Failbetter Games launches Fundbetter

Failbetter Games, the studio behind the intriguing Sunless Sea, has created its own fund to help creators of similar titles. Fundbetter is open to "independent narrative games and interactive fiction" and promises to be open to different interpretations of that description.

"We want to pay our luck forward, and support game designers and writers from all kinds of backgrounds: first-timers, veteran game makers, LGBT+ and black and minority ethnic creators, people whose backgrounds are in linear fiction, theatre, radio, TV and film," wrote Failbetter's Hannah Flynn.

"Fundbetter is a rolling fund for projects in the £2,000-£20,000 range, though larger amounts are available for projects with matched or Kickstarter funding. It's project-based investment, so if the initial investment is never recouped, the creator is free to move on."

Interested parties can find out more here.

So what's in it for Failbetter? They expect the projects selected to earn back their funding and will take 50 per cent of the revenue until the initial investment is recouped. It will then take a 20 per cent cut of revenue. Developers will keep control of their IP.

"It's project-based investment, so if we never make back our initial investment, you're free to get on with your life," the company states on its application page.

"We will consider funding exceptionally interesting low-budget projects with no obvious revenue potential. We're a business, but we're serious about the importance of shared perspectives, and we want to help advance the craft. The bar for non-commercial projects is necessarily higher, but if you think you've got something extraordinary, give it a shot."

The British studio was founded in January 2010.