游戏开发者谈游戏行业融资时常见的五个问题

原作者：Ella Romanos 译者：Vivian Xue

我工作的很大一部分是审核产品推介，与开发者交流融资问题，以及与投资人合作。人们经常问我一些相似的问题，涉及举债的风险、融资的方式，或者评估产品价值的难度。

两年前，我们发布了一个投资方名单网，自那以后，网站迎来了超过5000名独立访客。显然开发者们希望能更便捷地获取信息，从而寻找合适的融资渠道。

由于经常收到同样的问题和担忧，我们整理出了五个要点，希望能帮到准备融资的开发者们。

Warhammer 40000: Freeblade（from pocketgamer.biz）

1. 收入预测真正的意义是什么？

谈到收入预测，常见的疑虑是：我们应该基于哪些数据和假设预测收入，以及它的准确度如何；收入预测是否能反映游戏业务未来的表现。

根据我的经验，收入预测与实际收入吻合的可能性，类似道格拉斯·亚当斯的餐厅预约理论：“任何成员都不可能在约定时间到达。”换句话说，唯一能确定的是实际收入永远和预测收入不相符。

那么，既然收入预测不准，它的意义何在呢？因为我们很在乎这个问题：游戏可能取得怎样的成功？

我们知道无法预测游戏收入。我们知道游戏市场的主流是优先推崇热门产品，一款游戏是否成功是无法保证的。我们也知道这个行业瞬息万变，获得曝光是如此困难。

但我们想要知道：为什么我们要为这个游戏下赌注？你有什么证据能证明它有市场潜力，能取得商业成功？

为了得到答案，我们需要对比其它同类游戏的数据并理解你所作的假设是如何得出结论的——即为什么你的游戏能成功。

因此，收入预测的关键在于让投资人相信你的假设、你对市场的了解，以及理解你的游戏将如何取得商业成功。

2. 举债是件坏事吗？

如今开发者可选择的融资方式如此之多，弄清哪条渠道最合适变得很困难。然而，融资方式大致分为3类：

(1) 债权融资

(2) 股权融资

(3) 项目融资

关于股权融资和项目融资存在许多优缺点讨论，但债权融资往往被开发者视为一种消极的方式。然而，债权融资是一种极有价值的融资方式，可以说与股权、项目融资同样值得考虑。

为什么举债不是件坏事？

首先，债权融资的成本大大低于股权和项目融资。项目融资，你必须交出一大部分游戏收入，股权融资则要求你放弃一部分公司股份，而债权融资，你可能只要支付一定比例的借款利息。

第二，债权融资过程相对快捷（假设你符合条件）。债权融资通常几周内就能完成，甚至更快，过程也比较直接。贷款方不太在意你的故事，不需要你进行精彩的PPT演讲，或者被你们卓越的团队和游戏理念所震撼。他们只需要一些事实信息，据此判断是否出资。

第三，债权融资能有效地加速你的商业发展，无论是通过贷款减税增加现金流，支撑游戏开发制作，或是使用流入现金获取用户。诚然，债权融资通常需要抵押物做担保，但考虑到减税、收入、数据、资源等方面，这是一种对许多企业来说可行的方式——并且企业能够受益于债权机制，有效增加现金流和扩大商业规模。

通过债权融资获取资金对于用户获取来说至关重要，但对于游戏开发制作同样关键，你可以通过贷款减税或其它抵押物来增加现金流。

3. 为什么一些投资基金要收费？

许多开发者经常问：为什么有些投资基金收费，另一些不收费呢？

从表面上看，这似乎对开发者来说很不公平，因此开发者们往往更青睐那些不收费的基金。然而，是否收费不是基金公司单方面决定的，这取决于他们的运作模式。

第一种模式是基金公司(风险投资往往属于这类）从投资者那里直接筹集资金。这些资金被聚集到一起，由这些基金公司进行管理，然后把它们借贷给符合标准的公司或者项目。这些标准将由投资人和基金公司共同制定，因此基金公司无法贷款给不符合标准的公司或项目。这是大多数开发者熟悉的模式。

