The basic idea for ImagiNation goes back quite a long way but it’s only now that I’ve really been able to put it all together and found the hook that brings it all together.
British fiction has its own particular love affair with the end of the world but it’s much more understated than post-apocalyptic fiction in other cultures. A running theme in a lot of it is a sort of return to pre-industrial rural, agricultural living as though that were somehow desirable.
ImagiNation’s apocalypse is an unknown and possibly unknowable disaster. A breaking down of reality to the point where imagination and delusion take on a physical reality. Everyone’s fancy, nightmare and dream becomes a tulpa and runs wild, clashing and interacting in the ‘wild’ while the dreamers are lost in the same clashing world of their fancies.
I intend to blog quite a bit as the game is put together, after all, there’s no harm in being open about it and gives people who backed the game some extra value.
The first thing I really want to talk about is the whole crowdfunding thing. I’ve talked before about how Kickstarter, Indiegogo etc make me feel a little uncomfortable. In part this is because people seem to ask for a hell of a lot more money than they should actually need (ten times as much in some cases). When it’s for a charitable purpose it’s a little easier for me to swallow both begging for money and the shameless self-promotion that’s involved – something I always find a bit tricky.
I had to use Indiegogo because Kickstarter only allows US accounts to be tied to them. That makes things a bit more tricky because Indiegogo doesn’t have the level of cachet or trust that Kickstarter does. I’m fairly certain I could have raised more cash at Kickstarter but there simply wasn’t the option. That’s something I think other people looking to crowdfund should keep in mind.
I still don’t think I would use crowdsourcing for my normal projects, but as a way of doing ‘hostageware’ or games with a charitable aspect to them (such as ImagiNation) I do think it’s a good option. I’m just not comfortable ‘begging’ to provide funds to my normal projects.
It’s a double bank holiday Monday and Tuesday so don’t expect too much progress until Wednesday and I’ll be alternating my work on PROJECT and ImagiNation. This is an open development process so any queries, questions or suggestions are welcome as we go along.
Postmortem Studios 