Matthew Rappard Discusses The Fine Young Capitalists

Matthew Rappard Discusses The Fine Young Capitalists

with Julie Morley

We’ve been covering the The Fine Young Capitalists IndieGogo campaign for some time, with multiple interviews and previews; and now that things are wrapping up on their now successful campaign we thought it time to revisit things.  What better way to do that than to spreak with the man behind the campaign, Matthew Rappard.  I was able to interview Matt Rappard and the TFYC staff regarding TFYC’s origins and what the future may hold for this project. Here’s what they had to say:

Cliqist : Are you the founder of TFYC?

Matthew Rappard : (I am) considered the Bondsman on the Woman’s in game production and (I sit) on the board of TFYC

Cliqist : How did the TFYC get organized officially?

Matthew Rappard : TFYC was incorporated in January of this year. We have multiple board members who meet 4 times a year to discuss upcoming projects.

Cliqist : What inspired the concept for TFYC?

Matthew Rappard : TFYC was inspired because we felt that woman and other minorities weren’t being utilized in the work force. Or when they were hired for tokenism and their ideas weren’t valued. TFYC wanted to give people the opportunity to present their ideas professional so that people could invest in them. The idea was to encourage business to do the same by showing that people not only cared about woman’s idea, but their ideas could make money as well.

Women represent 45% of the video game industry but are in lead positions in less than 2% of the game. We felt that there was both a lack of representation in the workforce and also a lack of good character representation in the games. As such we felt this project solved both problems.

Cliqist : How many applicants did you have for TFYC?

Matthew Rappard : We had 100 applicants in all.

Cliqist : What qualities did you look for when sorting through the applicants and finding the top five? How will the pitches be scored?

Matthew Rappard : The Proposals will be judged by a panel, consisting of at least 5 nominees of TFYC, including the Bondsman, and other people previously involved in the game industry or in software design and development, and awarded points out of 80 on the following basis:

• The Originality of the idea as related to game play, use of the medium, story and aesthetic, as determined by a group of experts to be chosen by TFYC – 10 Points
• The Financial viability of the game as related to audience, expected revenue, and the ability to continual monetize the property over time, as determined by a group of experts to be chosen by TFYC – 10 Points
• The level of immersion or fun the user will have by playing the game, related to the interface, gameplay, progression and community involvement as determine by a group of experts to be chosen by TFYC. – 10 Points
• The presentation of the game as explain in the proposal related to the aesthetic of the game and any sound assets as determined by a group of experts to be chosen by TFYC – 10 Points
• Feasibility: The proposal will be judged on the feasibility of the game to be produced on a budget of $50,000 in a 6 month time frame. Factors including the length, graphics requirements, music and sound requirements, networking, back end server support and programming complexity will be used to determine this score. This score will be determined by an experienced video game programmer chosen by TFYC – 40 Points

The point categories described above are for guidance purposes only for the judges and shall not be necessarily determinative of the panel’s final decision, which shall be in its complete discretion. The panel may vary the weightage given to different characteristics. The panel or TFYC has no obligation to maintain records of its deliberations or to provide any such records to Participant or any third party.

Cliqist : Will you be running this exactly project a second time in the future?

Matthew Rappard : That depend on the success of the project, while we are encouraged by the support we have been given by the community we have not hit our goal yet. This is a very new idea and is highly experimental and extremely controversial as the hacking has indicated.

Cliqist : Are there any future projects/campaigns in mind for TFYC following this one?

Matthew Rappard : Snless a graphic novel production is currently taking applications. You can read about it here.

Cliqist : Lastly, if you could describe TFYC in five words, what would they be?

Matthew Rappard :

Trying very hard to help

Thanks to Matthew for taking the time to answer our questions!  To learn more about the Fine Young Capitalists be sure to check out of previous coverage.  You can donate to their IndieGogo campaign, if you like, until September 26th.

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 [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/julie.jpg” ]Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling.  Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.[/author]