KickStarter Fig - a new equity-based crowdfunding platform - shut down, RIP

[Lord Romulus]

What's even going on with Psychonauts 2? That was announced in like 2015 and there still isn't even a release date yet.

 

[J_C]

What's even going on with Psychonauts 2? That was announced in like 2015 and there still isn't even a release date yet.

I was buying groceries in my favourite shop yesterday, and suddenly I noticed Tim Schafer at the counter. I was a bit nervous meeting him, but I thought what the hell, this is a now or never moment. So I said Hi to him. He looked surprised and greeted me with a confused Hello. Then I asked him about the state of Psychonauts 2, and questioned him about the lack of updates. He still looked confused, and while he was mumbling something about a vertical slice, and pre-alpha, he was constantly looking left and right, as if he was hoping somebody will save him from this conversation.

But I persisted, and pointed my finger to his chest. I said to him: Hey Tim, you better deliver Psychonauts 2, because I defended you on the RPG Codex, and I don't want to look a bigger fool than I'm already am. As soon as he heared the name RPG Codex, he turned pale, and started sweating like a big. He said nervously: haha, of course I will deliver, just tell your friends on the Codex that everything will be allright, I don't want to make them angry again.

With that, I let him on his way. But I noticed that he continued to look back over his shoulder until he left the grocery store.

Spoiler

LOL, I wanted to ask Tim about the updates on twitter, and I just realized that he muted me. XD I think he got butthurt when I called him out on some SJW shit earlier.

 

[Infinitron]

Indiegogo flexible funding rediscovered: https://gamedaily.biz/article/846/f...nded-funding-option-for-indie-game-developers

Fig announces new 'open-ended' funding option for indie game developers

CEO Justin Bailey talks about the benefits for developers, why Fig is implementing this change now, how it's going to work, and what it might mean for the future of crowdfunding and crowd-investing.

Crowdfunding and video games are often like peanut butter and caramel - it appears harmonious at first glance, but when you really look at it, it's often more of a mess than it's worth. Most Kickstarter games blow past their proposed delivery datesand many of them don't ship at all for a number of reasons, including scope creep, loss of talent, or mismanagement of funds.

Fig, which is a crowd-investing platform and publisher in its own right, operates a little differently. With their latest funding vehicle, Open Access, Fig is looking to rework how developers approach crowdfunding over the long-term, rather than being solely beholden to a 30-day campaign cycle where raising money ends as soon as that timeframe is up.

"For developers, this is a form of crowdfunding more along the lines of how games are developed," Bailey told GameDaily over email. "They get a chance to work on more of a milestone schedule and get feedback iteratively, and the community gets a chance to play early builds and be part of the development experience. Almost every time a Kickstarter fails to deliver, the first thing the community says is, 'just give us what you've got.' Now that's an integral part of the process that happens immediately."

Source: Fig

Open Access walks a similar path to "open beta" and "early access" games being released on platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store. (Even Fortnite Battle Royale is considered "early access.") It uses an "open-ended structure to test out game features through milestones, which are tied to content." Backers and investors are able to pay for these rewards and "receive immediate access to the latest build of the game," although games are being updated throughout the development cycle throughout Open Access campaigns.

Part of the reason why Kickstarter, IndieGogo, and yes, even Fig, have been a bit of a shot in the dark in the past is that the developer would only receive funds after a campaign was "successfully" funded. However, with Fig's Open Access, "all game sales … are transmitted immediately to the developer."

Although Fig's crowdfunding campaigns are some of the most successful in the game industry, Bailey admitted that the biggest problem isn't about Fig: "Crowdfunding for games isn’t growing."

Bailey clarified that Fig's ethos is built on filling in the "missing component" of crowdfunding: giving backers the option to have a financial stake in the games that they wanted to support.

"But that turned out to be only partially correct," Bailey continued. "Investment is a more of a multiplier, but in this case it's only as powerful as the foundation will allow. The traditional Kickstarter/IndieGoGo campaign format is that foundation, and it has turned out to be the limiting factor by putting developers on shaky ground, and setting up the community to be disenfranchised from the get-go. Developers must act like they know exactly what they require budget wise with little variance, and to know exactly how long it will take to develop a game. The reality is that game development is an inherently iterative process.

"On top of that, they must promise the world just to get to their goal, and if looks like they may fall short, they will sometimes give in to temptation and promise something extra to get themselves over the hump, but that something extra often only serves to increase already high development and budgetary risks."

