Founder's Journal #2

Our Kickstarter was extraordinary, but how we got there may be even more so.

These founders’ journals focus (mostly) on the struggles and the hard times, but with every breakdown comes the opportunity for triumph. If you take anything away from these posts, I hope that's it. I know I'm not the only one who has gone through this, nor will I be the last, but I believe sharing our stories is one of the best ways we can support each other. There’s a lot more to these stories, but I'm keeping it succinct for these posts.

I tried everything to get funding prior to taking on World of Anterra: equity investors, publishers, grants, work-for-hire projects, but most of these efforts fell short. The truth is, I was playing it safe. I had a dream and a vision to make World of Anterra, but I didn't think we were ready. We were focusing on smaller mobile projects, because I thought it would be an easier path. This meant the studio I was pitching and building was different from what I truly wanted, which was to make a PC/Console game. That's not a recipe for success, authenticity is.

The COVID lockdowns proved to be our first real test. We had a funding partner for our first game which was in soft-launch on iOS and Android, but the pandemic hit their business hard. And without any notice, our funds were gone. That was the first time I had to sit the team down and tell them I couldn't pay them anymore. I truly felt like I had failed. It was a hard conversation and there may have been some tears shed. But that was also the first time the team took a chance on me, and stayed. We made it through the next few months with the help of Canada's CERB program and some small contracts that I managed to dig up.

That's when I decided to stop playing small and swing big with World of Anterra.

My strategy at this point was to get CMF (Canadian Media Fund) funding, build an "MVP", and bring it to Kickstarter. We only had about 2 months left to apply for the Early Development Phase with the CMF, but I had been investing my free time designing and writing for over 2 years. The team had also been pitching in here and there, and we had a pretty clear vision for the game by this point.

After 2 months of hard work, I submitted our application with only a few hours left before the deadline... then we waited.

I felt excited and motivated by the hard work that went into our application and I was confident we would get it. CMF has a number of categories that they score projects on with different weighting for each one; team experience, project description, market fit... but innovation was one of the most valuable categories.

After weeks of waiting, our scores were in and we scored really high! … but unfortunately not high enough to receive funding. I believe their judges couldn't see past the pixel art, because pixel art doesn't scream innovative or cutting-edge.

I failed again and it stung, but I also learned a lot. The CMF has a structure and requirements that forced me to dig deep on the game mechanics, the business case, and the pitch. This became the foundation for other grant applications, as well as our Kickstarter campaign. We managed to scrape by the next few months. A few small grants and the COVID relief funds from the CMF kept us and World of Anterra alive...for a time.

Unfortunately, our funds would run out again. And again I found myself in front of the team telling them that we were out of money, but this time it looked even more bleak.

• Stephane - Game Director @ 81monkeys