Fig is a new crowdfunding site from the heads of Double Fine, Obsidian, and inXile
There's a new crowdfunding game in town and it's one dedicated solely to gaming. Fig is a new crowdfunding venture from the heads of Double Find, Obsidian Entertainment, and inXile Entertainment and they have their first project ready to be funded in the form of IGF Grand Prize winner Outer Wilds.
Crowdfunding has been a major trend in video games over the past several years. It has yielded positive results, some less-than-stellar stories, and even some major industry-changers. But crowdfunding is not perfect, especially when it comes to video games. That's why some industry veterans are coming together to help make the crowdfunding space in video games a little better by launching a new platform called Fig.
Fig focuses solely on video games, offering new reward-based crowdfunding avenues. Funded by venture capital firm Spark Capital, Fig is seeking to create a more curated experience for both well-known indies and burgeoning indie development teams. In addition to helping fund projects, Fig will seek to help development teams over the entire life cycle of their game. In addition to that, accredited investors can also engage in investment crowdfunding, allowing them to see a potential return. Fig is hopeful to open similar investment opportunities to all users in the future.
The company will be run by CEO (as well as former Double Fine COO) Justin Bailey. The Fig advisory board will be comprised of Tim Schafer (Double Fine), Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian Entertainment), and Brian Fargo (inXile Entertainment).
Fig's first official project will be Outer Wilds, winner of the 2015 Independent Games Festival Grand Prize. The project will look to be fleshed out by Mobius Digital (Heroes star Masi Oka's development studio) and is seeking $125,000 in startup money. The original trailer from 2013 can be found below.
For more information, visit the official Fig website.
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replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Fig is a new crowdfunding site from the heads of Double Fine, Obsidian, and inXile
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Interesting, I hope it goes well for them.
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They're going to kill the last middleman in crowdfunding. Shrewd move on their part. I think it'll take just one "big" game to go on fig to make it a thing. I have backed all of In-exile's projects in the past, so the platform is irrelevant to me as long as it works and is secure.
I think on a long enough timeline, seeing that delta between what the backers were giving you and what kickstarter was charging would force your hand. -
And their first game is by a company whose president is Hiro from Heroes:
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/outer-wilds-
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So, a kind of hybrid between pure crowdfunding, ala Kickstarter, and publisher/investor style.
I can see there being a market for that for some projects, but I don't think this will kill kickstarter for smaller unknown groups at least. It's the 'curated' angle that'll define things. And, the investor thing... idk. that kinda feels like a backdoor to possibly snub gamers if funding goes beyond expectations. -
Woah wait.. This is bigger than a crowdfunding site. They want to open up SHARING PROFITS.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/new-crowdfunding-site-lets-backers-share-in-eventual-game-profits/
This is going to get nuts.-
Interesting indeed...
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Although it doesn't let just anyone to invest in the game but this could be good for bringing more people into crowdfunding
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Agreed, my bet is there would be a minimum investment in the multi-thousand dollar range for a percentage of profits, but it is a really cool feature.
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As mentioned, that's the eventual goal, but it's not starting out that way just yet.
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No, they never did that.
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Yup, then they used the proceeds to finish part 2. I still have to play that some day.
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I don't believe that ever went through crowdfunding just Steam Early access.
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Spacebase was a different story though. Their concept was to try to continuously develop the game only based on the raised funds. This instead of making the game on the final funding amount. So, the campaign was meant to 100% fund the game as far as it could.
The problem was that it didn't work. The game lacked so many features that it couldn't draw in enough paid customers to sustain the development to get everything completed. They made the decision in a seemingly hasty way; probably after the accountant did a quarterly review and the forecast was grim. So, the wrapped up what features were nearly done, called it 1.0 and said they were stopping development.
We didn't get the full final game that was talked about. There was still good parts to the game, but you can tell features were designed with other future features in mind. So, it does feel incomplete in some areas. Shame too, because the ideas they talked about were pretty good.
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Their broken age game wasn't what people were backing. We got a "full game" but its amazing that little bit of game cost that much.
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See this is why people like myself, admittedly a low information person on this subject, have a vague feeling that Double Fine did some shady shit.
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Double Fine is fine, but I'm not sure they're very efficient developers, at least as far as budget goes. Inafune on the other hand...
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