There's no debate about the risks inherent in developing video games, whether that's on a AAA budget or a microstudio budget where all you do is eat ramen and code your game until what feels like the end of time. A big problem that many indie developers face is the lack of data in how other developers are solving similar problems. And, in the case of crowdfunding, there are a lot of unknowns that don't tend to be discussed. The most insidious of those problems is figuring out how to balance the community's need for transparency with the studio's need for creative control.

Bailey realized that, after gathering a bunch of data and running internal experiments, customer engagement isn't driven by campaign timelines or "meeting an arbitrary goal." In reality, consumers are looking to be reassured that the campaign isn't a lark and that they weren't bamboozled out of their money.

"They … just wanted the game they were backing to exist," Bailey explained. "And they expected transparency, which is vital to properly set expectations. We found out that the Kickstarter/IndieGoGo campaign format was handicapping developers. It’s best suited to drive buzz through press involvement, which it accomplishes because of all the potential beats - from announcing a campaign, to overfunding, to a campaign’s end. But the press has largely stopped viewing crowdfunding as news, based on reader feedback, and so developers and their communities are left with a format which has all the disadvantageous with none of the benefits.

"Prior to all the Kickstarter press coverage, there were games getting funded using a different form of crowdfunding, and one of them was Prison Architect, which actually raised millions more money than Shenmue 3 did in 2015, and that was arguably the height of crowdfunding on Kickstarter. So we’re looking further back to see what’s the best way to move forward, learning from the success of the past rather than from mistakes, and Open Access is the result of that exercise."

Spoiler

Source: Introversion Software

Open Access is not a complement to Steam's Early Access, however, and Fig doesn't want to be in that business anyway. Bailey is looking to create a different vehicle, something separate.

"The reality of Steam’s Early Access is that developers are basically launching their games, but in an alpha state, and doing so with next to nothing for promotion," Bailey said. "If that wasn’t enough, there’s actually the restriction on game developers that they cannot use Early Access for funding since it is expressly against Steam’s Terms of Service. One of our most successful titles, Kingdoms & Castles, decided to skip Early Access and provide their early builds exclusively through Fig. In doing so they raised more funds to polish the game and launched it feature complete on Steam - and they made millions."

Fig isn't built on altruism, though. No crowdfunding platform is. Providing a platform to raise money requires money and if crowdfunding isn't growing, then neither is Fig. If Fig isn't growing, then the platform has the potential to stagnate and close down altogether. Bailey and his team at Fig haven't been resting on their collective laurels while campaigns have failed. Instead, Fig has been tracking all of that data to better understand what happened during the campaign that failed to tip the game over the top and into "success."

With some of our failed campaigns we started to see signs that they were false negatives," Bailey noted. "For example, Starflight 3 was a campaign that was seeing 300% ROI on our marketing ads. It was clear that there was an underserved audience out there that wanted this game. Fig could have potentially spent that campaign to success, but if for some reason the marketing ROI dropped down before the campaign crossed its goal, Fig would be out all its marketing spend, which is not a sustainable business model.

"Taking this new format and applying it to Starflight 3, we could have continued to spend on marketing, reimbursed ourselves, and the fans would have at least seen an alpha version of the game - a desire that many expressed to us after that campaign ended."

What's more, if Fig notes that a campaign is really appealing to a notably underserved audience, there may be an opportunity to open up additional funding. Bailey added that it could be "just what [developers] need to become full commercial releases."

Open Access has launched with two preliminary studios and their games: Vagrus and PegLeg. Bailey explained that while Fig will be very hands on with the first several campaigns, they'll act as more of a "quality control" curator in the future. So, for Fig's Open Access pilot projects, Bailey and his team needed to ensure that the developers could absolutely deliver on their goals.

Source: Fig

"For Vagrus, they had a very polished alpha, and we could tell from a former campaign, Hero of Deathtrap Dungeon, that there was an underserved community for this type of game, so it seemed like a perfect one to start with. The developer of PegLeg, which is a different type of game, has decided to approach Open Access with what we believe to be a very addictive and compelling early build of game that could evolve into something special. We don't think there is a one-size-fits-all type of game that's right for Open Access, and so having these two very different games utilizing it shows how versatile the approach can be."

Open Access isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It still requires intense planning, especially around a content map, and a level of grit that some studios may not be up for. But for those studios that are looking to gear up for the long game, to play the long-tail approach to development, Early Access has the potential to be a boon for studios and consumers alike.

 

[Blaine]

Crowdfunding and video games are often like peanut butter and caramel - it appears harmonious at first glance, but when you really look at it, it's often more of a mess than it's worth.

Whoever wrote this simile should be humanely euthanized.

