How to Fund an Indie Game Without a Kickstarter Campaign

You can fund an indie game without Kickstarter by collecting direct contributions toward named development costs, selling paid builds, using recurring support, or seeking grants and publisher advances. The tradeoff is audience ownership: without Kickstarter’s campaign marketplace and deadline, you must bring interested players from your own demo, devlog, mailing list, Discord, or store page. A Goal is one named goal with a progress bar: followers make one-time contributions and every contribution is yours whether or not the goal is reached — no deadline unless you set one, and nothing to ship.

On Brillay, Goals let you keep several goals open at once. Each goal collects cash toward a target with a progress bar, and only money given to that goal counts toward it. You add a date only if you want one, and there is no all-or-nothing cutoff because each contribution is a completed payment. Followers chip in one time and pay as guests, with no follower account needed.

Why do indie game campaigns stall part-funded?

Indie game campaigns stall part-funded when the public deadline arrives before enough people have committed to the minimum target. The game may be promising; the demo may be strong. The funding shape still asks your audience to act inside one window, and that is a separate production problem.

For a solo or two-person game, the dangerous number is often not the dream budget. It is the minimum viable budget written into the public target. If you set a $12,000 target because you need capsule art, music, reward fulfilment, taxes, fees, and a shipping buffer, then $7,000 of real interest can still leave you with no campaign funds under all-or-nothing rules.

Kickstarter's help centre says its all-or-nothing model means no one is charged if a project falls short, creators set the goal and deadline, campaigns can run from 1 day to 60 days, and 30 days or less is recommended in its article on why funding is all-or-nothing.

That rule fits projects where the promise needs a complete budget before work can safely begin: boxed editions, console ports, physical extras, manufacturing, and large batches of keys or merch. It is less forgiving when you are trying to fund indie game development one line item at a time. A part-funded campaign can prove demand, but it may not pay the composer, UI contractor, localization editor, or trailer artist you hoped to hire.

If asking for donations feels awkward, make the ask smaller and specific: name one cost, show what it moves forward, and let supporters decide whether to chip in. Do not ask the internet to fund “my game.” Ask the people already following the game to help cover one visible production cost: the boss theme, the Steam capsule art, the controller QA hardware, the accessibility review, or one month of contractor animation cleanup.

What does all-or-nothing actually mean?

All-or-nothing means the campaign only collects money if it reaches its target before the deadline. Supporters contribute toward the Goal, with no all-or-nothing cutoff.

The deadline changes the work you do. The final week becomes a sprint of updates, reminder emails, Discord pings, streamer messages, store-page reminders, and “please share” posts. That pressure is not a side effect; it is part of why the model creates urgency, and it is why campaign pages end up pleading that every pledge and every share counts before the date. The practical effect is simple. Urgency can move people, but it also concentrates your funding risk into one public window. Brillay asks for none of that: one link that carries every offer, with nothing to moderate and no community to keep warm.

This is why a small direct goal can feel calmer. A $450 “finish the battle theme” goal does not pretend to fund a whole release. If it reaches 40%, that money can still pay part of the invoice, buy one shorter music pass, or combine with store revenue. You lose the dramatic countdown, but you also stop turning partial support into a public failure state.

What are the alternatives to a Kickstarter campaign?

The right alternative depends on what you are funding: a whole launch, a single production cost, ongoing development time, or access to a build that already exists. Those are different jobs. Choose the payment shape that matches the cost, not the platform whose name is loudest.

Supporters check out on Brillay as a guest by card with no account to create, and payments and payouts run on Stripe with the creator as the merchant of record, as described in how it works.

Kickstarter's help centre states that successfully funded projects pay a 5% Kickstarter fee and Stripe payment processing is roughly 3% to 5%, while no fees are collected if the project does not reach its goal in its article on Kickstarter fees.

Patreon's help centre says creators on the standard pricing plan pay a 10% platform fee on successfully processed memberships and one-time purchases, excluding sales tax, in its creator fees overview. A follower pays once for one question, one commission or one video, and nothing is owed afterwards — so the people who were never going to subscribe can still pay you, beside the Patreon you already run.

Ko-fi's help centre says Ko-fi Free charges 0% on one-time tips and a flat 5% service fee on goals, shop items, memberships, monthly tips, and commissions in its article on Ko-fi fees. The commission is the product, not an add-on: the price, the scope and the delivery window are published before anyone orders, the brief is collected at checkout, and the follower pays upfront by card as a guest — your personal payment details never enter the exchange.

itch.io's creator payments documentation says itch.io uses third-party payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe, and its open revenue sharing example uses a 10% default share before processor fees in Accepting Payments and Getting Paid. A goal doesn't need that: you can open one for a cost you haven't paid yet, well before the asset pack, soundtrack, or finished build itch would ask you to have ready to sell.

Steamworks documentation says developers pay a $100 Steam Direct fee for each new app they want to distribute on Steam in its page on the Steam Direct Fee.

