Fig opens $500k "Finishing Fund" for successful campaigns

Fig has established a $500,000 "Finishing Fund" for developers on its crowdfunding platform, citing the still mysterious price of Valve's new Steam Direct service as a motivating factor.

Starting today, any developer that attracts 1,000 or more backers on a successful Fig campaign will be guaranteed a minimum of $20,000, "sourced from our network of investors or Fig itself." The money is intended to help developers get their games ready for market through extra polish and localisation, as well as costs associated with marketing and distribution.

A blog post from Fig CEO Justin Bailey made frequent mention of Steam Direct, the service with which Valve will soon replace Steam Greenlight. The prospect of a new approach for developers to reach Steam is not necessarily unwelcome, but the price of admission still hasn't been set. As Bailey highlighted, the current estimates range from $100 to $5000.

"Investments from the Fig Finishing Fund are intended to help developers cover these costs so they can spend their money on completing their games," he said. In an editorial published today, Rob Fahey also addressed the possible impact of Steam Direct, and specifically an opportunity for "a new breed of publisher" to help smaller developers priced out of the dominant digital storefront on PC.

"At Fig, we don't make money by running crowdfunding campaigns, but are instead aligned with developers and investors, in that our upside is based on the ultimate commercial performance of the games we help publish," Bailed continued. "We make money only when games funded through Fig sell well."

Last month, Fig raised $7.84 million in series A funding.