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Note for large investors: private (non-glbse) arrangements are possible. PM to discuss.

THE IPO:
Battalion: Genesis, a 3D video game set in 2252 AD needs you! Well, investors, that is. This Initial Public Offering is a serious attempt aimed at raising funds to support this real world project, with an estimated 12-18 months of development remaining.

Ticker? BTGN
Date? Some time in September 2012, possibly early October.
Price? 10,000 shares are going up for grabs initially, so for a 1% stake in net profit you would be looking to own 500 shares. The IPO (on GLBSE) will offer shares at the following rates:
3000 @ 0.95 btc per share
4000 @ 1.00 btc per share
3000 @ 1.05 btc per share
Each share entitles the holder to a monthly payment of 0.002% of net profits from unit sales of the project, for no less than 3 years after official release, plus at any time prior to official release.

So what are the details?
This IPO of 10,000 shares will be allocated 20% of total net profits from sale of the game for no less than 3 years after release (0.002% of total net profit per share). It is expected to sell in the vicinity of 100k units, with an expected net income of around $10/sale should it appear on Steam, and $15 from direct sale, both based on $24.95 purchase. There is definitely potential for 1m+ sales, and a break-even requirement of approx 60k units. This genre (space) is picking up speed and interest, and is still looking for a modern killer app. The reason for the 3 years, is that since this is a project investment and not a business investment, and the vast majority of sales typically occur in the first 12 months of a game's release, 3 years is the time expected to generate nearly all of the revenue. Should revenue still be strong after 3 years, there is no reason for this to stop - I just want to be able to lower my maintenance if income diminishes to a trivial amount (eg $100/month). There will possibly be an arrangement made to purchase outstanding stock at this time, and shut down returning all remaining liquid equity to shareholders. Investment in this project does not give the investor any rights to the Intellectual Property of the game, as they are owned by myself and given to the project while it exists.

I am seeking funding to cover regular bills (via salary), software licenses, equipment and any outsourcing or contractor hire over this time. Should enough funding be made available, further developers will be hired to either speed or increase production value. Any further issued shares will be exactly matched by an increase in the portion of net profits allocated - that is, if 10,000 more shares are issued after the initial 10,000, 40% of net profit will be allocated to all shares instead of 20%. This means there will be no effect on the ROI for existing shares (0.002% of total net profit per share), and there is an ultimate cap of 50,000 shares, but selling all of those would leave nothing for me. I intend to sell a 20% stake of my future earnings on this game to achieve the above, and will sell more if necessary to hit deadline.

I am only issuing 10k shares on GLBSE, and not 50k while keeping 40k myself, to save unnecessary overhead (paying myself dividends). I intend to keep my portion of income in a mixture of fiat and btc, and I don't want to unnecessarily waste money in exchange. This also means I cannot sell my own offline share of future earnings on the open market, and I will not be personally profiting directly from this IPO, except for the ability to regularly draw a salary as lead developer. All funds raised in this IPO will belong to the project and will be accounted for. I will also be paying all dividends in btc via the GLBSE interface.

I have been working on this both full time and part time so far, with approximately 1 year full time equivalent development under my belt, and would like to continue full time but to do so I will now need investor support. I have been producing this under my own steam so far and was ready to continue, but due to a significant one-off  event in my personal life, my finances have been drained too much to be able to achieve this sensibly. I have a very clear vision of the final product, and the innovative gameplay I am going to offer, so instead of wasting time and momentum working elsewhere to save and self-support again, I'm seeking capital on GLBSE or through investors and offering a cut of profits in return.

The Game Itself
The best way to describe the gameplay, is to imagine if Battlezone II, Homeworld and Tie Fighter had an orgy spawning an awesome ninja space faring offspring, you would be playing this game. Also he was mentored by Chuck Norris. It is a  FPS/tactical RTS set in Newtonian space in a conflict between Earth and human colonized Mars, and is currently pre-alpha. This is also your chance to own a piece of it before everyone knows about it.

I am dedicated to completing this task, and all of the ground work already laid has been produced under my own steam. I also expect to be fully verified on GLBSE (I have already submitted all info), and will keep the relevant financial details available on google docs. There is not much to show right now, but this will go online soon. By investing in this project, you are helping to bring to life an exciting piece of the explosive video game market, as well as sharing in it's rewards. This IPO is not a stake in future projects, but in the earnings from this specific project. Should I setup a business producing games, I may sell shares of that in the future.

