Gambitious Announces Alternative To Kickstarter

Written by: QuintLyn Bowers (@QuintLyn) | April 20, 2012 5:00 pm

5 Comments

A Dutch company named Gambitious has announced what they are calling a “game-specific alternative to Kickstarter“.

This “alternative” is not just Kickstarter for games, however. To be honest, the only thing they have in common is that developers will be able to ask people to give them money to get a game off the ground.

Other than that, it’s pretty different.

Gambitious’ program will allow developers to determine what percentage people wanting to fund the game will have to pay. People who pay that percentage then become shareholders of the project and are entitled to dividends if the game makes it to market and becomes a success.

To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about this project. I love how Kickstarter works as far as the donations and perks system. I love the community feel of it. I’m not sure you’d get this with Gambitious.

I also feel like someone who is considered a shareholder in a game project would feel a lot more entitled to tell a developer how to make a game than those of us that realize we’re really just buying a game — while getting some cool stuff for helping it happen.

Gambitious is expected to launch at E3.

Gambitious Announces Alternative To Kickstarter

Grid 2

$190k For Grid 2 Special Edition

Winning the Guinness World Record for most expensive video game ever!!Read more »

4 comments
Microsoft PC

Microsoft Leave PC Gamers In The Lurch!

No Xbox One games coming to PC "in a traditional sense" Read more »

17 comments
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone And The Secrets Of Stranglethorn Vale

Let's explore Stranglethorn Vale... Hearthstone style.Read more »

1 comment

http://www.facebook.com/IamTomBombadil Tom Miller

This is an AWESOME idea.

Something like this is done by Daniel Gilbert in Detroit called “Bizdom”.
Very good idea.
Sharuko

QuintLyn what have you done, you are going to make me spend more of my money. I actually like this idea way better than Kickstarter since investors can benefit if the game does well. But I am going to assume developers would prefer using Kickstarter.

But it seems like for Kickstarter the developer would have motivation to want the game to succeed because they get to keep the profits if the game does well. But with Gambitious the developers won’t have as much motivation because they won’t keep all the profits.
- http://quintlyn.com/ QuintLyn Bowers
  
  Well.. I’m not sure which would be better for the devs. I read an update someone did regarding their game and OMG, the amount of money that went into the donation perks alone. Apparently posters and stuff aren’t cheap.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Brown/100000780681853 Ryan Brown

The biggest difference between Kickstarter and Gambitious from a gamer’s perspective is the kinds of games that would be successful on each platform. One of the best things about Kickstarter is that it allows developers to simply ask for 16 months of salary upfront to make a game that ought to be made on the basis of its artistic merits. If it doesn’t sell a single unit after launch, and the only money the project generated went into salary and overhead, well, who cares? It constitutes a complete departure from the traditional model of publisher and developer, and allows developers to create projects that are guaranteed to generate enough money to keep them fed for another year without being forced to make artistic compromises for the sake of marketability. This makes Kickstarter the perfect place for pure artistic projects, rather than the Hollywood blockbuster style of game that has been flooding the market for the last forever and a half years.
Gambitious, however, does not completely depart from the publisher and developer model. It creates a publisher from a large group of unrelated individuals. One hopes that this would make for a better kind of publisher, since it would more closely resemble the consumers of the product. However, it is still a publisher. Unlike Kickstarter, the money will not be given to the publisher for the sake if paying their salaries while they make a game. It will be given for the sake of generating maximum sales after launch. If a Gambitious developer makes a decision that sacrifices marketability for the sake of artistic integrity, it is betraying the shareholders. The only appropriate kind of game for the Gambitious platform, therefore, is the Hollywood blockbuster style of game that has been flooding the market for the last forever and a half years.
- http://quintlyn.com/ QuintLyn Bowers
  
  EXACTLY! Personally. I’m more comfortable with Kickstarter. I don’t want to be a publisher and have no desire to look at this as an investment where the developers “owe me” anything other than the game and a few trinkets if/when the work is finished. I just want to see the games made that I’d like to play.
  
  But I’ve also become a bigger fan of indie games than mainstream the last few years… With a few exceptions. There are still some beautiful mainstream games being made.
  
  But yeah… If I start thinking of the money I give to these as an investment, then I’ll spend time worrying about whether I made the right decision, if I should have invested in a different game that would make more money. Etc.
  
  With Kickstarter, I have the option on giving what I feel like. Even just a buck. Which means I can spread the love around and not fret about it