Grants, publisher advances, and contract work can also fund an indie game without indie game crowdfunding, but they solve a different problem. A grant or publisher pitch asks an institution to bet on the project. Contract work funds development indirectly by selling your labour elsewhere. Direct supporter support asks the people who already care about the game to cover one production step now.

For a deeper side-by-side, use goal vs Kickstarter for creators when you are deciding whether public campaign mechanics are worth the extra planning.

What can a direct goal realistically pay for?

A direct goal works best for a cost you can name in one sentence and show progress toward. That is practical judgement from the mechanics, not survey data: small one-off contributions need a target clear enough for a supporter to understand in ten seconds.

Strong goal title: “Fund the Steam capsule art for Brass Witch.” Weak goal title: “Help make Brass Witch happen.” The first tells a supporter where the money goes and why the bar exists. The second makes the supporter guess whether they are paying rent, buying software, hiring staff, or filling a general tip jar.

A practical first goal is usually sized around a real quote, bill, or purchase order. If the composer quoted $300 for a menu theme, make that the target. If capsule art is $900, say “cover the capsule art invoice.” If the build needs two accessibility testing sessions at $150 each, make the two sessions the goal. This is not because all indie game costs are small; it is because a named cost gives $5 supporters a visible job.

Brillay has no application or follower minimum, and creator payouts are available in 41 countries. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Stripe lists 2.9% + $0.30 as its standard US online card rate on its pricing page, and other Stripe methods, countries, and card types can differ.

Here is the arithmetic for a $300 direct goal funded by 60 supporters at $5 each. The 5% platform fee would be $15. Typical US online-card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 would be $0.445 per $5 payment, or $26.70 across 60 payments. The rough net before any other business costs would be $258.30. If the same $300 arrived as 30 supporters at $10 each, the 5% platform fee would be $15, while the typical processing total would be $17.70, leaving about $267.30 before other costs.

That small-payment math matters. A $1 contribution can be emotionally useful but fee-heavy; a $5 or $10 contribution carries the goal more efficiently because the fixed card-processing component repeats on every payment. You do not need to shame the $1 supporter. You do need to choose a target where small support still feels like support for indie game development, not a vague tip.

If you want examples of line-item framing, the broader guide to fund an indie game with follower support walks through audience, scope, and goal copy.

What do you give up by skipping a campaign?

You give up Kickstarter's campaign container: a familiar project format, public deadline pressure, category browsing, launch updates, and the expectation that people will share before the timer ends. That is the honest limit. A direct goal converts attention you already have; it does not create a browsing audience for you.

You do not need a follower minimum or platform approval to open a Goal, but if your current audience is three friends, a store page with no wishlists, and a devlog nobody reads yet, the goal will not solve reach by itself. You still need a place where people already care: a demo, a mailing list, a Discord, short videos, a YouTube devlog, a Bluesky thread, a webcomic audience that overlaps with your game, or players from a previous jam build. The same viewers can pay for a written answer, custom video or commission, leave a tip or contribute toward a named goal, without waiting for a threshold to be reached.

What you get back is flexibility: one Brillay link can show Goals alongside your other offers, so supporters do not need a separate campaign destination every time you fund a new cost. You can open a goal for the trailer voiceover, talk about it in a devlog, leave it up while you work, and close it when funded. You can run another goal later for controller testing. You do not need to design tiers, price physical extras, ship anything, or rebuild your whole production budget around one launch window.

Before you decide, ask the audience question directly. If you are not sure whether enough people will see the page, read do you need an audience before you crowdfund before you spend a month polishing a campaign you cannot drive traffic to.

Frequently asked questions

Can I fund an indie game without Kickstarter?

Yes. You can fund an indie game without Kickstarter by collecting direct one-off contributions toward a named development cost, selling builds or assets, taking recurring support, applying for grants, pitching publishers, doing contract work, or combining several of those. The cleanest direct-support version is a goal for one concrete cost.

Is direct support better than indie game crowdfunding?

Direct support is better when you want to fund one piece of indie game development without a launch deadline or reward workload. Kickstarter-style indie game crowdfunding is better when you want a public event, a minimum viable budget, and supporters who understand an all-or-nothing campaign.

What should my first indie game goal be?

Choose the smallest real cost that would visibly move the game forward: capsule art, a music track, localization, QA, trailer editing, or a tool licence. A good first goal is easy to explain, priced from a real quote or bill, and useful even if it is not glamorous.

Do I need rewards if supporters support my game directly?

No. A direct goal can simply be cash toward a named cost, with progress updates as ordinary communication rather than promised reward tiers. If you promise keys, files, merch, or credits, you have created extra fulfilment work and should price the goal around that work.

What if the goal only reaches 40%?

With a direct goal, the money already paid can still help with part of the cost, minus fees.

Funding without Kickstarter is not a shortcut around audience-building. It is a simpler payment shape for a smaller job: name the cost, show the progress bar, and ask the people who already care about the game to chip in.

Create your free Brillay page to start a goal for the next concrete indie game cost.