Indiegogo and Steam - How to make them work together?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

I’m making progress on my game. But it’s slow going and I’m exploring using Indiegogo to get funding to hire outside help with some of the development (mostly art assets). This approach is new ground for me, so there are questions.

As mentioned above, the plan is to use Indiegogo to raise funds to speed completion of the game. The game would be (hopefully) distributed via Steam. So here’s the questions:

  1. If I do go the Indiegogo route and offer advance access to the game as an incentive, how do I distribute a game that’s likely going to be a gigabyte or more in download size?

  2. Steam would be ideal for offering advance access but without having a green lit project, this may be a problem – or is it? (Not sure if Steam will accept alphas.) If Steam will accept an alpha project, how does one acquire steam keys to send to patrons?

  3. Promotion is going to be important, but my skills with promotion are lacking. Any advice here would be welcome.

There’s likely going to be a lot of other questions, but those will get things started. I’m interested in hearing from people who have used Indiegogo or Kickstarter and what their experiences were.

2

Steam does allow for beta releases so if you plan on releasing the game there then you can have it in beta before the full release.

Note that if you have the game as a reward in crowdfunding that you will have to pay Epic royalty on that amount–for example if you have a $10 tier to get the game then the royalty rules apply to that $10, and if you have other tiers that include the game and some other stuff then they will require royalty just for the cost of the game itself at $10.

3

Interesting point about the Epic royalty kicking in. I hadn’t thought of that being applicable in a fund raising incentive, but I guess it would be. I’ll need to think of a different incentive.