Hi, I am just guessing what kind of projects receive grants?
From my point of view, they only going to grant an Oculus to projects that will give them those 5% per quartile,
In other words, they are investing into you so that you will pay them much more than Oculus’ price and it’s not a humanitarian help to developers
IMHO they give your project a quick look and if they don’t believe that it will make anywhere more than 20,000 per year, you are out of luck
Basically in my opinion it’s a **“rich gets richer” **system. If you have enough money to develop a 20K/year game, you probably can afford an Oculus on your own, but they will help you anyways.
But if you are out of funds and desperately need help - you are not receiving any grants, that’s how it is (again, in my opinion).
The Unreal Dev Grants are most likely to be given to projects that can demonstrate promising results, in that the people involved probably aren’t going to give up on their project and it’s not something that isn’t likely to succeed.
So basically:
-Have a good idea that is achieveable
-be dedicated to get it done regardless of whether you can get grant money.
>Grants are most likely to be given to projects that can demonstrate promising results
That means you need to have a lot of money invested into the project already, and that means you don’t really need a grant as you can afford investing.
This looks like a hipocrityc system that only helps those who don’t need help.
Are there any from the hood success stories?
Any poor guy got a grant? Or only companies with 20K+ budgets per each game?
I think epics need to draw a clear line to stop feeding regular developers with empty hopes& stop wasting our time
It’s probably tough to get a grant if you require the grant to do the project, in that type of situation you’d really need to prove dedication to it and that you have the ability.
The deal is–there are many projects people are looking for money for, but 99% of them will never go anywhere because the people involved don’t know what they’re doing. The don’t want to waste grant money giving it to people who won’t use it well. This means they’re looking for projects that can demonstrate that they can actually achieve what they plan to do.
Having some funds already definitely helps because you’re using that money to get the project started, but I wouldn’t say that those projects don’t need the money, if the budget of the game is small then any amount of money will help, they can certainly find a use for it. The budgets on indie projects are below what it actually costs to develop the game.
A friend of mine once applied for grant with a shipped project I believe(I am not sure if it was shipped or not), I am not sure if it was already released on Steam or not when he applied, but it was at least in alpha stage. He has been working on the game since october 2017, released it on Steam a month ago, he is constantly working on improving the game. He is dedicated, he knows what he is doing, project has already gone *somewhere *as its at least released.
If he applies again, providing his Steam page, a key to test the game build, states his plans and how the budget would help, does it mean there are good chances that he may receive some minimal help?
Anyway, at least a letter stating the outcome would help as people wait, wait and start diving into madness. We start hoping that there is just a delay, and we will receive an email from Epics with congrats next day, next week, etc. This is bad. We need information. If not for our souls, then at least for planning the budget.
He would have a better chance than someone who hasn’t started their project. It also depends on who else submitted their projects, and how unique the project is.
It would be good if they told you that you’ve been turned down and aren’t being considered anymore. But again, you shouldn’t be planning a budget that depends on grant money.
This does not apply to independent developers
For example I may delay buying an Oculus rift for 2-3 weeks hoping to get a grant, and that means development will not progress
Or I may miss a bargain, like a used headset for half of it’s price because I am still hoping. It’ not like buying a bottle of soda, it’s a serious investment for us little devs that needs consideration, as we are students or have families, need to pay bills, etc. We REALLY need a grant outcome result to be emailed to us. This DOES effect people
If they can’t afford sending grant outcomes, I may **VOLUNTEER **to send people grant outcomes for free. Just because I am a good dude. I really hope this problem will be solved, and I more than happy to be a volunteer in order to solve this problem.
Again, you should not be depending on the grant money to be able to do your project, at most it should be a way for you to improve what you’re already doing.
This is just unsound business practice, indie or otherwise. Never be reliant on something you’re uncertain to get.
Epic’s grants aren’t free money / hardware for anyone who wants it and it isn’t charity - it’s an investment on Epic’s part where they’ll invest a small amount of money into projects that they can use to promote themselves and the engine. Whether a project is commercially viable or not is actually irrelevant and a number of free projects have succeeded in getting grants in the past.
@Dudester01 What specifically are you talking about?
Your subject line mentions the Occulus Rift but you’re a bit late for the VR headset giveaway. That was in 2016. IIRC, anyone could ask for one. You just needed a demo of some sort, and and it was first-come, first served, until they ran out. That was nothing to do with the grants.
If you mean the Unreal Developer grants that have been given out constantly over the last few years, I’ve had several of the recipients give talks at the London Unreal Engine Meetup. (Games like “Winterhall” by Lost Forest and “Seige and the Sandfox” by Cardboard Sword), so they definitely exist, they definitely got the money, and they definitely needed it. You need to contact Epic to apply for these grants, and, yes, you need to show them something that they think is worthwhile. (The idea that they are somehow being sneaky or unfair by only giving no-strings-attached money to games they think will give them a return is a strange one to me).
Thanks but they are somewhat cavemen, they require"legal name of your organization". Wt, I have no organization, I work ALONE under a personal studio name which is not a registered business.
I think you should read everything again. The whole Start program is mainly aimed to individuals and very small companies. Plenty of people have received hardware from them without having a company.
Re-read what? They clearly state that they require an organisation name. Organization is a legal entity. I don’t have one. Seems like there is a “catch” with Oculus as well. Registering a company solely would cost me Oculus price twice.