然而，还有另外一种，也是游戏行业内常见的模式（许多SEIS/EIS基金使用的都是这种模式）。在这种模式下，基金公司手头有一批对投资公司或项目感兴趣的客户。基金公司了解这些投资人感兴趣的投资领域。当他们发现投资人感兴趣的公司或项目时，他们会找到投资人，专门为该公司或项目筹款。

在第一种模式中，基金公司已经把他们的筹款成本算入基金中。然而，在第二种模式中，基金公司每次为项目筹款都会产生费用。因此，他们会向申请筹资的公司收取这些费用。

4. 数据的价值是什么？

开发者经常失望地发现，除非他们的游戏制作达到一定阶段，否则投资者不愿意投资。这与风险和需求有关——投资者有许多项目可以选择，因此为什么要冒险投资一款刚起步的游戏呢？

随着游戏即服务趋势，这种情况越来越常见。数据是一把双刃剑。数据能为投资者提供评估游戏是否成功的依据，但它也意味着，如果你没有数据，他们不会投资你。

那么问题来了，你能多早开始收集数据，从而取得投资者的信任呢？

超休闲游戏在这方面做得特别好——他们能在制作几天后开始收集数据。投资者只会继续投资数据良好的项目，并且这种快速失败和以数据为导向的开发方式值得更多游戏借鉴。

如果数据是获得投资的关键，你将如何尽早收集数据，从而说服投资者呢？

5. 谈论失败没有问题

谈论失败并不容易，然而，我们可以从失败中学习。当你和投资者——或者，事实上是和任何利益相关者沟通时，注意保持透明和诚实，不要试图隐瞒曾经遇到的挑战。坦然承认经历过的失败，最重要的是你们从中获得的经验教训，展示你们如何从失败中走出。

投资者明白事情总有出错的时候——任何项目都会遇到挑战。他们需要弄清你们是什么样的人，是否能主动和建设性地应对这些挑战。你们意志坚定吗？你们擅长处理问题吗? 你们从先前的失败中吸取教训了吗？变得更强大了吗？不会重蹈覆辙吗？他们能放心把钱交到你们手上吗？

向投资人展示你们过去是如何应对挑战的，这将使他们对你们树立信心。不要假装自己过去一帆风顺，这没用，也显得不真诚。人投资人，前提条件是理解和信任。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

I spend a lot of time reviewing pitches, talking to developers regarding funding, and working with financers. I often get asked similar questions, regarding worries about debt, what different funds types there are, or the difficulty of valuing products.

Two years ago, we launched the financer list, and since then we’ve had more than 5000 unique visits to that part of our website. There is a clear need for more easily available information that helps developers find the right funding solution that works for them.

Since we often hear the same questions and worries, here are five things that we hope will help developers to prepare for the funding process.

What is a revenue forecast really for?

When we talk about revenue forecasting, we often worry about what data and assumptions to base it on, and how accurate it will be; whether the forecast we’ve built will reflect what the game or business will make.

In my experience, the likelihood of a forecast matching what you will actually make in revenue is akin to Douglas Adams’ theory on restaurant reservations: “the given time of arrival is the one moment of time at which it is impossible that any member of the party will arrive.” In other words, the only guarantee that you have is that your actual revenues will never match your forecast.

So, what is the point of a forecast if we all know it’s not actually going to come true? Because what we really care about is the answer to this question: What could success look like?

We know that you can’t predict how much money your game will make. We know that games is a hit-driven business, and that we can’t guarantee success. We know how fast the industry changes and how difficult it is to get discovered.

But what we want to know is: Why is this the game we should take a risk on? What evidence can you show us that this game has market potential to be commercially successful?

And to do that, we need to look at the data from other comparable games and understand the assumptions you’ve made to draw your conclusions on why, if your game is successful, you could have a commercial success.

The key to a revenue forecast, therefore, is actually to make funders confident in your assumptions, your knowledge of the market, and your understanding of how games can be turned into commercial successes.

Why debt is not evil

There are so many types of financing available to developers these days, that it can be difficult to work out what sort of funding you should apply for. However, funding can be broadly split into 3 categories:

1. Debt
2. Equity
3. Project funding

There is often a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of equity versus project funding, yet debt is often viewed in a negative way by developers. However, debt is an extremely valuable source of funding, and one that should arguably be given equal consideration alongside equity and project funding.

