Survey: Crowdfunding a Virtual Boy game

Mar 13, 2015 • 11:24

After the interesting details of how Hyper Fighting was funded came to light, numerous people have expressed their interest in crowdfunding another commercial-quality homebrew title.

In this thread, I would like to test grounds and get an idea to what extend you guys would be willing to support a game project. Please use the poll to give everybody a rough idea what kind of financial funds could be raised and don’t hesitate to also post your personal take on the subject. 🙂

Let’s assume the hypothetical situation that two or three developers and designers team up in order to create a new Virtual Boy game like this action platform game I mockup up here: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=31595#forumpost31595

In order to quit day jobs to work on this project full-time, these people would need a budget of at least $50,000 and start a Kickstarter campaign after creating an impressive initial prototype.

Would you pledge and how much?

Assume that the high tiers would allow you to get personal things placed in the game, like a grafitti message, log entry, a background object you designed or something like that, while the limited 10,000 tier would essentially make you a co-producer, getting regular builds of the game, being in touch with the team all the time and having a voice in game design direction.

Also please note that none of the tiers would include a physical copy of game, but a limited complete-in-box release might happen later and backers would be first in line for it.

This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by KR155E.

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Viewing 20 replies - 1 through 20 (of 30 total)

30 Replies

Mar 13, 2015 • 12:10

TheForce81

It sounds like a great idea, though $50k is a lot of money to raise, but if 500 members here would be willing to spend $100 on it, the goal will already be met.

I am willing to pledge for $100,- to it, with a but, it needs to be a game that would be interesting to me and the idea in that mock-up thread does interest me so 😉

Mar 13, 2015 • 15:01

DogP

It would depend on the game, but if it was a game that interested me, I could see throwing $100 in. Of course I’d pay more to get a CIB game.

DogP

Mar 13, 2015 • 15:06

retronintendonerd

Like everyone before me has stated, it depends on the game and how interesting I find it. I would still donate if it was something I wasn’t too interested in since I love the console and community. I would try to donate $100 but my budget might be tight so at least I would do $50.

Mar 13, 2015 • 17:33

thunderstruck

It depends on who the developers are and what skills they have. I think it takes more then just programming skills to pull something like this off. The exclusion of the physical release is a good idea.

I think I would be willing to pay something between $100 and $500. As I said, it depends allot on the team, the actual development plan, the game and many other things.

$50,000 sounds like 3 people 3 month?

Mar 13, 2015 • 18:41

Lester Knight

i feel that it is way to early for a number like 50K to be raised. after VR takes off and we see virtual boy emulators ported to a variety of systems then perhaps their would be enough interest. i pledge to back indy titles often and it is the obscure projects which tend to fail more often. what is more obscure than the VB? a possible project could raise interest in the news based on this obscurity, but i feel that most backers would opt for a digital release (ROM $5-15) over a physical (CIB $50-100).

i feel that such a project would need to do something not previously accomplished on the VB to generate enough interest. it may also require backing from a publisher to help generate proper interest. there is also the CIB problem to combat. if 3,000 people opted for a CIB release, would donor carts be used? this just doesn’t seem feasible to me. especially considering that this 1st crowd-funding campaign would need to be planned perfectly as it may set the way for all future commercial quality VB homebrew releases.

if a physical copy was not included in any tier than the digital release would need to be FB+ compatible or i would not even consider backing it.

Mar 13, 2015 • 20:32

speedyink

I’d pledge anywhere from $50-100, depending on how interested I am in the game, if the rom was released to at least the backers, and if there was some sort of perk for bumping up my number (the graffiti idea is cool)

Mar 13, 2015 • 21:22

HoMenace

I would be willing to pledge up to $500 ($10k+ in installments for a Chrono Trigger game 😉 ). That being said, it would have to include a CIB copy. Anything under it would have to include a rom that is Flashboy + compatible. As someone who has backed many crowdfunded projects, I feel it is absolutely necessary to include either a digital or physical copy with any tier $50 and over. Otherwise this would basicly be a donation and I dont see large enough funds being generated to make this happen.

I agree that the 50k goal you mentioned is very reasonable for the coder(s) but I don’t think our community is large enough to raise that kind of money. I’m just guessing but I’d say we have about 30 regular basis users? Even if we doubled that, each person would have to contribute $833.33 to reach that goal.

Its sad as I would love to see this happen but if those are the kind of funds needed, than I honestly can’t see it coming to fruition.

Mar 14, 2015 • 00:34

VBrulez

I’d definitely support any crowdfunded VB game. A CIB or cart option would be nice, but a Flashboy compatible ROM would be fine too.

Mar 14, 2015 • 01:18

irving

I would love to see a Starfox-like or F-Zero-like game on the VB, but really, anything new for the Virtual Boy would be welcome!

If there were any sort of physical tier (even just a boxless cart), I would definitely go for that one (Kickstarter campaigns do sometimes have “stretch goals”, so maybe something like this wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of possibility).

Mar 14, 2015 • 02:57

Johnny365

I would do up to $100. Sure, the fanbase seems small on this website, but getting the word out on other websites and perhaps a kickstarter will get others notified ahead of time.

Mar 14, 2015 • 04:20

DogP

Just out of curiosity… are there any developers out there that’d even consider this? $50K is a lot of money for a small group to raise (I doubt we could find 50 people to give $1000, or 100 to give $500, or any combination to add up to $50K), but assuming that we could do it… that’s not much to live off of, assuming that there’s more than one person involved in this.

