Why Indie Fund is backing an XBLA flop

Indie Fund, a group of independent developers that offers "angel"-style funding to other indie game makers, has decided to back The Splatters, an unusual puzzle game that failed to find an audience when it launched on XBLA in April. Developer Spiky Snail is now revising the game and bringing it to Windows, Mac, and Linux, and Indie Fund believes that these new, updated versions could help the studio find real financial success. Indie Fund's decision to back The Splatters is a bit usual for the group, as it has previously backed games like Dear Esther and Q.U.B.E. before their initial debuts. As Indie Fund says on its official blog, backing a port of a game that didn't make money isn't typically a smart investment. But the group believes The Splatters is different. Indie Fund says Spiky Snail has learned from its mistakes on XBLA, and is showing enough promise with its updated ports that Indie Fund has decided to try something new. While The Splatters marks a departure from Indie Fund's typical funding strategy, the group says it represents exactly what the Indie Fund was created to support: "promising teams with low overhead who are focused on design." If The Splatters succeeds, the game would also help prove one of the Indie Fund's driving philosophies -- that focusing on design can play a key role in a game's financial performance. Indie Fund was founded in 2010 by independent developers such as Braid creator Jonathan Blow, thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago, Capy's Nathan Vella, among others.