So why is debt not evil?

Firstly, it’s a significantly cheaper source of funding than either equity or project funding. Whereas with project funding you will be giving away a large percentage of your game revenues, and with equity you will give up a share in your business, with debt you will likely pay only a few percent in interest on the amount you borrow.

Secondly, it’s much quicker to get debt financing (assuming you meet the criteria). Debt financing can usually be completed in a matter of weeks, if not quicker, and the process can be quite straightforward. The debt financer doesn’t particularly care about your story, they don’t necessarily need a beautiful presentation or to be wowed by your amazing team and game idea. They require a set of factual information on which to base a yes/no decision.

Thirdly, debt is a very useful form of funding to allow for acceleration of your business, whether that is cash-flowing production via loans against tax relief, or cash-flowing user acquisition spend. Debt does usually require collateral to secure against, but between tax reliefs, revenues, data, assets and more, this is a viable route for many businesses — and it provides access to a debt facility that allows you to cashflow and scale your business effectively.

This is becoming particularly relevant for cash flowing user acquisition spend, but can also be used to cashflow your production, through loans against tax relief or other collateral.

Why do some investment funds charge fees?

One question we hear a lot of developers ask is, why does one investment fund take a fee out of the amount of money they are giving me, when another one doesn’t?

On the surface, that doesn’t seem fair and developers often look more favourably on the funds that don’t take fees. However, this isn’t something that investment funds just decide to do or not to do. Investment funds actually operate in two completely different ways, and this dictates which model they have to use.

The first model is one where an investment fund (typically a venture capitalist will fall into this model) raises money themselves from investors. This money goes into a pot which the investment fund manages and later invests into companies or projects that meet the agreed criteria. These criteria will have been agreed on by the investors into the fund itself, and therefore the investment fund cannot invest in companies or projects that do not meet these criteria. This is the model that most developers are aware of.

However, there is a second model, which is also common in games (several SEIS/EIS focused funds use this model). That is where the investment fund has a group of investors who are interested in investing into companies or projects. The investment fund will know the types of opportunities that these investors are interested in. When the investment fund finds a company or project that it would like to invest in, the fund goes to its investors, and raises the money from one or more investors specifically for that opportunity.

In the first model, the investment fund has already written its own costs into the funds it raised from investors. However, in the second model, the investment fund has costs which are incurred for every project it raises money for. Therefore, they charge some of these costs to the company for whom they are raising money.

What’s the value of data?

A common frustration for developers is that funders don’t want to fund your game until you’ve got quite a long way through making it. It’s all about risk and demand — the funders have plenty of games to choose from, so why take the risk on games that are at an earlier stage?

This has become even more common since games have become services. Data can be a double-edged sword. Data gives the funder the ability to assess more reliably whether or not the game can be successful, but it also means that funders don’t want to invest until you have data.

So the question is, how early can you gather data that can give funders confidence in your game?

Hypercasual games have become exceptionally good at this — they are able to gather data after a few days of production. Funders will only continue to fund the ones that show positive data, and this method of failing fast and data-driven development is one that more games could take lessons from.

If data is now the key to investment, how can you gather data to convince funders as early as possible in your production pipeline?

Failure is okay
It can be difficult to talk about failure; however, failure is how we learn. When talking to financers — or, in fact, to any stakeholders — it’s important to be transparent and honest, which means not trying to hide the challenges you’ve faced in the past. Being open about the failures you’ve had, and most importantly the lessons you’ve learned, can help demonstrate how you will deal with challenges that come up in the future.

Financers know that things are going to go wrong at some point — all projects face challenges. What they need to know is whether you’re the type of person they can trust to deal with those challenges pro-actively and constructively. Are you determined and good at problem solving? Have you learned from previous failures and come through it stronger and unlikely to make the same mistake again? Are you someone that they want to trust with their money?

Showing financers how you have handled challenges in the past will allow them to build confidence in how you will act in the future. Pretending that you have had no failures in the past won’t help, because it won’t appear honest. People invest in people, and to do that, they need to trust you and understand you.(source：Gamesindustry.biz)