Square Enix Collective reveals first group of projects today

The Square Enix Collective announced the first group of titles players can vote on today, a trio hailing from smaller indie developers that have the next 28 days to convince gamers Square Enix should support them.

Through Square Enix's Collective initiative, announced last October, indie developers can pitch their games directly to gamers through the company's website. Over the course of a month, users can vote on which game they would like to see made. The winner will be set up for a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and will have Square Enix guide their title through production and distribution.

The three games up for voting are Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games' Game of Glens, a land and resource management simulator set in the Scottish Highlands; Kitfox Games' mythology-based open-world adventure Moon Hunters; and Tuque Games' World War Machine, an action role-playing game with some tactical and co-op features.

Square Enix notes on the project page that these developers will "have the exclusive run of Collective starting today and continuing for the next 28 days as we check everything's working properly, ahead of opening up submissions wide in a couple of months." Collective users can vote on which games they would like to see get made as well as interact with developers in the games' comments sections.

Collective project leader Phil Elliott told Games Industry International he doesn't see the Collective as a competitor to other venues like Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter because the publisher and developer can offer one thing other platforms don't: contacts and exposure.

"There are other platforms out there that seem to do similar things, but I don't really see us as in competition with anyone," he said. "What I really want people to be able to do is benefit from the scale of a publisher. By that I mean that at Square Enix we have an ability to access things which small teams and new teams don't. They just haven't got those relationships. Whether it's being able to talk to the press or having millions of people we can ping out a marketing email to — our social channels. It's easy for us to make those things available for teams."

In addition to Square Enix's marketing and development resources, studios pitching to the Collective also have a chance to use material from Eidos' catalogue of IPs. If the game is successfully made, Square Enix will take five percent of the total amount made through crowdfunding. If the game uses Eidos IP, Square will take 10 percent of net revenue and another 10 percent on top of that if the developer chooses to have Square distribute their title.

"We're not funding games directly," Elliot said. "Normally in the publisher developer relationship the publisher brings the money and the developer brings the expertise. We are creating a platform and we're inviting developers to make use of that platform.

"Revenue isn't the primary driver for us, launching Collective, we think it it's important for the industry that there are good pipelines for new talent and creativity to come through."