need funding and can easily handle everything else themselves. Indie Fund provides the funding, but without the overhead or the loss of freedom associated with a publishing deal.

Are you going to give people money and then have no input at all into how that game is designed and then distributed? Or will you work with them on their scheduling and their marketing to make sure that they're successful?

RC: Developers have full control over their design, IP, publishing rights, etc. We collectively have a lot of experience in making high quality profitable indie games, so we will give our (hopefully) valuable feedback and advice on both design and business. But in the end, it's up to the developer to make the final call on everything.

Will you be disclosing the size of the fund at any time? Do you have a fixed amount you will fill up or are contributors adding to the fund on a case by case basis?

Ron: Indie Fund is managed and fully funded by the seven of us. We put in enough money to fund a few games a year for two or three years. If things go well and it looks like the indie scene can take in a larger investment and put it to good use, we will raise another round, probably bringing in external investors as well.

Can developers apply to the fund now - or soon? If so, how?

Ron: Actual funding has already begun, and we're also at various stages of discussing funding with several indie teams. This all happened through word of mouth within the indie community, but we will soon have a more open process for developers to apply for funding. Since this is a new experience for all of us Indie Funders we're taking things one step at a time and making sure we don't get ahead of ourselves.

Why do you think that the concept of individual prestigious named angel investors hasn't really happened in video games in the same way it has in technology, until now?

2008 was a big year for indies with a number of commercially successful releases. There was Audiosurf, then Braid, Castle Crashers, and World of Goo. This set up the two things required to make Indie Fund happen.

First, it proved that an investment in indie games can be very profitable. Second, it allowed us to raise the money from within the indie community instead of having to seek outside investors. Now that we have a few years of indie developers who have successfully self published, we can help the next round of developers who need to get their games out in a much more competitive space.

What happens to profit if the game makes back its money? And what happens to the game's IP if it doesn't?

Once the investment amount is repaid into the fund, the developer shares revenue with Indie Fund for a limited time. If a game never gets released or doesn't earn back the investment amount, well, we kiss that money goodbye.

We're not interested in owning or managing IP and we don't want to manage any kind of debt collection. We hope that the games that do well will more than make up for those that don't. The long term plan is to publicly reveal the funding terms, but we want to make sure our approach actually works before we go there.

What's the end game for this fund - do you expect to be funding 3 games a year for ever, 5 games and then you're done, etc?

Ron: I'm really glad you asked that. The end game is actually not about how many projects we fund, it's about helping games develop as a medium of expression and keeping indie games viable now that the big publishers are investing heavily in downloadable games.

Hopefully we can help keep video games from suffering the same fate as television. Kellee gave a thought-provoking talk on this subject at TEDx last year. Indie Fund alone will not accomplish all these goals, but we hope it proves to be a big step in the right direction.

Independent game stars like World Of Goo's creators, Braid's Jonathan Blow and Flower's Kellee Santiago have revealed Indie Fund, an 'angel'-style funding source for indie game makers.

According to the Fund's official website, "Indie Fund is a brand new funding source for independent developers, created by a group of successful indies looking to encourage the next generation of game developers."

The Fund was established "as a serious alternative to the traditional publisher funding model", and its aim is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.

The current list of investors backing Indie Fund includes some of the most successful independent game creators of the last few years, as follows:

- Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler, 2D Boy (World of Goo)
- Jonathan Blow, Number None (Braid)
- Kellee Santiago, thatgamecompany (Flower)
- Nathan Vella, Capy (Critter Crunch)
- Matthew Wegner, Flashbang Studios (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari)
- Aaron Isaksen, AppAbove Games (Armadillo Gold Rush)

The Indie Fund has already backed unnamed independent game projects, and will be announcing the name of them soon. Additional details about the need for Indie Fund and the rationale behind it will be shared at next week's Game Developers Conference, at Ron Carmel's talk during the Independent Games Summit entitled 'Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System that Never Worked.'

Alongside the announcement, we caught up with Indie Fund spokesperson and World Of Goo co-creator Carmel to discuss the announcement and its ramifications: Continue reading

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's semi-regular link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

You will see an occasional GameSetLinks out of us, even with GDC coming up and schedule being all kinds of crazy, so here's the first one in a while, headed out with Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel on getting somewhere in the indie game business - fine advice indeed.

Also in here - some curious Harmonix music licenses, discussion of EmoGame, some totally retro demo-scene goodness, why Playfish did the right thing by partnering with IP powerhouse EA, and various other neat things besides.

Stop stop stop:

The Bottom Feeder: Three Tips For Getting Started In the Indie Gaming Biz
'Let me say something here, and I don't want to put too fine a point on it. You need sleep to live.'

