How I Got $10,000 With My Dream Game Idea

making IND the games is hard and it's not the hundreds of videos on this exact topic that will say otherwise the thing is to make a great game as a IND Dev you need money whether for assets marketing or just to be able to eat personally I have two very cute and very demanding cats that only eat the most expensive cat food so I better publish cool games by the way I just created a coffee page if you want to give me a tip to Super My Game Dev Journey it would mean a lot thanks there are however some ways to fund dur in the game how it works usually is you find a deal with a publisher or you launch a crowdfunding campaign and hope it will be successful and give you some much needed hard cash but for that your game has to be in an advanced and off stage you need a strong and Polished prototype to attract Publishers or to build a community that would help Finance the rest of your game you can't get money with just an idea and nothing more right well here's how I got $110,000 with only a game idea let's go back in time in July 2021 my boyfriend and I lost our cats it was really hard I was depressed and to try to cope with everything going on in my life I started to play games about grief and depression I got really inspired by these games and I wanted to create a game about mental health I had this idea of a 2-day narrative Adventure where you play as a spirit cat that helps people by visiting their dreams in December 2022 after some experiences as a video game developer I was thinking about creating my first commercial in the game and I wanted to explore this concept out of curiosity I looked into some Funding Solutions for future references as you may know I'm French and with a very 600 professional and IND the studios France plays a significant role in the video game industry in France we have CNC which is traditionally known for offering government grants for movies but it recently extended its focus to include independent video games as well they have two big grants aimed at Studios where they can support up to 50% of a gamees budget for the prototyping and for the production stages but and this is where it becomes really interesting they also have a writing Grant specifically for independent people without a studio to help creators develop their Concepts from the ground up by giving them the time to write a full game design document the application for the writing ground is quite easy and it doesn't require a lot regarding marketing study and viability of the concepts they mainly focus on your game concept which should be quite original and creative I thought it would be perfect to try to get this funding but the thing is given the next deadline I only had one month to apply I first had to prove that I had the skills to create a video game I didn't go to a video game school but I do have an engineering diploma with a strong focus on computer science and I also participated in multiple game jams I had to write a 10-page document presenting the game concept some unique selling points and a basic idea of what a gameplay Loop would look like I also had to write the details of how I would use the grant if I got one but basically I only had to list my rent food student loan and the price of some game art in the game design document I also needed to include how I would plan to write the Game design document if I received the Grant I wanted my game to take place in a typical Village from the east of France because I was born there and I think it's a beautiful region with half timbered houses narrow streets and quite particular Village names it would give my game a very strong identity but in order for my application to convey this specific Ambiance I needed some art thankfully I have a cousin who works as a freelance designer and illustrator and I absolutely love what she's doing I was convince her illustrations were exactly what my game would need so I contacted her explained my project and she was really happy to work on it I think she did a really really great work the results were better than what I could have imagined and this allowed me to put some art in the application form which is always a very good thing if you want to check out her work her Instagram account is in the description to put all the chances on my side I took advantage of spending the Christmas holiday days in this region to film a short video in which I talk a little more about this projects then I submitted my application and I had to wait for 2 months for the results and I got it I exactly received 9,920 it was really encouraging to see that some professionals from the video game industry believed in my idea and in my ability to carry it so I had a whole year to write a 50 page document explaining the details of my game the scenario the game mechanics the principles of programmation the Arts all in great detail but I didn't want to spend a year only writing things I wanted to keep programming as well so I decided to start a second project which is now my game called Health presso it's a cooking game in hell with rug like elements where you have to cook for ghost you can switch kitchens to your use very strange ingredients steal your customer Souls craft your own restaurants decorate it and improve it as you go to attract more and more customers it will come out at the end of the summer and you can wish list it on Steam the link is in the description and it helps a lot so during the year 2023 I divided my time between these two big projects I chose a title for my narrative game catala which means little cat where I'm from and I wrote it game design document I worked with my cousin again to create some game Arts that I integrated in unity I have some colorful houses that I started to animate I also have a character that I rigged and animated to have an idol and a work state also I did a blue cat running around with some cute animations I implemented the day and night cycle to change the ambient and I included some partical effects as well as a wind Shader to make everything more lively katala also has a steam page and you can also wish list it if you're interested I'm really happy with how everything is turning out it's only the beginning and there is definitely a lot of hard work coming but I'm really grateful to have the occasion to make this dream game come true working on two projects at the same time is a bit overwhelming but Health Pressel will be out very soon and I will already have a set second game to work on in the meantime thanks a lot for watching this video and I'll see you in the next one bye

Channel: Eliane Game Dev

Views: 7,414

Keywords: gamedev, indiedev, indiegamedev, unity

Id: iHNdSrmv_KE

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024