Art development in a crowdfunded environment
summary
Crowdfunded development uses a steady cadence of public builds and feedback: Kos Reborn shipped roughly monthly backer releases, Phoenix Point aimed for one every two months and landed on five backer builds before final launch. Funding came via Kickstarter and Fig, team size scaled to 50–60 people, and work combined heavy modular art, shaders and procedural tools with large hand-authored map chunks. Notable tradeoffs: a complex Mist visual had to be simplified for performance, vehicles and UI went through extensive user testing, and the game launched to positive reception.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Art direction in crowdfunded games
- 2:29Crowdfunding backer releases
- 3:35Kos Reborn to visual foundations
- 7:18Phoenix Point funding strategy
- 10:29Backer build visuals
- 13:44Procedural generation evolution
- 16:11Strategic layer focus
- 17:55Phoenix faction gameplay
- 19:45Final backer build improvements
- 22:37Final release feedback
- 23:19Q&A on procedural generation
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