...on pampers, programming & pitching manure: Playfish's Smart Move in the Facebook Gold Rush
Interesting analysis - suggesting 'outbranding' with EA brands will be Playfish's route to success: 'Another flavor of spending your way out of the clouds. Specifically, license IP/Brands, from games or elsewhere, can help your title stand out in a crowded space.'

Apocalypse POW!: Retro Flashback: EmoGame
'EmoGame and its sequels were particularly enjoyable and novel because not only were they clever and well-designed from a gaming perspective, but they were also predicated on a staunchly devoted and surprisingly well-informed knowledge of pop culture.'

Royalty Network Revealing New Harmonix Project? - bemanistyle.com
Very interesting, Harmonix requesting some hiphop and trance tracks? PLEASE let it be the return of Amplitude.

Sonnez Les Jeux Video: During which part of playing a video game does the actual "playing" occur?
'During which part of playing a video game does the actual "playing" occur? Unfortunately, the answer to this question, like the answer to too many other questions, is: It depends.'

8bit today: DATASTORM 2010 PRODUCTIONS
Talking of demo-scene, here's some awesome products of an oldskool party in Scandinavia, including a MP3 on the C64 (!).

San Diego Reader | Sweat Like a Rockstar
Local alt.weekly has a go at the Rockstar San Diego story. 'According to an employee who calls himself “Captain Anonymous,” it’s a workplace that might as well be in Pyongyang, North Korea; he told me, “Employees are being surveilled, and the last person to speak anonymously whose identity was presumed (not proven) was fired.''

[Continuing our 2009 retrospectives via Gamasutra, Christian Nutt examines the year's most notable game business trends, from the iPhone game gold rush through music games' decline to the rise of social network gaming. Previously: Top 5 iPhone games, Top 5 Controversies, Top 5 PC games.]

Every year, new trends arise, and business decisions are made. Some of these decisions set the trends; others reinforce or vainly attempt to catch them. What once seems to be certain becomes deeply difficult to understand -- and new ways of thinking arise.

Looking back, then, at 2009 reveals not just broad trends, but shifting, complicated and evolving situations that can't easily be boiled down.

As we review five of the biggest trends in the market for 2009 -- complicated by the economic cooldown and the explosion of platforms, audiences, and delivery mechanisms -- perhaps we can find patterns that help sort out the randomness of the sprawling world of video games:

5. The Day the Music Died

Music games were the savior of the industry in 2008. Plastic guitars flew off of shelves into the hands of eager gamers -- and unlike many fads in gaming, which come and go cyclically, this one made everybody happy. Who doesn't like to play Rock Band with friends?

Still, sales are down this year. Significantly. Activision says that's not true, or won't be, but it seems hard to believe. The range has expanded beyond Guitar Hero to encompass DJ Hero and Band Hero but sales of the latter have been tepid and DJ Hero just isn't making the right impression, nor is it selling particularly well.

And though The Beatles: Rock Band has done well, how much is it benefiting Viacom when it might not break even? And with ugly stories like the Scratch dust-up (Genius sues Activision), Band Hero shenanigans (No Doubt and Activision sue each other), and the sad and pathetic Kurt Cobain tale (Courtney Love sues Activision) the genre has lost some of its charm.

There may simply already be enough plastic guitars in this world.

4. The Rush of the Engines

This console cycle has been extremely challenging from a technological perspective. Many studios have come to rely on third party engine technology to deliver games to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The shining star of that space has, of course, been Unreal Engine 3. It is used extremely widely, generally well-regarded, and flexible enough for many implementations. But as technology has matured, other multiplatform engines have arisen. Some are internal (like Square Enix's Crystal Tools, which will make its public debut next week when Final Fantasy XIII ships in Japan.) But many are reaching wider than that.

Terminal Reality (Ghostbusters: The Video Game) has begun licensing its technology, the Infernal Engine to solid results. Vicious Cycle's Vicious Engine was reborn in a PS3/Xbox 360 incarnation this year.

Even Capcom may be getting in on the act, in a shocking turn for Japan, with its powerful MT Framework possibly being used externally. It drove Resident Evil 5, among other titles, so that's hard to argue with. Unity is expanding to service the Xbox 360. Ready At Dawn is moving into the space. And with other players like Emergent, Unity, Crytek, and Trinigy in the space, engine market is exploding.

This is great for developers -- viable choices and competition are great for everyone. And tearing down the technological barriers of development -- even a little -- will only benefit gamers as well, as more ideas can be brought to light faster (and at lower cost.) This is a vital trend, and if the current console cycle is as extended as some think, there is a potential for a real flowering built on the back of these technologies.

