Games are one of the strongest categories on crowdfunding services — Kickstarter project, Star Citizen, was the most highly funded campaign yet. Now a recent survey of European games industry professionals show they will use crowdfunding to raise funding for future creations.

Crowdfunding? Game on

It makes sense. You see, what these services do is offer investors the chance to buy things they like in advance: a book, a movie, an app, a game. That’s because the product being talked about is usually also the main available gift.

Games studios spend millions on their titles, and lose millions, too. Crowdfunding offers them a way to reach their potential audience, talk about the title they have in mind, and then test the market to see which titles are most robust — they don’t have to do anything if the funding fails to meet target. In recognition of the importance of games to its service, Kickstarter recently launched its “Play Now” video game service, selling successfully funded titles via Steam.

Industry shift?

These could be some of the reasons 41 percent of European games developers are already planning to use crowdfunding to finance future projects (according to the regular GDC State of the Industry survey by the organisers of Game Developers Conference, Europe).

Around 10 percent of European games developers and 11 percent of North American game developers are already using crowdfunding to finance their current project, up from 4percent last year.

The regulatory environment is part of the problem At present the only EU countries in which a developer can apply for such funding for a game are the Netherlands and UK. However, there is a danger that indie developers will be crowded out by the brand appeal of the big names, warns Gamasutra.

Choose your game

So, what games projects are currently seizing the oxygen on the big crowdfunding websites? It turns out there’s quite a few vying for attention:

Disparity Games (Australia) has launched a Kickstarter campaign for new title, Ninja Pizza Girl, an adventure game featuring a ninja pizza delivery ‘associate’ trying to get to her customers in some kind of dystopian cyberpunk hell.

Also on Kickstarter, Skymap Games is pitching for funds for new platform fighter, Bacon Man. He’s wandering around some weird location fighting off enemies with a variety of pork-tinged weaponry.

Then there’s After Reset, an RPG title set in a post-apocalyptic world. Dubbed by games mag, Joystiq, as “the Fallout 3 we never got” this title’s winning a lot of praise from critics for its visuals, music and compelling story line.

It turns out Indiegogo has a few interesting gaming titles to take a look at, too: there’s the darkly addictive Tormentum – Dark Sorrow and the incredibly promising (because the sport’s so far been overlooked) Lacrosse video game for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

The big reward-based services aren’t the only game (sorry – Ed) in town — there’s even a couple of games-only crowdfunding sites, so if you’re looking to invest in games development check out:

• Gambitious
• Gamesplanet Lab
• LookAtMyGame
• Pozible

All the above are worth a look if you want to put some money into the next big game in town. With this side of the sector set to become incredibly volatile, you’re going to be spoilt for choice when it comes to putting your chips on the gaming table.

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Proof that crowdfunding is breaking out the box to become a powerful viral force in current culture comes on news of a reality TV show about it, Reality Crowd TV.

Television’s people

The show will focus on how Americans can use crowdfunding as a finance tool to raise cash to start a small business, fund a creative project or donate money to help make the world a little better.

“Our Reality TV show aims to show exactly what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and what is needed to run a successful business and fundraising campaign, specifically highlighting the Crowdfunding movement as a way to finance the costs of bringing the entrepreneurial dream to reality,” the group says on its site.

The show makers say they are launching the series to try to educate entrepreneurs and investors into how to use these services properly:

Crowdfunding wisdom

“Most project creators when they first hear about crowdfunding have a great idea one day and are launching their crowdfunding campaigns the next. This is a recipe for failure,” says Founder Manolis Sfinarolakis.

They quite rightly point out that successful pitches need to be put together across a 3 to 6 month time frame in order to build enough momentum to raise 30% of a crowdfunding campaign’s funding goal within the first week. Why? Because when you reach that goal, all the stats so far suggest there’s a 90% chance project creator’s will get the rest of the cash they need. And investors look for ideas that break that magical 30% mark.

Reality Cloud TV hasn’t won a contract with a mainstream TV channel yet – though it seems pretty possible it will in a kind of “Dragon’s Den meets the Internet” way. And it seems pretty certain that someone somewhere down the line is going to pitch a TV show like this one.

Reality Cloud TV has announced its July programming and events calendar.

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Crowdfunding site, Indiegogo just saw the Solar Roadways project become its most well-funded crowd fund campaign yet.

This means one day the road you drive may also generate solar electric power for your home. That’s the promise of Solar Roadways’ crowdfunding campaign. The crowdfunding round closed with $2.2 million funding last week — double what entrepreneur, Scott Brusaw, had asked for.

How it works

Solar Roadways replaces roads with solar panels which you can drive on. If they work it means highways will become power grids capable of powering the entire country. While there’s skepticism about the idea, Brusaw has raised a couple of million dollars from the crowd to help make it work.

He claims the glass in the modular pavers that shield the solar panels can handle the weight of any big truck. Eventually he wants the system to be generating power on highways, footpaths, driveways, playgrounds…

He has set Indiegogo records: the most popular campaign ever seen on the crowdfunding site, Solar Roadways attracted 48,000 backers from all across the US and 164 other countries.

Next step

The next step? Brusaw will test a prototype in Sandpoint, Idaho. He believes his system could eventually generate three times the electricity currently used in the US, while improving road safety and greenhouse gas emissions.

“At the end of the year we’ll have a finished product,” he told Yahoo News. “Once we’re convinced the final product works in a parking lot, we’ll try residential roads. Then, eventually, the fast lane of a highway.”

Solar Roadways was selected as a Finalist in the World Technology Award For Energy, presented last year in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, and Science.

Crowdfunding future

Investors and entrepreneurs take note: the rush to invest in this idea suggests there’s huge demand for crowdfunding projects combining social good with environmental concerns.

Join the other 16 million people who watched the project video below.

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