Indie Megabooth co-founder Eitan Glinert has launched a program to help out small developers: an incubator, modeled after those in the tech world, and located at his Boston-based studio, Fire Hose Games.
Glinert has so far invited two developers to bring their projects into his studio; he's offering workspace, marketing help, and even a living stipend to help them complete their titles. "We try to select games that have a ton of potential but just need a bit of extra help, from developers that we have faith in," he says.
To find out more about this program, we've spoken to Glinert and the two developers -- Chris Chung (Catlateral Damage) and Chris King (20XX) -- about the program.
"The idea behind the accelerator is to help remove hurdles to indie development. There's a more talented indie developers and teams than ever before, but it's getting harder and harder to get noticed," Glinert says. "Basically, we cover the most common failure points. The indies make and launch their game with our support, and then we take a cut of the revenue in return."
It's a relationship Glinert describes as "mutually beneficial." The Indie Megabooth, he says, "was a big eye opener, seeing what indies could achieve when they band together."Catlateral Damage
It also helps avoid messy negotiations over payments or rights to the game, something both Glinert and Catlateral Damage developer Chris Chung agree on.
"I get paid during development and always get a portion of the revenue after launch, as opposed to burning through savings during development and handing all profits (and/or the IP) over to a publisher after launch," says Chung, who's been working with Fire Hose for the last several months.
"Fire Hose provides a stipend so I don't have to starve, desk space so I don't slack off working from home, and lots of developer resources I wouldn't have access to on my own," Chung says. For example, Glinert worked closely with Chung to create his (successful) Kickstarter campaign for Catlateral Damage, which raised almost $62,000.
A promotional video created by Fire Hose about Catlateral Damage
For his part, Glinert hopes that the model catches on: "If we can help prove that this model is viable I'm sure we'll see a lot of other groups running similar programs, which would be fantastic for developers," Glinert says.
After all, accelerators -- including much, much bigger ones -- are prevalent in the tech world. Experienced businesspeople and developers lend their expertise and resources to promising startups.
In fact, Fire Hose's program isn't the only attempt at something along this line -- Double Fine Presents has some similarities, and Indie Fund seeks out promising small projects.
Neither, however, offers the exact same package; the particular method Fire Hose is using seems to have won over at least its two participants so far. As funding and discovery continue to be two of the biggest hurdles for independent developers, support systems like this will continue to grow -- and this incubator shows one form that they can take.
Fire Hose Games' accelerator program aims to offer indies what they need
Indie Megabooth co-founder Eitan Glinert has launched a program to help out small developers: an incubator, modeled after those in the tech world, and located at his Boston-based studio, Fire Hose Games.