Kickstarter hosts many different categories such as music, dancing, video, and crafts among other things for a total of fifteen categories. For those of us that wish we had a crowdfunding platform exclusively for games, look no further. Alex Griffis, the creator of GamePledge, has made this so. GamePledge doesn’t take the “one size fits all” approach that KickStarter has and will instead be entirely focused on a specialized experience for crowdfunded games. Now instead of narrowing the search to only, “games,” you’ll be able to look for games in the specific genre that you enjoy.
I interviewed Alex recently in order to get the latest details on GamePledge and how this will affect crowdfunded gaming. He was kind enough to talk to me, here are his responses.
Cliqist : Alright Alex, let’s start with you telling us a bit about yourself.
Alex : Sure! Well, my name is Alex Griffis, I live in the Rocky’s, have a beautiful wife, and am an avid gamer. While gaming is only a hobby, I have been working professionally as a web developer for 7 years.
Cliqist: That sounds great. For those of us that aren’t aware of GamePledge; would you mind telling us a bit about it?
Alex : GamePledge.com is a unique crowdfunding website that specializes in one area: games. GamePledge offers gamers a place that they can effectively browse through different categories to find a game they would want to play in their preferred genre. The benefit of this is that it helps gamers find what they want faster, and it provides the game creators a platform with an ideal audience. Because we don’t have 10, 15, even 20 different categories on our website, our project creators can feel confident that visitors to our website are there for only reason only, their games. Not so sound cheesey, but it definitely is “Crowdfunding For Gamers, By Gamers”. Because we focus only on gaming, this allows us to offer technology and features that other crowdfunding websites currently do not have.
Cliqist: So, this GamePledge idea looks great. Are you able to discuss any of the unique features that GamePledge has over its competitors?
Alex: I don’t want to give too much away before our official launch, but here is a sneak-peak of what is already developed and coming soon:
First of all, we really developed our look and feel with the priority of making it easier for gamers to find what they are looking for. If you look at other crowdfunding websites and are searching around for games, it is an absolute nightmare.
Next, we are proud to announce that we will have full Steam integration. This is going to be a great feature for both supporters and creators, whether you are trying to get your game approved for greenlight, browsing game profiles to get a better idea of your audience, or simply diving into the social apsects of GamePledge and publicly display the Steam/GP games that you have already supported.
My last sneak peak that I will give is that we will have protection for game-creators. A pledge is a commitment and the days where a supporter can withdraw their pledge are long gone. In addition to those features, we have also built upon many common features such as international payments, backend analytics, easy-to-use and great looking project pages, etc. We are really excited for everyone to see what we’ve got up our sleeves!
Cliqist: It’s nice to know you guys have put a lot of thought into this. When will GamePledge be available to us?
Alex: We are happy to announce that GamePledge.com is scheduled for launch on March 9th, 2015.
However, if game creators are interested before then, we have a “Coming Soon” page that will allow them to submit their email address. We will then contact them about their project ahead of time and have them ready to get their project live for when we go live.
Cliqist: Awesome! I’m excited to see where this goes. Do you have anything to say in closing?
Alex: Thanks, we are excited too! We want to thank everyone who has helped make GamePledge a reality and to remind the gaming community that we can’t succeed without you. There is nothing to lose, so give it a try!
A big thanks to Alex for speaking with us about GamePledge! Be sure to head on over and check them out!
