Studios who reckon they’ve got the chops to do something may well have their Indiegogo project embraced by Square, who would then partner with them to see it come to life.
The publisher won’t actually be backing the project financially but will offer their expertise in bringing the title to market, costs of development etc.
What Square Enix proposes is that developers use their Collective platform to submit ideas for projects, and if they seem popular enough then they’ll help the team plan it out financially. They then nudge them over to Indiegogo with a ‘better understanding’ of what they’re getting into.
”Each project pitch submitted goes through an evaluation phase to ensure ideas sit within the submission parameters, and if the community backs your ideas we’ll work with you on a due diligence process to give the community reassurance that you have the expertise and tools you need to create the game you’re planning to – plus we’ll use our experience of bringing games to market to help you work out how much you’ll need to raise to make it a reality,” says Square.
”Submitting a pitch is free, although you will need to accept some terms and conditions. Collective encourages an open development process, and as much transparency and communication with the community around decision-making during the development phase as possible.”
What do we - the community - get out of this?
”This is your chance to shape games development and champion ideas that you’d like to become reality. The rise of crowdfunding platforms have pushed the concept of gamer choice to a new level, and Collective allows you to use your voice – but with the reassurance that before a project goes through to the funding stage, it’ll be checked and helped by our team to confirm that the scope of the pitch is in line with the team’s ability and ambition to create, as well as utilising our experience of game production to attach realistic budgeting plans.”
So… it’s like a reality check? Well some projects could certainly do with some of that.
”When a pitch goes live, you’ll have 28 days to decide if you think it’ll make a good game, and get involved in the feedback process. Then, if that idea receives enough support, we’ll check it out – and if the team is good to go, we’ll open it up for crowdfunding via our partnership with Indiegogo – which is your chance to get in early and help to get the game you want to play into development.”
It’s an interesting premise, and if it helps indie teams come up with crazy new ideas that get exposure and some serious technical help then it can’t be anything but good. A lot of projects on Indiegogo and Kickstarter fail due to a lack of communication or buzz around them.
Check out Square Enix’s Collective initiative website for more.