Entry #3 - Chance of funding and search for a concept artist

Funding program

While pointlessly scrolling through facebook on my white throne, some sponsored post caught my eye. It screamed “Free money for your game prototype!”. Yes, that sounds scammy. But it claimed to be some government program, so I clicked (you need to know that the worse the quality of an ad in Poland, the bigger the chance it’s a legit government thingy). Indeed, the program looks like a serious project of defrauding funds from the EU, I’ve checked the institution, all the papers, program managers etc. So… should I apply? Funding wasn't bad, rules weren’t really that demanding. It looked almost too good to be true. The biggest issues were: 

1. It was very public, announced on every bigger gamedev group so a lot of studios could potentially compete.

2. There was very little time (just above a month since it was announced until applications were closed).

3. My game didn’t really fit into the expected criteria of the program (my favorite point? “how does your game impact the green transformation?”).

In the end I decided to focus on it and try to get the funding. Of course, You must gather your party before venturing forth. So I started by contacting several friends from the industry, to check if any of them would join me in this project. Having funding, I could offer them some decent money for the job that I wouldn’t be able to do myself. Also, the application would look much better with several serious names on it. Pretty quickly I've managed to convince 3 of them to get listed on papers, greatly improving the quality of the application. Then I had to do all the boring work of preparing costs estimates, work breakdown structures, market analysis and the worst of them all: adequacy justification. A lot of creative writing and guess work. In total, it took almost all my free time during this month, sucking any workforce I had planned for the game.

Was it worth it?

I think yes. There are still no results of the eliminations. If i get the money, I need to buckle up and speed the whole process, start more formal project management, stick to the plan that I’ve created. But the game actually gets a huge chance to be finished sooner than later. It’s also nice to get free money.

If I don't get accepted… Hey, I got a chance to see how the process looks, I had to think about some long term work and design plans. And to be honest, I got pretty pumped about the game again. So there is no bad outcome. 

Time for some concepts!

The time has come to create something more than just blockouts and gameplay prototypes that can bring joy only to their autistic creator that loves his cubes. I have a pretty clear vision about my tribe of characters and their story. I just can’t draw. So I started looking for someone that could materialize my vision in the form of several early stage concept arts. I want to start with simple characters, then move to illustrations of their home city and main story hooks. And then it will be time for other gameplay elements like constructions, enemies etc. I did some research on freelancing portals, trying to estimate pricing and quality relations. Then I reached out to some people from the academy of arts in my city, to check if maybe there are some skilled students that could help me. I got several applications, chose one that was super cool and made me excited like a juicy sausage at a barbecue. Quick negotiations, contract signed and… You can expect some results soon, I will share it along with main story points and a race outline.