Slightly Mad crowdfund scheme raises £400k

London independent studio Slightly Mad has drawn in more than half a million Euros (£417,000) from its proprietary crowdfunding platform, the company has announced.

The ‘World of Mass Development’ platform allows fans, developers and industry professionals to pool their money and time together on various game projects.

The investment levels are tiered, with bigger spenders given more influence on the outcome of a game project, though small contributions will have their own returns too.

It will cost €10 to become a junior investor and have access to private developer forums, as well as read monthly meetings and can play monthly builds.

On the other end of the scale, it costs €25,000 to become a senior manager on a project, in return for direct access to developers, game scripts and company meetings.

Providing certain profit margins are met, every participant will get a return on their investment.

A triple-A game that makes €25 million profit, for example, would give €45 back to a junior investor. A senior manager would receive €110,000.

Slightly Mad, which both hosts and participates in the development platform, has not revealed the commission it takes from game projects.

The studio’s theory is that, by spreading costs across a number of people, developers will be allowed to take bigger risks with projects.

Slightly Mad has raised more than £400,000 for its new Cars project, though it is unknown if this fulfils the studio’s target budget.

The money was made across a five-month period.

The key distinction between World of Mass Development and Kickstarter is that the latter implements a thirty-day budget deadline.

Kickstarter has raised millions for game projects such as Double Fine’s mystery adventure game and Wasteland 2.

“It’s great to see our WMP portal performing well,” said Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell.