First-ever equity-crowd-funded title hits €250,000 with 11 days to spare
With still 11 days to go on crowd funding platform Gambitious, Swiss based developer Urban Games has successfully completed the €250.000 funding target for their game Train Fever.
It's the first time an equity-crowdfunded game of this financial magnitude has been successfully funded. In the case of Train Fever, over 650 unique investors financially supported the project.
"After our campaign, we not only secured funding but also gathered a lot of fantastic feedback, suggestions and challenging questions. In addition, we successfully started to establish a fan community around the world. " said Basil Weber, CEO and founder of Urban Games.
"We would like to point out that the success of Train Fever is also a success of Gambitious. We believe that the Gambitious model is an awesome way for independent game developers to attract funding and we are excited that Train Fever is the first successful game on this platform!" he added.
With Gambitious, investors get their advances repaid, and receive a return just like a publisher or angel or venture capitalist would receive. The offer varies from project to project. Train Fever expects 822,500 euros in revenues, with Gambitious investors receiving half of that. That equates to a return on investment of 165%
"We always had great belief in Urban Games and Train Fever, and they have pulled off a great campaign. We really admire the way they communicate their vision and plans with their investors and fan base." said Paul Hanraets, CEO and co-founder of Gambitious. "This proves that a close connection between developers, investors and gaming communities can result in more success stories for indie teams that might not have had the clout or network to succeed on the donations model alone."
In Train Fever, the players have to establish a transport company and constructs bus, tram and railroad lines. The challenge is to build an efficient and profitable transport system, with railroads playing a central role. Train Fever is a modern-day Transport Tycoon game with procedural content and a sophisticated city simulation. Train Fever runs on an engine specifically developed for this game. A key point is the fact that there is no grid that game objects have to be aligned to. The game will be published for the platforms PC, Mac and Linux.