More details of the game already under production, including screenshots, videos and even a test download can be found at: http://www.blisteringdevelopers.com/blog/
For a more detailed background storyline and gameplay description, see here: http://www.blisteringdevelopers.com/blog/about/

Risks that may affect ROI

1) Space is "in" but may soon be "out" - There are several games set in space that have been released recently, as well as a few on the horizon, and most aren't selling well. How will this effect BTNG?
The lack of space games has indeed driven the production of several games recently. However, all games so far have tried to recapture old ground (4X or Sandbox), and none have been set in our own solar system. BTNG's storyline is based around a local conflict between Earth and Mars, after Mars has been colonized. The gameplay is also unseen on the market, so its innovation will be an advantage. I am not looking to steal market share from these other games, but to offer such a unique experience that people would want both. I've also been studying this topic furiously over the past two years. I believe I am bringing a unique product to market, and as is common with such things, time is of the essence.

2) You don't have a large team working on the game, what if it never finishes?
This is an understandable concern, considering I'm essentially doing this on my own at the moment. I have been working on the game both part time and full time over the last two years, and I have been logging the hours during this time. From this I have a good idea of my pace and can reasonably estimate a return on investment by December 2013 if I can apply my craft full time. I am personally committed to seeing this completed and it has become somewhat of a personal challenge to see this through. Previous to this I set up and ran a simmer sauce manufacturing business (www.ameetshomestyle.com) on a dime, so I do have experience in organizing complex problems into more manageable chunks to create a cohesive, commercial grade whole, all on a deadline. I am also looking for a significant amount of investment, mainly because I believe that under capitalization is a sure fire way to going nowhere quickly, and should I need outsourced expertise (especially artwork/modeling/texturing), capital will allow me to hire the required talent.

3) BTC volatility, what if the BTC price plummets / sky rockets in the 18 months it takes to develop?
Unfortunately there's not much I can do about that. I have considered only selling the game for btc, but I'm quite sure I would be crippling total sales if I do that (steam payments will be in $USD, which is an estimated 50 million customer strong game buying market I want to get in with). The game will be for sale in BTC should a customer prefer that option, but the price will be based on fiat conversion. Since I expect most income to be in the form of fiat, I will mostly be looking to profit (and pay local taxes) in terms of fiat, and I suggest investors do the same. Accounting will thus be done in fiat, but will be paid in btc *maybe* based on a 30 day average price for btc during the month of income (calculated on the last day of the month). If anyone has any better ideas on this last bit, I'd love to hear them. Should the game become profitable, it will at least provide a demand for btc beyond what was removed.

4) What's to stop you just taking my money and running?
I'm just not interested in that. I'm married with a family, and I want to do some good business. I wouldn't be putting up this IPO unless I absolutely had to, because I believe so strongly in what I'm doing that I would sacrifice (and have been sacrificing) my own money to do it, but I will stick to the terms I'm promising here because I do need help to finish it sensibly. I have also submitted all requirements for verification on GLBSE, and I'm just waiting on that to be finalized. This is not a black box magic business, but a genuine attempt to produce something of lasting interest, as a catapult to more interesting things. I won't take a bank loan for this, because of risk number 6. I would have tried Kickstarter if I lived in the US, but perhaps this ability to easily provide patronage is one of the truly great things about bitcoins.

5) What's to stop you just taking my money and dying?
Ek...ok well I suppose as much as this is uncomfortable to think about, it's a valid concern. I have been looking for a local programmer I can trust to partner with on this, but haven't had much luck yet. Until I find one, I will ask my wife to ensure the continuation of the project and payments in the case of my demise. I realize this isn't the most ideal solution because of the emotional attachment, but for now I don't have a better solution for this. I do at least trust her to maintain the integrity with which I will host this IPO. Perhaps she can put a member vote to either close all production and return remaining project funds, or continue with her in charge or something should something happen to me.

