Failing Better!

Who doesn't love failing better?

Here's the deal. Recently, this came across my online space. Failbetter games, makers of Fallen London*, are giving back to gaming in a big way. With this program, Fund Better, they're asking inviting designers who need a little monetary kick in the pants to pitch their narrative heavy games. This is from their site.

We’re open-minded on the meaning of ‘narrative’ and ‘game’. So this might include: games with a strong linear storyline; choice-based narratives using Twine or a similar technology; parser-based interactive fiction; strategy games where the choices have a storyful feel; card games where story emerges from the mechanics; or a dozen other things we haven’t thought of.

We particularly like text-centric games. These are often a low-cost, high-leverage way to do something interesting and intelligent with an idea. Text-centric doesn’t mean text-only; but games which involve reading are more our bag.

And it just so happens THIS project may be exactly what they're looking for. Kinda. I mean. It could be. I don't know until I pitch.

The other interesting this is, a really cool lady over at Failbetter was talking about this program on twitter. She said they had a lot of great applications so far, but within the last round of applications they had zero ladies. Zero. That's.... a staggeringly not okay number to exist! Like noooooooo! Obviously, I took that as a personal challenge. I had hemmed and hawed about it, to be honest. But. No ladies? To hell with that!

So here's the thing: I do not expect that I will get the funding. But. I'm going to apply. Because I want YOU to apply. Yes. You. Ladies who read this. Non-binaries who read this. Maybe even some dudes who read this as long as they're not assholes. (You know what I mean.) This is a big deal to a small narrative game designer and I think it could help create some important games. But. If you want to find out if your game is one of these, you're going to have to apply.

I'm going to blog my process to get application together. Maybe ask questions? Maybe we can pool information. We can discover answers together? It'll be great. I want competition for this, okay? As my sisters say, Oh Lord give me, give us, the confidence of a mediocre white dude!

Currently, the plan is this: Fundbetter has a list of questions and ideas they want you to put together when you apply. Some of the questions are great and fun. Some of them are scary. I'm going to try to do a post per topic, demonstrating what I'm doing and how it looks. I'll drop links here as I go. Yeah resources!

Here's those points from the Fundbetter website.

1. The name of the project in the email’s subject line.

2. A one-paragraph description of the project.

3. What have you done so far? If you have notes, a playable build, a prototype, send us links.

4. Vaguely what the game’s going to look like. This doesn’t have to be a screenshot. It can be a photo of the UI sketched on A4 paper. But we want to know you have a rough idea of the shape of the thing.

5. How long will the player take to complete one run-through? roughly.

6. How’s it going to end? It’s OK not to have nailed down the ending; but we need to see you have a good idea of where you’re going.

7. A minimal business plan, including a plausible guess about how much revenue you’ll earn on which platform. ‘Plausible’ means ‘based on at least two sets of figures for similar games which weren’t wildly successful.’

8. What needs to be done to make the game ready for release? Think in terms of ‘n weeks of work’, not in terms of release date. Think about software licenses, any images or music assets you might need. Don’t forget QA.

9. What is your greatest fear about the project?

10. How are you going to promote the game? We may be able to help with this, but you must show us you have thought more about this than ‘I have a Twitter feed’.

11. What are you planning to do after launch? How will you support and/or extend the game, what’s your backup plan if it doesn’t work well, and what will be your next project?

12. You and/or your colleagues. Have you made games before? Have you made games together before? What’s your relationship if you’re working with anyone else? (paid freelancers, revenue share, etc.)

13. The name of your preferred coffee format; the cocktail you like most; your favourite word. If you don’t have dealings with coffee or alcohol, provide only your favourite word. You won’t be penalised.

14. What are the emotions that people will experience playing this game?

15. Why do you want to make this game? What is there in it that speaks to you?

As I said, some of these are great and fun, so they might not require a whole post. Some of them might need... more. Let's see how it plays out, okay? Okay! Gambatte! Let's GO!

*If you haven't played Fallen London yet or Sunless Sea, you wanna get on that. Seriously.