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Indie games, or games developed by independent teams, provide numerous creative projects each year, without the budget and resources of a large game development company. Often composed of a small number of people (or a single individual), indie game developers have to tackle unique challenges relating to less manpower and smaller budgets.
The average indie game budget is between 50 and 750 thousand dollars, but there are some high rollers out there that have budgets over a million dollars. Here is a list of indie games with surprisingly high budgets.
8 Misc. A Tiny Tale – Up To $200,0000
This video game by Australian developer Tinyware Games follows two robots made of miscellanea as they meet new friends and collect items. The indie game developer has received grants from Screen Australia and Screenwest for production of Misc. A Tiny Tale.
Misc. A Tiny Tale is a recipient of Screen Australia’s Games: Expansion Pack Fund, along with ten other titles. The fund’s first round of funding in 2022 distributed upwards of $4 million to 30 games. Misc. A Tiny Tale received $150,000 in funding from Screen Australia. Screenwest’s Digital Games Production Fund provides grants up to $50,000, meaning Misc. A Tiny Tale has raised up to $200,000 in funding.
7 Kena: Bridge Of Spirits – 1 Million
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the debut video game from Ember Labs. It is action-adventure game centered around a young girl named Kena, who is responsible as a spirit guide for assisting spirits with traversing the physical and spirit worlds.
The game launched in 2021 to noted success; Ember Labs reported that the game only took a month to remake its budget, which is estimated to be about one million. Sony provided funding and marketing assistance to Ember Labs for Kena: Bridge of Spirits after viewing a tribute trailer to Majora’s Mask created by Ember Labs.
6 Neon White – 2 Million
Launched in 2022, Neon White is a first-person shooter and puzzle platformer game developed by independent developer studio Angel Matrix. The game challenges you to play as the hero Neon and defeat all the demons in a level as fast as possible.
Game Designer Ben Esposito calls the game “mid-budget” which he defines as being in the two million dollar range. Neon White received financial support from its publisher Annapurna Interactive, which allowed them to hire professional voice actors for the game.
5 Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night – 5.5 Million
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, created by former producer of the Castlevania series, Koji Igarashi. Unlike Castlevania which was published by the Japanese entertainment company Konami, Bloodstained game was funded by a Kickstarter.
Igarashi set a goal of $500,000 when he launched the Kickstarter, with the goal of proving the game’s popularity to investors. The Kickstarter reached this goal within hours of going live, and ultimately raised over five-and-a-half million dollars. By June 2015, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was the highest value video game Kickstarter project.
4 Shenmue 3 – 6 Million
Two months after Bloodstained set the record for highest value video game Kickstarter, Shenmue 3 shattered that record by raising 6.3 million dollars. The first Shenmue game was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time of its release in 1999, at an estimated 47 – 70 million dollars.
Yu Suzuki, who created Shenmue and Shenmue 2 for Sega AM2, created the company Ys Net, which received licensing for Shenmue from Sega, to create Shenmue 3. The Kickstarter raised over six million dollars, and the game received additional funding from other sources.
3 Shroud Of The Avatar – 12 Million
Another Kickstarter-funded project, Shroud of the Avatar is a fantasy RPG created by an Austin-based team Portalarium. It is considered to be the spiritual successor to the game Ultima.
Unlike other projects, less than two of the total 11 million dollars raised for this game came from Kickstarter. The rest was raised through Shroud of the Avatar itself. Stretch goals reached during fundraising allowed for extra features such as seasonal weather and guild-based combat.
2 Too Human – 60 Million
Too Human is an action RPG developed by Silicon Knights, a now defunct Canadian video game developer. You play as the Norse god Baldur, in a sci-fi realm where the Norse gods are cybernetically enhanced humans.
Production of the game spanned from 1999 to 2008. The game’s budget is estimated to have been between 60 and 100 million dollars, but unfortunately, a legal battle between the Silicon Knights and Epic resulted in every copy of Too Human being recalled and destroyed.
1 Star Citizen – 600 Million
Star Citizen holds the record for highest-funded crowdfunded video game, having raised over six hundred million dollars. Star Citizen is a space trading and combat first-person shooter game. The initial Kickstarter campaign launched by Cloud Imperium Games in 2012 garnered $2 million.
Astonishingly, a decade after that initial campaign, Star Citizen is most notable for the fact that it has yet to be released. Star Citizen currently holds the record for most expensive game of all time.
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