6) What if you make a really shitty game that doesn't sell any copies?
This is a true risk that you face as an investor, and something that all game investors face. I've had a hardcore, mostly mainstream taste in games for 20 years, and believe I'm self aware enough to know when I'm enjoying something because it's fun, or I'm playing something because I've been skinner boxed. I believe this has helped me tremendously during the game design process. I'm also a member of Mensa, so I have the brains to technically back up my commitment, and I'm relying on this to produce outstanding results. I may simply be wrong about what I can achieve, or how much fun people will have, and that will suck for anyone who has invested in this project, including myself. In this unlikely case, I cannot pay anything back so both my reputation and your money will have been squandered. However one can try to spin it, games are unfortunately a form of artwork, and as such, I cannot make any guarantee of return except to promise to do my best. This is also why I believe video games are still such a lucrative business when you have a winner.

7) Break-even point - at what point will I ever see my money again?
Using the above average price of 1.0btc per share, and 10,000 shares, I hope to raise 10,000btc with this IPO. This will be kept in a mix of cash and btc. Should the price of BTC rise strongly I will take advantage by exchanging some for $ (since most bills will be paid in $). Any profits from such arbitrage, however, will remain project assets to be used to produce a better game and these profits will not be actively sought (this is not a trading fund). Going by current market value, if investors were to purchase all shares on opening (not what I expect, but who really knows), break-even for the game will be 60k steam sales, or 40k direct sales. While the number of BTC returned will vary depending on the varying exchange rate, this break-even amount should not change much.


The Rewards - What could make the risk worthwhile!

1) Net Profit - this is more of a definition than a reward, but since it's still reward related here it is:
I intend on paying local taxes, so: net profit = sale income - operating expenses - taxes withheld.

Why am I paying taxes? Because I want to run this legitimately, to avoid jeopardizing future opportunities. Should the game be accepted on Steam, much of the income will have a large paper trail that would be remiss to ignore. I will be drawing a salary only until my income from dividends is higher than my regular salary from the project for three consecutive months, after which I will cease drawing a salary from the project fund permanently. This is mostly because I am the primary provider for my family and have responsibilities that must be met.

As for actual expected net income per unit, I will be releasing the game at a $24.95 price point, with the option of going to $19.95 should it prove more suitable to market. The expected gross income via steam will be $14-17, with the first 500 sales per month roughly covering expenses (developer salaries, etc), after which net income after taxes will be around $8-$11 per unit sold. Direct sales will provide between $13-$16 net profit.

2) Expected Sales
Since I started this project, I have been expecting somewhere in the region of 100-150k sales, based on my research over the years. I will consider this a project a resounding success if it breaks 100k sales, and outstanding if it breaks 200k sales. These solid numbers should see investors suitably rewarded by returning double or quadruple their investment within 2-4 years. Should the game become a runaway success and hit the magic 1M+ sales marks, well, you can do that math for that yourself.

If you've made it this far, I commend you! If you're interested in investing (or just have questions) feel free to post them and I'll do my best to answer them.

< reserved and bump! >

Hi, great to see a project like this on GLBSE

a question

you seem to value your company at BTC 50k = $500k

do you have any financials, business plans etc, to support this???

thanks and it seems like a very interesting  project

ian

Hi Ian, thanks for your question.

Truth be told, that figure is based on the estimated cost of completion rather than an actual valuation of the work. If that is misleading I apologize, but I didn't know how else to express it. I asking for help to cover the costs of finishing the project, and in return offering a 20% share of any income, whatever it may be. This is not an existing business with existing income that I'm selling my own shares in. One of the main reasons I'm not offering more than 20% for $100k (current market value), is because I half expect that value to drop to $30k by the time the shares are even fully sold. I have to keep shares aside as a hedge for such volatile access to funding. The reality is that I need fiat to complete this, and the exchange rate is horrendously volatile. Ultimately, investors are going to have to understand it's going to take what it's going to take to make a good game and they will have to commit to that comfortably.

I've invested a lot of my time and money already in development (easily over $100k in opportunity cost + eroded savings), and I'm caught between wanting to finish it for Dec 2013, and having to pay the bills. I did previously have enough to cover it until completion but life happened, and now I don't, so I'm at a bit of an impasse. Ideally I would like people to think of this as a project in the vein of kickstarter, but while kickstarter does not allow a contributor to get a coin return, I'm trying to make it so they do. It will be up to the individual investors to decide whether they want to see it as a form a patronage and not expect a return (but happily accept one if they do), or as a proper investment where they do their due diligence, check what I'm saying is true, that the market can support a game like this, 100k is reasonable given potential returns, etc, etc and invest or not from there.