 

[TT1]

The idea is pretty good but I think the overall eficiency depends if the project is waterfall or agile.

Could work nicely!

 

[Blaine]

Fig et al. don't even exist in my personal universe anymore.

I was a true believer in the Kickstarter revival when I registered here at the Codex in 2012, which is why I registered in the first place. Prior to that, I had little to no motivation to discuss cRPGs, because I'd already played through almost all of the good ones during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Unfortunately, it's turned out that absolutely none of the best RPGs (and tactical, strategy, management, and immersive sim games, which Codexers tend to enjoy) developed from 2012-2019 were the products of crowdfunding. Factorio, Underrail, Age of Decadence, and Prey were developed without crowdfunding, for example, and Prey was AAA. Instead, crowdfunded games have an incredible track record of being terrible, mediocre, or vaporware.

I've said this before and I'll say it once again: We need to get the greedy corporate suits back into the offices and breathing down these nerds' necks. Throwing money at Californian hipsters only to watch them mismanage the fraction of said funds that escapes California's extravagant costs of living is bizarrerie in the extreme (I've been reading Lovecraft again lately, it's my vocabulary word this week, fuck off).

 

[FeelTheRads]

The corporate suits are still in offices and still producing garbage.
I don't know what Prey is, but neither of the other 3 games you mentioned had corporate suits involved.

You won't get anything better from Obsidian or inXile no matter how many of them you get breathing down their necks. There's just nothing left there.
And the corporate suits will deliver what the market wants and the market is shit so you won't get the "90s gold games" just because someone throws more money at the developers.

 

[Blaine]

I don't know what Prey is, but neither of the other 3 games you mentioned had corporate suits involved.

It's Arkane Studios' swan song (they developed Arx Fatalis), an immersive sim that involves ink monsters taking over an alternate-future corporate space station.

The other three games were developed by enthusiasts and/or loose-cannon programmers on shoestring budgets, which is also how many great and innovative games were developed in the 1980s and early to middle 1990s.

You won't get anything better from Obsidian or inXile no matter how many of them you get breathing down their necks. There's just nothing left there.

And the corporate suits will deliver what the market wants and the market is shit so you won't get the "90s gold games" just because someone throws more money at the developers.

All true. At least they won't be wasting my money making games I don't want to play, though.

 

[LESS T_T]

More push for open-ended structure: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...starter-model-sets-game-developers-up-to-fail

Fun table:

Fig CEO: "The Kickstarter model sets game developers up to fail"
The investment platform reveals Portfolio Share as it attempts to halt the slide in video game crowd-funding

Crowdfunding specialists Fig is now allowing investors to back a portfolio of games funded through its platform.

The firm's Portfolio Share concept is currently only available to accredited investors, although may be opened up to general backers in the future. The concept is to allow investors to participate financially in multiple games, which will mitigate the risk of investing in just a single title.

Fig says more than half of the games funded through its platform so far have been profitable, with investors seeing returns from the likes of Outer Wilds (220% per share), Kingdoms & Castles (300%), Solstice Chronicles: MIA (143%), Psychonuts 2 (139%), Wasteland 3 (132%) and Phoenix Point (191%).


How Portfolio Share works

Fig launched in 2015 and was initially similar to Kickstarter in that games were put up for a limited time and had to raise a set amount of money in that period. The main difference with Fig is that investors could also acquire actual shares in the game to earn a return on their investment.

This year, Fig has been changing its offering. Alongside the new Portfolio Share, the company also introduced a new model called Open Access in May. Open Access removes the traditional time-limited (typically 30-day) campaigns as made popular by Kickstarter, and creates an open-ended, ongoing funding tied to a development roadmap. Backers can pay for certain reward tiers and by doing so will be able to play the latest build of an in-progress title. Funds go directly to the developers at the time of payment as opposed to at the end of a campagn.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Fig CEO Justin Bailey says the new changes are to put an end to the decline in crowdfunding and creating a new model more fit for how the video games industry operates.

"Crowdfunding games has been heading in a downwards direction. It has been for a long time," he tells us. "Our original premise was just like Kickstarter, and then we bolted on investment. We thought that would fix crowd-funding when we launched in 2015. Since then, we've had a lot of data and a lot of successful games. The majority of our games actually have generated profit.

"We have never tried to go out and grab the whole market. One reason for that is because it's not just about [the game] getting successfully funded. It needs to be successfully developed and it needs to be commercially viable. There are a lot of games that we passed on, which were very interesting, very intriguing and very artistic, but we didn't view them as having a commercially viable place in the market. For this being successful, they need to be situated around earning money. Those three criteria do limit us in terms of the games that we take on."

