Table of contents
Overview
This document contains the funding opportunities and finance plan for Void Survivors. Contained are two budgets, an optimistic budget based on the ability to receive funding for all milestones at the current scope, and a budget based on a reduced game scope.
Grant Funding Opportunities
This project is eligible for grants from various organizations. Including the following:
- Screen Queensland
- Screen Australia
- Australia Council Arts Projects
Publisher Funding Opportunities
Void Survivors is an attractive game for publishers due it’s relatively low development and live operations cost, and it’s opportunity to go viral.
There are dozens of appropriate publishers for Void Survivors. The best fit is web platform publishers, as they are reportedly underserviced. Publishers such as Armor Games and Kongregate frequently publish games that are distributed by their platform, usually with an exclusivity period.
It would be ideal to approach a publisher once the Multiplayer Prototype milestone has been achieved, which results in a vertical slice deliverable, as this would make the pitch more tangible.
VC Funding Opportunities
Void Survivors is the first title from Universe Builders and it’s development will result in a new game IP and core technology IP.
The core technology provides a unique resource for the company, which allows a solid market position which will be hard to be replaced by new titles without significant technology investment by them.
Further, the core technology allows the company to produce future titles similar to Void Survivors at a cheaper development cost. Having this technology makes Universe Builders more attractive to VC funding.
Universe Builders could receive VC funding for the purposes of completing Void Survivors, however it is the least attractive funding option due to the cost of acquiring the capital.
It would be ideal to approach VC funding once the Multiplayer Prototype milestone has been achieved, when the core technology has been tested and is proven.
Crowd Funding Opportunities
Void Survivors is a social game which intends to appeal to communities of gamers and influential community managers. It could have a strong crowd funding presence if those groups could be convinced to invest.
This is not an ideal option due to the cost of preparing for and running the crowd funding campaign. It will not be considered unless all other funding options have not come to fruition.
Finance Plan
To fund the development and production of Void Survivors, financing will be sought in the following order:
- Grant Funding for exploration and R&D activities which will reduce the cost of Pre-Production specifically for any custom technology being built.
- Grant Funding for Pre-Production, and ideally to Early Access.
- Publisher Funding, ideally once Closed Alpha has been completed and only if Grant Funding does not cover all milestones.
- VC Funding/Crowd Funding, ideally once Pre-Production has been completed and only in the case that the above funding sources are unable to fund Void Survivors to completion.
Contingencies
The following are contingencies in the case that the optimistic funding is not reached.
Early Access
The Closed Alpha milestone will result in a horizontal slice which is monetizable and will support a large number of players. This is a great candidate for early access through Steam and other appropriate platforms, which can result in funding for the game and enable the delivery the Release milestone.
Reduced Scope
A large cost center for the game is the Game Developer and Artist roles. By reducing the scope of the content in the game by ~50% the cost of development would decrease by ~35%.
This content could instead be developed in early access or live service based on funding received from monetizing the game.