The business plan is fairly straightforward:
1. Reach the alpha milestone (one mission fully playable),
2. Build community around Alpha
3. Setup website to accept sales (already done),
4. Expand single player storyline, and multiplayer experience.
5. Polish it,
6. Get it into the hands of games journalists/previewers.
7. Build bigger community around Beta
8. Polish it some more, build better game related website
9. Get it on steam, and possibly other digital stores
10. Get it into the hands of journalists and reviewers
11. Release it
12. Hi-five self if it breaks 100k sales within the first 3 months.
13. Make a monthly payment to GLBSE shares based on previous month's income.

The financial plan is even more straightforward, as the $100k is roughly based on:

$54k for 18 months of $3k/month salary for myself (bare minimum to support my family)
$6k estimated for sound equipment (to produce the soundtrack etc, I will also be doing this myself with some talented friends)
$20k reserved for artwork, outsourced to a contractor
$20k reserved for misc expenses including marketing

Of course the exchange rate could make a mockery of this before the last share is even sold.

As for income, I'm basing my projected estimates of 100k units sold on all my years of seeing games released, playing them and discovering how many copies they sold. 100k is not a very large number to sell based on marketing alone, in such a massive market, and indie games with the right balance of components (creativity, team work, innovation) do can very, very well. I believe I have a solid grasp of what will sell, and the risk you would take as an investor is how well you judge how close to reality I am. On the bright side, I do have quite a lot of experience in marketing and sales from my previous work, which is why I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to hit that magic 100k number.

If I or my business partners invest in you do we get alpha and beta playing privy?

Yes I should think so, feedback is important, and the community is paramount for an independent game. I was planning on making the alpha publicly available to help the community seed, and as it came closer to beta I would restrict updates to paying customers only; one of the most successful indie games of all time did it this way (minecraft), and I believe this particular decision was instrumental in it's ability to self-fund quickly.

I'm not quite sure whether to go the login route or not, though. It made sense in minecraft, but I'm not sure it does here, even though it simplifies things somewhat from an administration and piracy perspective. Cd-keys are notoriously easy to circumvent, so perhaps logins are a necessary evil.

nice

Due to this thread and the decision behind it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103221.0;topicseen

This IPO is currently paused until we know what's going on. It seems my timing could not have been better :).

This project is continuing regardless, and as an alternative to GLBSE I am willing to consider a small pool of up to 20 private investors. I'm thinking along the lines of 20 shares @ 500btc each, for 1% net income per share.

Should a private agreement be formed with any investors, and an IPO then goes ahead, we will discuss whether to continue the arrangement, or convert it into shares on GLBSE.

GLBSE might have 3 tiers of securities so depending what extent you want to verify and be accountable to investors would depend which tier you can use.

Yeah I'm looking forward to that, actually...I do want to separate what I'm doing from some of the less savory things on offer. I'm halfway through the verification process now.

Update for the thread: Game is coming along nicely, I recently re-wrote the graphics engine to be DX11 instead of DX9 and I'm just porting the rest of the code over now. I'm on target for a playable zone by December this year.

Regarding the IPO: Nef has said he'll look at IPOs after 15/9, around or after the bitcoin conference, so I'll announce the launch date once I know more.

I'll probably get flamed for this but how come your not on Kickstarter? I've seen ALOT of games get funded there HELL I've backed 14 projects myself

No flaming necessary; it's a good question. It was the first option I considered, and I probably would be already if I were in the US (I'm from the land down under).

For Kickstarter, you need to have a US SSN (for amazon payments etc). This, combined with the desire to see whether people are willing to use bitcoins on an economic basis, led my decision to not pursue it further for now. I do have extended family in the US that could act by proxy, but because of the potential entanglement with the IRS (since technically they're the ones earning income from KS) and all that, I wanted to try simpler options first.

There are other similar sites to Kickstarter that I also looked at, but they tended to be much more poorly patronized (like pozible.com) and unlikely to raise what I need.

As part of the contract I sent to GLBSE, should I get any income from crowd funding after this share launch, it will count as revenue and be subject to payment to investors here (since it's mostly pre-order). I foresee a potential window of opportunity when production is middle to late beta...I'll have something more to show off, then, and it would serve well as a pre-order and wide-public launch platform.

