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Auditorium 2: Duet raises the full $60,000 through Kickstarter
When we first began covering Auditorium, Pulse, and Fractal creator Cipher Prime, developer Will Stallwood spoke mostly in uncertainties concerning his coming sequel, Auditorium 2: Duet: "We're hoping to," "Only if," "We're going to try" and similar phrases. Today the update on Duet's Kickstarter is full of certainty: "WE DID IT!!!!!!!"With less than three days left to fund the project, Cipher Prime raised more than $60,000, completing its goal and ensuring work on Duet is a go. More than 55 hours still remain in its campaign, and it is still collecting what we like to call "icing" funding."We're going to make Auditorium Duet for you, and it will be awesome, and we truly, truly, truly owe everything to you guys," Cipher Prime wrote in its Kickstarter victory post. "Thank you to all of our long-time fans and people who've only just heard of us (we'll convert you into long-time fans soon enough!)."
How one indie studio burns $15K per month (or: this graph looks like Pac-Man)
$15,000 sounds like a lot of money -- why yes, I would like to buy a brand new motorcycle, thank you -- and for an indie studio, it's just enough to keep the engine running. Indie Studio Cipher Prime know this better than most, having tried various funding styles for its three titles, Auditorium, Pulse and Fractal, and now banking on Kickstarter to finance its newest installment, Auditorium 2: Duet.Dain Saint of Cipher Prime put together this handy visual breakdown of what $15,000 means for his studio, and for the likelihood that his team will be able to buy groceries each week. Co-founder Will Stallwood points out that the graph doesn't include health insurance, because they "opted for food over health insurance," and it doesn't list the debt Cipher Prime has piled up from using credit cards to offset slow months.Check out the full graph below for a rough representation of Cipher Prime's expenses. Again, note that it doesn't account for everything, including equipment costs or the price of a pro license of Duet's engine, Unity, which runs $6,000.
The price of independence: What it really costs to be an indie developer
Will Stallwood is a gambler. He's had the same addiction for years, yet he's never stepped foot inside a casino.He's never found himself hunched over a table fitted with worn green felt, sliding his last two chips between sweaty, shaking palms. He's never felt the sick dread as a slot machine whirs through its final frame; he doesn't know if he prefers red or black. Stallwood has been addicted to gambling on the success of his indie studio, Cipher Prime, since its triumphant launch of Auditorium in 2008. But this year feels different. This year Stallwood feels as if his lucky streak may finally be running out.Cipher Prime isn't an unknown team of novice developers working out of a garage, but that doesn't mean they're rolling in dough either. Its previous titles were successful, but after a deal went raw with Fractal's publisher, Zoo Games, Cipher Prime was stuck with a rushed title and more debt than it ever expected.Stallwood and Cipher Prime co-founder Dain Saint had to legally fight for the rights to their own game, eventually getting them back more than 200 days after Fractal launched on the App Store. Saint and Stallwood were understandably turned off of the old-school publishing route."We were not a fan of the publisher model before, because it just covers development and we never see royalties no matter how good the game goes," Stallwood said. "Now, we're just completely sour to the whole thing. We're not completely opposed if it means the difference between making games or not, but if there is any way we can avoid it and still make games, we're certainly going to try."Cipher Prime has found another way -- it hopes -- with Kickstarter.%Gallery-148865%
Auditorium devs look to Kickstarter for sequel funding
Will Stallwood and Dain Saint of indie studio Cipher Prime don't want to buy new Ferraris.Actually, they may want to do that -- because hello, Ferraris -- but that's not where their current focus lies. Cipher Prime wants to make a sequel to its first title Auditorium, titled Auditorium 2: Duet, and has turned to Kickstarter to crowdsource a portion of its budget.Cipher Prime is the conductor behind a trio of ambient, subtly beautiful, rhythm-based brain busters. After launching the originally Flash-based Auditorium in 2008, the developer orchestrated two follow-up titles: Pulse and Fractal. Since then Auditorium has been ported to iOS, PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP, and today marks its launch on Steam -- and, Stallwood hopes, the launch of its sequel's development.Speaking exclusively with Joystiq, Cipher Prime's Will Stallwood says development of Auditorium 2: Duet will only take place if the team manages to hit its sizable Kickstarter goal of $60,000. According to the developer, the goal represents half of what the team needs to complete the project, with Cipher Prime contributing the other half of necessary funds.
