Anybody have experience with epic megagrants?
grand marshal polycounter
I wonder if it's worth taking some time to pursue or not in my specific case.
I have a vertical slice of a game that is decently put together, but it's very niche and would be a shock to me if it sold more than several thousand copies. But it is a unique product with almost no competition, and I don't take it that the purpose of a grant is to get an ROI - it's more about helping to catalyze noteworthy up-and-comers development, I guess?
Looks like epic megagrants doesnt even ask for a budget analysis if you are asking for less than $ 20k, which I wouldnt be asking for that much.
Anyway, just curious if anybody here ever dealt with it or similar experience and has somethign to say about it.
Replies
It's a great program that can really help a small team or solo dev. We received a grant shortly after Epic started the program. We had a rough vertical with major features fully working (less final polished art/bug free net code/final music and sounds). For us, receiving the grant kept the doors open and brought validation to our pursuits. They never asked for an ROI and only received royalties after we did a release in UE. The release of that vertical didn't happen until years later, but the grant helped the team work on a completely different project in the same engine in the meantime. In the end, I'd say the program really worked well for both sides and it is good PR for everyone. If you are confident in your work, get it to a point that you find it enjoyable to experience and click submit!
@Firebert ,
did you put together a whole pitch for the megagrant? Like make a trailer, a pitch video, stuff like that? Did the grant review team play your game vertical slice? Did you have a very well defined budget proposal/spending plan?
sorry for lots of questions, I just never did anything like this before, don't know the audience, and my game isn't going to be immediately fun for non-enthusiast of the very narrow niche, hence some apprehensions about if it's even worth the time for me to apply.
@Alex_J I wasn't involved in going through the application process, but I do believe Epic were able to play the vertical. At the time of submission, we knew we had something fun to play but were still working through various forks in the road. I'd recommend honing in on how to resolve your apprehensions. The research of pinning down exactly where you are in development, knowing who your audience is and what they enjoy, seeing what titles do well in their gameplay and what others do poorly, etc. can really help you draw your own map on where you want to go in development. The time it takes to do that research and document a plan of action could take a while, but it's definitely worth the investment. If you could get your title to about 80-85% complete and know exactly what you have left to polish, you could feel confident enough to apply for the grant and still release it knowing your apprehensions have been diminished. At the very least you would have a plan available with a vertical slice to show a publisher or release on Early Access to build a following.
Thanks! Sounds like a good plan.
About knowing the audience, I meant knowing the epic grantors - sorry for confusion.
It may not be appropriate to go for it in my case because really the only major goal of this project was for me to learn how to make a game on my own, thus I don't have any really defined plans. I have clear vision for the game itself but besides that I am mostly just winging it. So it would be hard for me to say what exactly I'd do with some money, and how much I'd need. I don't think it's worth spending money on the project currently, unless I did go EA with it and it was doing pretty well.
Then again it kinda seems stupid not to try. It isn't insignificant effort I've put into project and maybe I'm viewing it all wrong or something. Who knows. Perhaps trying to get better confirmation that there is an audience via going EA would be the best thing to do in this case. It never would be a game that has a chance to be big on launch day, so i dont think there is much to lose there. People who would want to play this game wont be coming into it from a media hype train.
Anyways, appreciate the advice! From who I've seen successfully get the grants, it does seem to be more small teams that have clear plan of action, not so much people in position like I am currently.
Update:
so epic has some "evangelist" you can reach out to, and they got back to me and set up a meeting within one day. Pretty cool.
more info here:
UNREAL INDIES - Unreal Engine
Congrats! Experiencing the process of preparing for a grant, finalizing a full release, supporting your own work and getting it out there is enlightening, humbling, and rewarding above all. Any step forward is still a step forward. I'm very happy to hear you dug deep and found a channel to present your work. I hope this really works well for you and your growth in game dev. Good luck with your meeting!