3. The Widening Net of Digital Distribution

The same day that EA announced that Playfish acquisition, the company also announced plans to lay off 1500 developers. Within days, Pandemic, fresh from shipping The Saboteur, had been closed, with around 200 losing their jobs at that studio alone.
That was no coincidence, says EA SVP and CFO Eric Brown. The market is shifting to direct digital distribution to customers -- and whether it's via Facebook, Steam, or the PlayStation Network (to name just a few possible outlets), it's becoming a focus of all major companies.

But 2009 does feel like the year it really arrived, in a sense. Sure, Steam has been around for several years. But it's become increasingly clear that shrewd marketing and competition from services like Direct2Drive and Impulse, as well as a highly savvy audience, is making digital the delivery mechanism of choice for PC gamers.

Xbox Live Arcade has around for some time, too -- but Shadow Complex broke records this year. It wasn't just for downloads; it was also that intangible relevance that Shadow Complex had to gamers. There was no question that everyone was playing it when it arrived. It simply was the game of the moment.

And, of course, though success has been limited at best, Sony released a direct-digital only device this year -- the PSP Go. Say what you will about the execution, but the system is an important marker: it's the first time a device in the console market has been purely digital, and following on from 2008's echochrome, it also marks the release of digital-only games (such as underground hit Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!) for a device that was intended to rely on proprietary discs upon its release.

Digital took a number of important steps this year. There is still much progress to be made. But in 2009, it shifted to a completely normal means of delivery for all gaming markets, and that makes it a watershed moment for the movement.

2. The Rise of Social Games

At the beginning of the year, many game developers, to speak broadly, were suspicious of Facebook games and running to the iPhone with arms open. Well, we know the difficulties that lie Apple-ward, and we are now duly shocked by the size of the opportunities that have appeared in the social gaming space.

The market grew beyond predictability. Zynga, its leader, is now flush with enough cash from successes like number one and number two games FarmVille and Cafe World to rent a huge "we're hiring!" billboard on the San Francisco Bay Area 101 freeway during a recession. The other major player is Playfish, whose Pet Society and other hits led to a massive acquisition by Electronic Arts. Big numbers: big possibilities.

Just like the iPhone, however, what it takes is talent and execution to break through -- a simple concept done right and tweaked obsessively. And with revenue possibilities that are tremendous, thanks to a huge audience -- over 350 million users on Facebook alone -- it's an alluring place.
Appealing enough to lure big traditional develpoment names like Brian Reynolds -- who went to Zynga not just for the cash, but the opportunity to serve such a huge audience and to rapidly iterate on games. Says Zynga VP Hugh de Loayza, "A standard console game developer, if he has a 30-year life cycle, he's going to get out maybe 15 titles, and that's it. You've got 15 shots to make your decisions correct." Facebook offers opportunity for quicker bursts of creativity and instant user feedback.

Of course, we can't ignore that the growing pains have lead to some unseemly situations where monetization is concerned (and let's not even go into the whole cloning issue, or the annoyingness of viral wall post spam.)

These difficulties just help highlight that it's a tough market to get right -- and with the rapid increase in sophistication and resources of the big players, it's getting tougher to break in. Still -- small, dedicated teams with the right ideas can hit the ground running. The rules are still being written. The opportunity is there to make your mark -- and your money.

And with so many developers laid off by EA and the various studios that closed in 2009, you have to just wonder if many will find their way into the world of social gaming. Even doubters may be forced, as demand shrinks for packaged triple-A goods, as the console download services, PC, and iPhone are glutted with choices, to confront the future of a large segment of games and gamers.

1. The Wicked Way of the iPhone

When the App Store launched in the back half of 2008, there was an instant gold rush mentality. Developers scrambled to deliver novel and exciting games and applications to a seductively large and savvy userbase. As the iPhone became the number one mobile phone in the U.S., dollar signs started appearing in more and more peoples' eyes. Lured by success stories like that of Steve Demeter of Trism fame, strong hardware capabilities, ease of development, and a receptive user base, development soared.

In November, Apple announced that the App Store had exceeded 100,000 applications, including over 18,000 games. There's a lot of competition out there -- a lot of noise, too; it's tough to stand out from the crowd. Suddenly a grassroots movement became acquainted with clones, and independent developers -- hoping for a more egalitarian platform -- were forced to learn the value of marketing.

And the phrase "race to the bottom" became an endless refrain at conferences like GDC Austin's iPhone Summit. Some developers, like Adam Saltsman (Canabalt) don't think it's necessary to rush to 99 cents -- something still hotly debated as of this writing. And with Apple adding in-app purchases for free titles, the landscape is even more complicated.