The company has seen some big success with titles from InXile (Wasteland 3), Obsidian (Pillars of Eternity II) and Double Fine (Psychonauts 2), which are now all part of Microsoft Game Studios. But it's not all been established teams. Kingdoms and Castles has now generated $7 million in revenue off of a $100,000 campaign. Meanwhile, Outer Wilds, Phoenix Point and What The Golf have all generated significant interest.


Fig CEO Justin Bailey

"That's where we are. But still, when I look back at stuff, I'd like to see this [crowdfunding] segment growing. We were looking at all this information that came in, and we saw that the actual Kickstarter campaign format is somewhat to blame for the decline. We also looked at it and thought that individual investments in games, although interesting, is not the silver bullet that we thought it would be. We were getting feedback from the people investing, and the number one request was to be able to invest in all the games we did. As you can tell, in terms of hit rate, you'd usually see -- for publishers -- that one in ten games are successful. So for us, to have over half our games generating profit for our investors is somewhat unheard of."

Fig's Open Access concept was revealed in May and it's actually inspired by what a number of Fig developers have already been doing. Many of Fig's developers kept crowdfunding even after the initial campaign was a success. One example is Snapshot Games, who opened its own store and started selling its game [XCOM-alike Phoenix Point] through there. The result was the company generated millions of extra dollars in revenue.

"If you define crowdfunding as that Kickstarter format, then Shenmue 3 would be one of the most successful ones," Bailey says. "But before Shenmue came along, you had things like Prison Architect. Prison Architect actually generated more money through crowdfunding that Shenmue 3 if you're looking at how they did it. They basically put it up on their websites and started selling early builds of the game.

"And the biggest one of all, which is out-performing even board games, is Star Citizen. You can add all the board games on Kickstarter together, and Star Citizen is out-performing them. And they have the same format."

Open Access is also designed to reduce the pressure on developers who may find their game has to change part-way through development, and thus risking anger from the community.

"If you look at why board games are really successful on Kickstarter, you can see why that format is not the best for video games," Bailey says. "For the board game, you're seeing a prototype of the finished product. That means the creator is just raising money to manufacture that product and fulfil it. So they know exactly how much money they need to raise. Once they've raised that, they know exactly the delivery date with very little variance. If you look at that whole process, the consumer knows what they're getting, when they're going to get it, and to what quality. Now enter video games... you develop a video game and you're getting feedback from the community, and that is going to change the scope of things. And the scope of things changing will push the time out further. You also have concept art, which is not indicative of what the final product will be. So the quality changes, the timing changes and the price changes.

"That's why we've adopted this Open Access, where you're funding alphas and looking at two or three milestones in the future. This is an evolving journey and you don't know where it's going to lead. What we've found is that by being transparent about that, and not trying to work around this rigid Kickstarter campaign structure, we're earning people's trust, gamers' trust and setting expectations appropriately. As opposed to taking this format that everyone has used before which, frankly, sets developers up to fail. The format makes promises that developers just aren't able to keep."


Fig's hit rate so far

It's been an interesting year for Fig and crowdfunding in general. Business decisions around subscription models and the Epic Store have come under the spotlight (something Bailey hopes Open Access can help mitigate), while a number of its biggest development partners have since been acquired by Microsoft -- namely Double Fine, InXile and Obsidian.

"I think it's exciting for [those studios]," Bailey says. "We did have five or six interesting campaigns that we had in mind with Obisidian and InXile, which were at the early stages. But those projects now have full funding within Microsoft."

Yet despite the challenges, it's been a successful 12 months. Bailey says that Fig is profitable this year, and has generated between $4 and $5 million in revenue (versus $400,000 in 2017). It's just with studios and investors growing wary of crowdfunding, there has been a need for a different way of thinking.

"We do believe in this idea of getting the community involved early in publishing... we're a community publisher," Bailey concludes. "The community is effectively green-lighting these games. To all intents and purposes, they're reviewing the milestones and giving the feedback. And then they're offering their voice to promote these products. In an age where discovery is such a huge problem for game devs, we think this is one of the ways to solve that."

 

[vonAchdorf]

PoE II: accrued returns 52%

 

[LESS T_T]

Accursed returns, more like.

 

[passerby]

More push for open-ended structure: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...starter-model-sets-game-developers-up-to-fail

Fun table:

Psychonauts and Wasteland 3 have returns from Microsoft buyouts and there won't be any more returns for investors after their release.
Outer Wilds and Phoenix Point have returns from Epic deal, we don't know how much sales they'll actually make.
Investors most likely got lucky to be bailed out by big corpos that need games to promote their store platforms.

