'Neverending Nightmares' and the dream of Ouya's Free the Games Fund
When Matt Gilgenbach took to Kickstarter to fund his horror adventure game, Neverending Nightmares, he also opted in to Ouya's Free the Games Fund. The program, designed to offer additional funding to crowdfunders that raise at least $50,000, has drawn questions surrounding projects like Gridiron Thunder.
"It would kill me if due to other projects abusing the Free the Games Fund, people lost confidence in our project and what we are trying to do," Gilgenbach told Joystiq via email. He pointed to Neverending Nightmares' relatively low average pledge amount of $24.68 as evidence for its legitimacy, which is in stark contrast to the $934.48 average by Gridiron Thunder, the game that raised $171,009 from just 183 backers.
"We participated in the Free the Games Fund because we felt that the money we needed to make a really terrifying and emotionally powerful game was greater than what we could raise alone on Kickstarter," Gilgenbach continued. "The Free the Games Fund offers a significant contribution to the development budget with very developer friendly terms, so it seemed like a dream come true. I never expected any of this controversy."
Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman recently issued a statement about the adverse response to the program, saying the company had no plans to alter it. Indie developers criticized Uhrman's response, with one developer even opting to pull her game from the Ouya store.
Noting that he thought Ouya had "the best of intentions" in creating its funding program, Gilgenbach offered suggestions on how it could be fixed. "While I believe in the idea of the Free the Games Fund, I think it definitely could use some reform in light of the potential avenues for abuse. I think they should require a certain number of backers for the project rather than just a budget amount."
Neverending Nightmares is seeking $99,000 by September 29 in its crowdfunding campaign.
