So you've written your first game and decided on a price for it. Now it's time to get funding. But how? Especially as someone doing game design on an as-time-allows basis, generating funding can be hard - the usual business model, Kickstarter, requires a month-plus of dedicated time that some people just don't have.
Enter slowfunding.
Slowfunding is an alternative model where you gradually collect pre-orders for your game either until you reach some quantity of orders, or until you reach some quantity of funding. There are no stretch goals or early bird rewards - just a goal that has to be reached and, when it's reached, orders get fulfilled.
So, in the example above, DEMIGOD has a $500 slowfunding goal. Once that goal is reached, I'll send out for print copies. But print copies don't have to be the only goal when it comes to slowfunding - Monkey's Paw Games is using slowfunding for the ashcan edition of Fiends and Fortunes: in their specific case, they're using it to fund the interior art.
Slowfunding is a less stressful and more flexible way of crowdfunding projects. Instead of having to rush for funding in 30 days, you have the flexibility of not having a hard deadline. There's less of a risk of complete failure and a greater chance of your project being finalized - and all of this on a timeline that's much more friendly to you, the creator.
Okay, so you've decided you want to slowfund. How do you actually set that up?
First, decide on your slowfunding goal, just like you'd decide on the funding goal for a normal Kickstarter. Usually, you'd want to tie this to something tangible, like interior art or print copies. I decided on $500 for the DEMIGOD slowfund because it was how much I needed to do a print run, for example.
Once you've decided on your slowfunding goal, decide on how you're selling your games. If you're using Cardboard Monster, everything is already set up for you - Cardboard Monster's default model is slowfunding.
If you want to slowfund via Itch, it's a little different. Slowfunding via Itch is just a sale with a goal. Itch also allows you to set tiers like a standard Kickstarter - these are really just rewards that unlock at different price points.
After you've decided on your method of slowfunding, treat it just like you would any other crowdfunding effort - just on a longer timeline.
Hopefully this has opened your eyes to the world of slowfunding! If you have any questions around the process, feel free to reach out to me at chris@no-name-games.com.