I mean… maybe some of you hate your job, are currently between jobs, still in college, or just so well off that you don’t need your job… but I can’t imagine even considering leaving my job to do this. It’d be a fun and interesting experience for sure, but surely there are MUCH better ways to make a living.

DogP

Mar 14, 2015 • 09:10

Alfissta

I am willing to pledge up to $150 ( CIB or cart option only )

Mar 16, 2015 • 11:30

KR155E

$50,000 is a hefty sum and most likely way beyond what this small community would be able to raise. Unfortunately, it would be the absolute minimum for a team of two to work on a game for a whole year instead of doing another job. One year would not even be enough for more complex games like a MetroidVania, with all those assets to produce and the careful planning that’d be necessary.

Choosing a game type with a smaller scope would be wise for a first campaign, it seems.

Lester Knight wrote:
if a physical copy was not included in any tier than the digital release would need to be FB+ compatible or i would not even consider backing it.

true

HoMenace wrote:
I feel it is absolutely necessary to include either a digital or physical copy with any tier $50 and over. Otherwise this would basicly be a donation and I dont see large enough funds being generated to make this happen.

I think that’s what everybody’s understanding of a fundraising campaign should be, though. It’s not online shopping. Instead we’d donate to a development team to allow them to bless us all with another great homebrew title in the future.

DogP wrote:
Just out of curiosity… are there any developers out there that’d even consider this? $50K is a lot of money for a small group to raise (I doubt we could find 50 people to give $1000, or 100 to give $500, or any combination to add up to $50K), but assuming that we could do it… that’s not much to live off of, assuming that there’s more than one person involved in this.

I mean… maybe some of you hate your job, are currently between jobs, still in college, or just so well off that you don’t need your job… but I can’t imagine even considering leaving my job to do this. It’d be a fun and interesting experience for sure, but surely there are MUCH better ways to make a living.

Another possibility would be freelance developers who could just see this as a regular job. A badly paid, but very exciting one. 🙂

For my part, I am permantly employed as a web developer and it’s not like I hate my job or not earning enough. But working full time on a Virtual Boy game with other skilled developers sounds way too good to me to not consider doing it, as long as I’d be able to pay the bills for another year or two while doing so. The freedom to put my heart and soul into my own project, working when I want to, while being surrounded only by people I like, means that much to me, that I’d have no problem with earning much less than I could.

Mar 16, 2015 • 12:47

Super Bros.

50k is just not a possible number because of the community being so small. Virtual Boy is more of a curiosity then a serious gaming machine, even I’ll admit that reality. I only own one because I wanted one so bad as a kid. Unfortunately now I find it awkward to play (I don’t like leaning into it or really balancing it on my face while I’m laying down: I really wish it had come with a head strap!) and barely play it other then when someone notices my display in my room then pull it out to demonstrate the raw power!

Also this goal won’t place a cartridge in anyone’s hands, this would simply pay to get the game developed. We would still need to fork out the $80+ for a cartridge later, and that lowers the incentive even more.

Mar 16, 2015 • 17:48

Johnny365

That’s why it needs Kickstarter to get the word out.

Mar 16, 2015 • 18:32

HoMenace

Johnny365 wrote:
That’s why it needs Kickstarter to get the word out.

I’m pretty confident that atleast 80% of the people that even care about the VB are already members here and that no matter how much of an audience we can reach, the demand just won’t be there.

Mar 16, 2015 • 21:20

Lester Knight

Johnny365 wrote:
That’s why it needs Kickstarter to get the word out.

with kickstarter, popular campaigns and staff picks will make it to their front page. other than that they aren’t in the business of advertising your campaign for you. having an active campaign running on kickstarter does not equal success. i am sure that the curiosity and obscurity factors would help get such a campaign into the reto/video game news. however, i fear those same factors will result only in comments about either how great this is or how dumb this is, and not actual pledges.

what might work would be to start a campaign to raise funds to “help finish the game”. in reality those funds would go towards filling pledge rewards and manufacturing an actual CIB cart. this would mean that a talented team would need to develop the game on their own, in their own free time, with their own money and resources.

trying to give up your job for a year to develop a game for a console as obscure as the VB just doesn’t seem possible.

Mar 22, 2015 • 23:49

Arvester

I’d pledge up to 50$ for a Flashboy+ compatible ROM, and up to 100$ to a CIB game.

I really don’t have lots of money, and this would be a big effort for me, but I would support a new professional-grade game as much as I can !

Mar 23, 2015 • 10:12

marioweezer

Similar to many other people I’d be willing to throw in around $100 depending on the type of game. From what I’ve seen in my limited time with the VB there are quite a few genres not covered by the system and it’d be great to see things like Metroidvania / Mega Man style games, driving games, RPGs, etc, to show what the VB is really capable of.

Mar 23, 2015 • 14:49

TheTeaGuy

It sounds like a great idea, though $50,000 be quite the pile of money, imagine all the Rum we could buy with that…I’m sure our community would back it to the hills (I would, $100 would be straight in on my part) however I think we’d struggle to find backers out of our site, I could be wrong but…The more I look at the $50,000 dollars, and think ‘virtual boy’ at the same time, I see a smaller and smaller chance of gaining backers who simply pass it on kickstarter.

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Survey: Crowdfunding a Virtual Boy game