Kingdoms and Castles is the only true success story, Solistice Chronicles and Virgo vs The Zodiac had very moderate returns given the risk.

 

[Infinitron]

Fig sells out to Republic, another crowd-investing platform: https://republic.co/blog/fig-joins-republic

Republic acquires Fig
Fig is a groundbreaking publishing platform that lets video game fans invest in returns from games they back and be rewarded for their success.

Republic is excited to announce that we have acquired Fig, the world’s leading video game publisher that offers video game investments.



Fig pioneered a new, better way to fund and develop video games. In the traditional model, a small group of executives at big companies decide which games get made. On Fig, fans and individual investors help make the call on what gets funded.

Investors choose which games they want to support and can be rewarded with a portion of the revenue depending on how successful the game is.



When a game’s development is funded on Fig, it gains the support of hundreds or thousands of investors who all have a stake in its success. They become champions of the project, with opportunities to participate in early versions, the chance to give valuable feedback, and helping to promote the game to their friends once it launches.

This innovative model has worked extremely well. Since 2015, investors on Fig have successfully funded more than 40 games, and have been paid out an impressive $6,400,000 so far. Returns on individual investments have reached as high as 565% and Fig has enjoyed 3 straight years of positive returns.

Games funded on Fig have won prestigious awards and are highly rated by gamers.

• Outer Wilds just won the coveted BAFTA Best Game Award for 2019
• Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire won PC Gamer’s Best RPG of 2018 award
• IGN awarded What The Golf as Best Mobile Game of 2019
• Kingdoms & Castles has a rare 9/10 rating on Steam

Spoiler

Announcing new campaigns
Now that Fig has joined the Republic family, we have big plans in store. Just today we launched a new campaign for Intellivision’s new Amico game console.



The Amico is a brand new game console which is entirely family-friendly. All games are rated ESRB E10+, or below. More than 10,000 VIP editions of the console were claimed during the pre-sale a few weeks ago, and to date retailers have placed orders for an additional 100,000 units. Learn more about the Amico and their campaign.

Here’s a look at other current live campaigns:

• Marauder by Small Impact Games
  
  
• Frozen Flame by Dreamside Interactive
  
  
• Arcanium by Supercombo, Inc.
  
  
• Unexplored 2 by Ludomotion
  
  
• Hearo.Live by PiQPiQ, Inc

Learn more about these opportunities on republic.co/fig.


What's next
As a member of Republic, you will automatically be notified of new opportunities to back and invest in game campaigns via email. If you’d like, you can also sign up for an account on Fig.co.

Game investing will continue to take place on Fig. And we’re very happy to announce that Fig’s founder, Justin Bailey, will stay actively involved as a Fig board member and operating advisor to Republic.

"Joining Republic means more investors, more ambitious games, greater exposure, and the opportunity for higher returns. I’m ecstatic Republic contacted me and excited about how this acquisition will further aid us in our mission to empower independent developers" — Justin Bailey, Founder of Fig.

"When I first talked to Justin I was blown away by his industry knowledge and connections to the best game developers in the world. It’s no wonder Fig has been so successful." — Chuck Pettid, CEO of Republic’s Funding Portal.

Games: a booming industry
There’s never been a better time for game investing. With much of the world stuck at home under quarantine, games provide an important way for kids and adults to express their creativity, connect with friends, practice teamwork and problem-solving, and stay entertained.

Even before current quarantines, gaming was growing at an estimated 9.6% annual rate. In an October 2019 report on the gaming industry, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz said the following:

“Next generation games will grow faster and larger than today’s hits, fueled by network effects from platform convergence, organic social discovery, and user-generated content. We believe the games industry is in the midst of a tectonic shift. Better yet, we believe that we’re still in the early stages of that transition”

Today the industry is growing even faster, and we expect this trend to continue even after the quarantines are over. It increasingly looks like video games are going to dominate the future of entertainment.

We can’t wait to present the Republic community with opportunities to invest in some of the top upcoming game campaigns in the world. It’s a chance to back games you believe in, and possibly earn a substantial return. Keep an eye on your inbox for important announcements.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Crowdfunding platform Fig will go offline on Sunday, May 28th.

 

[toro]

Crowdfunding platform Fig will go offline on Sunday, May 28th.

Less cocaine money for Tim.

 

[thesheeep]

I am honestly surprised it lasted this long.

 

[toro]

I am honestly surprised it lasted this long.

Tim is a master con artist and this is his craft