How do you fund your game?

[Rozume]

I'm curious, Lemmasofters, how do you find the funds to your game (if you even have to fund it at all)? Do you use crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo? Do you rely on individual donations? Or is everything completely out of your pocket? Furthermore, where does your funding go to?

I fund completely out of my pocket for my games - I find that it's less of a gamble that way. I do most of the art, writing, and programming myself, so a large chunk of funding goes to musicians and GUI designers.

[Rinima]

Out of my own pocket. I have no talent in music and limited talent in art, so for one of my projects (Dead Man Walking), I've hired people to do it for me.

Naturally, I can only do this with small games (poor poor student ;~;).

I think if I ever wanted to do a big game, I'd save up enough money to hire people for enough music/art/GUI for a demo, release that, and try to start a kickstarter using the demo to convince people, and use the kickstarter money to rehire the same people for the full project.

[arttorney]

There is a huge trove of public domain music in .ogg files on Wikimedia commons. Most everything else I can do myself, though it can take a while to muddle through fancy things from the cookbook that are not as easy as they had seemed.

There are also animal sounds galore that are public domain because they were made by a branch of the U.S. federal government. (Fish and Wildlife Service)

One of these days I will record some sounds they don't yet have, upload them, and dedicate them to public domain as a way of giving back.

There are also public domain videos if you can find a use for them. Get a load of this one. (firefight at night but nothing gross like people getting blown up) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... n_Iraq.ogv

[SilverxBlue]

I don't exactly use money straight out of my pocket... It's more like if someone has commissioned me to write for them, I use the money that I get for my own VNs instead of personal use. I think it still counts as straight from the pocket, but whatever. OTL That was before though... For now I can't do it, since I'm saving up to continue college again. I want to graduate dammit //shot

[TrickWithAKnife]

I'll pay for the mandatory stuff out of my own pocket, but if I apply for a kickstarter and it's successful, that money would be used to expand on it with extra content, more voice acting, etc.

I have dependants, so VN expenses need to be kept realistic.

[fleet]

If I can't find an asset that I can legally use for free, I pay out of my own pocket.

[mugenjohncel]

You could say that I fund my own project in a roundabout way since I'm doing most of the work (story, art, gui, script and graphics) using my own time which I could use otherwise in much more productive means but who cares... I'm having fun anyway Music on the other hand came from Kevin MacLeod (yes I know... start cringing)

Once in a while I contemplate going on Kickstarter or other related places but doing so means I now will be pressured to deliver something in a pace I'm not comfortable with while being accountable to people who contributed... which is not fun

"POOF" (Disappears)

[Dragonstar89]

I fund my games with money I make from my software sells somewhere on some CMS website. I don't pay for music, scripts, or things like that though, because I can easily get so many CreativeCommons songs to use, and backgrounds as well. Same for sound effects, logos, and even code snippets. Though I haven't made many Visual Novels (except my current Work In Progress) because I prefer to raise my skills with the engine more, I've currently paid out around $70+ for a software for one of my VN's to make sprites, items, and some other things like CG's, etc. I am no artist, not by a long shot, so since I never have luck finding an artist that could do a wide variety of things within the same style, I decided that at the moment any character/CG/extra artwork thing could be paid for...though it can be a pain because I sell little software things for really cheap prices, and since I'm no eBay I only make one to three new sales every other week or so..

But that's how I do it. Back when I had less knowledge about general game development, I blankly would start campaigns on sites like RocketHub, GoFundMe, and Indiegogo, but I know that's not good to do unless you've already released content that gave decent or positive results..

That's probably the only way I fund my games.