Question

#1 I'm sure someone is going to say the same thing as me (but probably with far more words =); Rightsize things.
Fund it yourself, but come up with an idea that is "small" enough so you can afford it. You can always do your grand projects later.

#2 When we started up BraveTree, we were 100% self funded and living off our savings.

I want to note here that the founders of BraveTree were not independently wealthy (not even close). I wanted to point that out just in case someone is thinking.. oh yeah, sure.. YOu did it, but you had tons of resources.. and it just is not the case. I have NO resources.. if I could make it happen, anyone can do it.

I would NOT recommend searching for funding. Unless you have shipped products, it is not likely to happen. Spend the time you would spend looking for funding working on a game.

#3 Take my advice with a grain of salt - or a whole shaker full. I'm not "successful" at this yet. But here goes:

My funding comes from the day job. That pays for game development at night and on weekends (well, when it gives me nights and weekends - which isn't this week).

It's not necessarily an ideal way to go into business. But here's the thing. Having worked at a few different startups, I have learned that investors are usually most interested in giving you money when you need it the least. Maybe I have had too many experiences with "Vulture Capitalists" during the "dot com" craze, but I have found that the professional investors can be pretty dangerous beasts. But they are unlikely to give you the time of day unless you have a really solid business plan, an experienced management team with proven pedegrees, and you pretty much give them most of your company in return.

But if you don't already have contacts of people you know and trust to work with you, you are better off starting it solo. Contract out for assistance - no fuss, no muss, no entangling partnerships, and you have full control. Then, as you find people you have worked with on a contractual basis that you really like and you work well with them together, THEN you can work out a partnership arrangement if you so choose.

Another, possibly even better option is to team up with someone else who IS making it happen, and help them push their dreams into reality. Once you have some proof that you have what it takes to finish the job, you are likely to be taken more seriously. That can be a source of funding in and of itself, actually - doing contract work for others.

#4 Jon,

I don't have anything new to add -- just more support for what the others have suggested. Remember that your dreams and ideas are yours. If you are lucky, you will find teamates who have already been pursuing compatible goals as well. But the 'money men' will never truly share your vision or your passion -- they have room for only one love in their lives.

After seven months of self-funding with a programmer-partner, I can tell you that it's not easy. We may fail, but I would rather entrust our chances to our target audience than to investors with hungry eyes.

I wish you good fortune,

Aaron E.

#5 Downsize, make a smaller commercial project, finish it, teh make cash, then hire a bigger team and work up from there.

Unless you have friends with skills who are willing to work for free your pretty much on your own. Its tough, but it is par for the course.

#6 Look, I probably shouldn't talk because I haven't shipped anything yet but from past experience you usually have to fund yourself. Also, think of a small, yet fun game that will require a low budget. i. e. My dinosaur hunting game pretty much is using Tim Aste's content pack with a lot of great dino models from Sam M. Sam and I work as a small team but if we really apply ourselves to the max we can get a lot done. If you have something to make you money quickly, the faster you can move onto bigger projects.

#7 Thanks guys I will take what you said and think about it.

#8 @ Joe Maruschak
Forgive me for asking, but out of pure curiosity:
how much did Bravetree make with their first game ThinkTanks? (how many digits)

#9 @ RJ,

six.

sorry that I cannot be more specific.. we signed a bunch of legal documents regarding disclosure with a bunch of distributors.

edit

wanted to add that the cost in time for the original (not including the xbox version) was around 18 man months (3guys * six months over the course of a year). If we had been working at a big game shop getting paid our normal salaries(what we were making when still employed making reatial games), I'd imagine that it would have cost $110K in our salaries (never figured out the overhead). We never really kept track of how much it actually cost us to live for the time we were working on the game, but it was much less than our old take home salaries.

The time estimate should give everyone a good idea though of what it takes in terms of time investment to get something like ThinkTanks done and in shippable shape.