Funding game development isn’t easy, especially if you’re a small independent developer.
Without the kind of steady corporate backing a larger studio such as Raven Software enjoys, getting creative is the key to success and survival. And that’s what Aaron and Forest San Filippo, the brothers behind Madison’s Flippfly Games, are trying with their latest project.
The game is called Cats Fly Helicopters, an open-world PC game featuring — surprise! — cutesy cartoon cats flying helicopters around a city, navigating obstacle courses, delivering pizzas and bowling (yes, bowling) from the skies. It began life as TaxiCopter, the winner of a 2017 Twitter poll, but has since ballooned into something much more ambitious.
“Making a game people will want to spend money on is tricky to begin with,” says Forest San Filippo. “As the market gets flooded with really good games, the possibility of making a game that just disappears increases.”
Like a lot of creative types these days, the brothers have launched a Patreon account to attract supporters and generate revenue. But they’re not just relying on the latest chic crowdfunding platform to get the job done. They’ve also vowed to produce and release a “TinyGame” each month until the game’s release, hoping that the proceeds will be enough to see the project through to early access on Steam, the PC world’s premier gaming platform, in late spring/early summer.
The first of these, a little number called Twelvesmith, was released a few weeks ago on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. (You can also play it for free in your internet browser). It combines the hex-matching concept the brothers used in their last game, 2018’s Evergarden, and concepts from the popular app Threes. Future TinyGames will include mini versions of features from Cats Fly Helicopters. For instance, members of Flippfly’s Patreon Nation have made it clear they’re down for a cat trampoline park game — so the San Filippos have given them one. It’s available now.
Forest is aware that parsing out a game’s content ahead of release carries a risk. But these days, so does the alternative.
“Time was you could sell a game on its appeal and value,” Forest says. “A lot of things have changed that equation. The bigger risk is holding it back,” he says. “We want to invest in the parts people are playing. For us, the real value is the feedback and word of mouth.”
These days, word of mouth means attracting the attention of “Let’s Play”-type streamers on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Since many of the top streamers and influencers are sponsored these days — an expense Flippfly obviously can’t afford — they’re opting for a bottom-up approach, letting their Patreon backers get a look behind the curtain. It’s all part of the game of modern game development.
“As soon as you figure things out, the ground shifts,” says Forest. “You have to be agile.”
