Tag Archives: Fig

Train2game News Jay and Silent Bob Game Funding

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Jump into the shoes of Lunch Box and Mr. Snoogans! The team at Interabang Entertainment is making a Jay and Silent Bob video game, called Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch!

Longtime fans of Kevin Smith’s Askew-niverse, the Interabang team is creating a game that captures the satire and irreverence of the movies and brings back the tone of the gone-before-its-time Clerks cartoon series. To kick off the project, Interabang Entertainment and Fig Publishing are giving fans a chance to get involved through a rewards and investment crowdfunding campaign for Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch on the Fig platform (www.fig.co ).

In Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, players get into a tag team combo fight fest and wreak havoc on their foes with fists, feet, and the magic of self-esteem-destroying jibes while embarking on a mission to find their long-lost pot customers trapped in an Orwellian mega super shopping mall. The mall turns out to be a Utopian labyrinth with apartments, restaurants, hospitals and everything that a post-World War II nuclear bunker would contain—with a candy coating of fun.

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is a colorful side-scrolling 2.5D, over-the-top multiplayer tag-team brawler whose action escalates as the player travels deeper into the mall of purgatory. The team is creating the narrative through environment, design, combat and a new conversation combat system called the Convo Combo mode. This mechanic changes the dynamics of enemy showdowns through cutting insults combined with an intricate facial animation system that bonds dynamic fighting with timed phrase matching. This delivers a completely different kind of storytelling experience. Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch also includes co-op play, where players finish each other’s combos, and create havoc in the world’s largest mall.

“People have asked me for years why I never made a Jay and Silent Bob video game,” said Kevin Smith.  “Now I can tell them I was waiting for Justin Woodward from Interabang Entertainment and our own Elias to bring it together.  Couldn’t be happier to hand our characters off to folks who know them as well as I do.”

“Kevin Smith’s films have long inspired our team,” said Interabang founder Justin Woodward.  “During development for our first game, we’d take breaks to watch them back to back. The iconic characters, hilarious dialogue, and sheer surrealism of the Askew-niverse got us through rough patches during development and life’s struggles. We kept coming back to thinking about how amazing it would be to see Jay and Silent Bob in a game like the ones we design, and we’re amazed that we have this opportunity now.”

“The first time I heard about Justin creating a game based on Jay and Silent Bob, I wanted it to be a Fig campaign. I mean, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes in a Castle Crasher style brawler, fighting with fists, feet and insults – what’s not to like?!” said Justin Bailey, CEO, Fig. “This campaign will provide traditional rewards, and accept accredited investment as well as unaccredited reservations which will be collected once they are re-confirmed after the SEC filing process is complete.”

Beginning today at 9AM PT, anyone can help fund the project at Fig.co, the only video game-centric funding platform that offers investment and rewards-based crowdfunding. Fig.co provides game studios and their fans with a more balanced and sustainable approach to game development that helps unite fans, investors and developers.

The Fig campaign funding goal for Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is $400K and the campaign is open to investment (through Game Shares to be offered by Fig Publishing) and rewards (being offered by Interabang). Rewards range from premium digital goodies and new action figures based on designs from the game, to signed custom Kevin Smith-style jerseys and a walk-on in Kevin Smith’s next movie!

Train2Game News New Crowdfunding Platform

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Today Fig announces the launch of its funding platform, which provides developers a new way for their games to be financed and produced.

Fig is the first platform targeted solely at video games that offers reward-based crowdfunding as well as access to investment crowdfunding. Fig’s aim is to provide a curated experience that strikes a balance between titles from well-known independent studios and ones from up-and-coming indie teams. Investment crowdfunding is currently limited to accredited investors only, but pursuant to a recent regulatory development, Fig plans to open up investment opportunities to everyone in the near future.

“Games are one of the leading sectors in rewards-based crowdfunding and continue to evolve the whole medium; Fig’s approach is to customize our platform to what works best for games,” said Justin Bailey, CEO of Fig. “This includes supporting investment crowdfunding where the fans have the opportunity to participate in the financial success of the games they help make possible.”

Fig received seed funding for its launch from Spark Capital, a top-tier venture capital firm that has invested in many leading creative companies including Oculus, Twitter and Slack.

Fig’s advisory board – Urquhart, Fargo, and Schafer – who have created some of the most successful rewards crowdfunding campaigns and game launches, will participate in the pitch process and mentoring of the developers using the platform. They will also be using Fig to fund future titles from their studios Obsidian Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Double Fine Productions.

“Feargus, Tim and I have all experienced the many challenges of bringing our games to market and nurturing great talent along the way,” said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile. “We’re proud to be creating an ecosystem that better supports developers and their fans in the quest to bring their passion projects to life—and we believe Fig will become the best option to get games funded in the future.”

For Fig, funding is just the start – plans are in place to support developers through the entire life cycle of their games. The company has already started filling its pipeline with prospective titles for 2015.

Fig’s first campaign, Outer Wilds, won the 2015 Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards Grand Prize and Excellence in Design. Created by Alex Beachum, the title will be developed by Masi Oka’s (of Heroes’ and Hawaii-Five-O fame) Mobius Digital studio. Outer Wilds’ funding goal of $125,000 will give the team the tools to upgrade the artwork, polish the game systems, and bring much more content to the experience. For more information on Outer Wilds or to contribute, click here.

“We’re excited about this opportunity because, as indie developers, creative control and IP ownership are critical,” said Masi Oka. “Having a crowdfunding platform specifically targeted to games also allows us to reach and focus our marketing to the gaming community.”