The trend is not that the iPhone is hot. That's last year's trend. The trend is not that the iPhone is a wasteland. That's clearly not true. The handset and its brother, the iPod Touch -- now supported by gamer-targeted marketing -- are still immensely popular, and despite tremendous piracy, there's money to be made from an audience that huge. The truth is that the iPhone is complicated. Creating a game that stands out, and is good enough, and simple enough, and engaging enough, and priced right, and people know about is a nail-bitingly tough thing to hit on.

The trend is: people woke up to both the possibilities and the challenges of the iPhone this year, and it's provoked some of the most interesting, exciting, and disheartening discussions of the year.

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

So, this set of GameSetLinks are actually a combination of about four weeks' worth, so don't be surprised if some of them are a little ancient - but I'm doing this at least partly because almost nobody else does, so hopefully, you haven't seen most of these linked elsewhere.

Some of the neatness includes a great Nintendo localization interview, Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel on DRM, the AV Club's excellent mini alt.game reviews, a good interview with Farbs on (the pictured) Captain Forever, and more besides.

Toot toot:

Action Button Dot Net reviews 'Reset'
Just wanted to point to because it's a neat indie game and a typically avant review, which I quite enjoy.

gedblog » Blog Archive » Losing iReligion
More iPhone Gold Rush participants washing against the rocks, I'm afraid. Interesting updates and comments discussion.

The Bottom Feeder: Some Kind Words About DRM. For Once.
An interesting perspective from Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel: 'I've tried to be ethical in all the ways I want as a consumer. The result? My games get pirated like crazy, and I have to charge a lot to stay in business.'

Braid » Blog Archive » Hiring another programmer.
Full-body motion tracking, eh? Natal-icious! (I guess it could be something else...)

1UP's RPG Blog : Mario & Luigi Interview: Bihldorff's Inside Story
Treehouse is hands down the most under-rated localizers around, because people conflate them with Nintendo's 'magic' somehow.

Kill Screen - A Thank You and an Apology » Updates — Kickstarter
Ah, so Jamin and Chris reveal the full list of KillScreen contributors - looks like a blast, folks.

Sawbuck Gamers, October 12, 2009 | Games | The A.V. Club
By far the most interesting mini-review section in games, thanks to impeccable picking of titles.

We Have a Winner! Captain Forever Creator Farbs Talks to DIY [Interview] | DIYgamer
A nice interview with IGF China winner Farbs about the extremely neat Captain Forever.

The end of another seven days, so it's time to go through the top full-length features of the past week on big sister site Gamasutra, plus some GameCareerGuide features du jour.

These would include some genuinely interesting interviews with Randy Pitchford (about Gearbox and Borderlands) and Rex Ishibashi (about his work heading up EA Japan), as well as pieces on Osiris and game design, the necessity to iterate in game creation, making games for Android, and several other neat GCG pieces.

Here we go:

EA Takes Japan: An Interview With Rex Ishibashi
"Publishing giant Electronic Arts is getting more aggressive in Japan once more, thanks to Eastern-targeted games such as Tsumuji, and Gamasutra speaks in-depth to EA Japan veteran and head Rex Ishibashi on the market and the company's plans there."

Making Better Games Through Iteration
"Though it may seem self-evident, rapid iteration is a great tool for creation small games, and Mobile Pie's Will Luton discusses how his team made iPhone title B-Boy Brawl iteratively, after initial failure through too much rigidity."

Sponsored Feature: Fluid Simulation for Video Games (Part 1)
"This sponsored feature, part of Intel's Visual Computing site and written by Dr. Michael J. Gourlay of the University of Central Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, begins a multi-part series that explains fluid dynamics and its simulation techniques."

The Birth of Collecting: The Osiris Archetype In Games
"Jason Johnson looks to the mythological Egyptian god Osiris to draw an inconspicuous parallel between the story of the supernatural being and the practice of collecting objects in video games."

Developing Games for Android
"Amid the iPhone game development gold rush, developer Derek James checks out the hooky, Java-based Android OS from Google, discussing advantages and disadvantages."

The Illusions We Make: Gearbox's Randy Pitchford
"Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford knows what he likes and what he does not. Here, the outspoken designer describes the studio's latest game, Borderlands, as the game he's 'been wanting to make for 10 years.'"

GCG: Educational Fantasy
"Lindsay Grace discusses the challenges facing educational game design, and how the practical matters of education intersect the enveloping fantasy we expect from games."

GCG: Postmortem - Lies and Seductions
"In this postmortem, Petri Lankoski discusses the making of Lies and Seductions, an adventure game inspired by the novel Dangerous Liaisons."