A) Let me start of by saying  I loved Battlezone 2 and would love to see a modern port so I'll be investing as soon as I can scrape together the coins.

B) What are you thinking of setting the Inital price to? Preference lower the better that way people like me can syphon their divident payments to your stock. IMO there aren't enough low entry point "bit dime/penny stocks"

C) I'm pretty darn sure Kickstarter allows foreign projects I'm going to use as an example a project I've backed ShadowrRun online. http://www.cliffhanger-productions.com/content/text/read/id/4 (http://www.cliffhanger-productions.com/content/text/read/id/4) You'll notice they're based in Austria. I'd go for it and see how they/you can get around  that hurdle. Even better for for investors if you get kickstarted?  ;D "EXCELLENT SMITHERS!"

D) I'd be careful just saw a new kickstarter project that might horn in on your thunder though "Planetary Annililation" by Uber Ent.

E) Any chance when you finish this game I can convince you to make a Masters of Magic update/port? There's been alot of BAD clones nothg that's gotten what the original did right.

That's good to hear! I must point out, though, that I'm not creating a direct Battlezone 2 remake - Battlezone 2's gameplay served as inspiration for this one (and coincidentally BZ2's story is also based on a Mars/Earth conflict). Battalion's connection to BZ2 is that it's designed as a real time strategy game, played from a first/third person perspective. You'll have to protect your Fleet and decide whether to focus resources on defense or assault, as well as partake in the action yourself. Depending on resources, it will sport coop and/or competitive multi-player too.


Hmm you have an interesting point here. I have set it up as an average price of 1.0btc per share...I'll see if I can change the structure but it might be too late for that.


Yes they do, my problem wasn't that I was a foreigner, but that I don't have access to an Amazon Payments account I can trust (which requires a US bank account). A lot of the people I've spoken to, who successfully got on kickstarter were either US citizens living overseas, or had a member of the production team that was from the US. The ones that didn't went to the US and started a company using their passports, and setup a bank account that way.


I saw that...it looks good, but I think it's a different game to what I'm doing. I'm looking forward to seeing it.


Hah possibly, I loved that game; haven't thought about it in years but I remember spending hooooours on it. Wasn't Heroes of M&M the spiritual successor? I remember that plus age of wonders having a lot of the same mechanics. I suppose they didn't have the same magic, though...that game brought a lot of stuff to the table. If I had the opportunity, that plus some sort of Elite or UFO remakes would be the top of my list of things to do next (except those two are already under development). We'll look at the situation when this is complete :).

How to write a business plan (http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/how-write-business-plan)

Lol thanks, but I do have one that's much more detailed than what I could fit in a forum post. I suppose what I put there was an ultra light summary of production/marketing, which are the important milestones in my plan.

The "proper" business plan is in order, I just didn't know how much information I really need to put out here. I'm all for transparency, but I don't want to be naive either.

I have used this format, and I suppose I should have said this when originally asked to justify my valuation:

Summary (including vision statements, objectives and finance summary)
Business details
Management structure
Product positions / unique selling positions, pricing strategy, anticipated demand, etc
Innovation / IP
Risk Management
Legal Considerations
Operations
Market research
Environment analysis
Customer demographics
SWOT analysis
Competitor analysis
Advertising and sales
Detailed finanaces

This formed the basis of my business valuation.

Good luck with multi I've yet to see any real time strategy game with multiplayer per side other than Natural Selection and that there's really only one commander.


Should be easy enough Hint:"Stock Splits"

As I said almost all of them were bad clones but yes you named the major ones that came closest but most dropped the city building aspect and had almost no "Spell Domination" aspect.
I called M.o.M. the 4x of fantasty games before space games sims got ahold of it. Yes Heroes was supposed to be and offical sequel but they focused more on the army aspect

Do you mean rts/fps hybrids and not straight rts?

If so, yeah it poses an interesting problem; you can't have multiple people in charge due to competing direction. I envision a system where by players are ranked by their performance in the map, and all orders are actually requests put through the carrier. AI ships will have a request and order system, generally doing as requested unless ordered by someone who out ranks them. They will all ultimately fall under the control of the carrier (which will always out rank a player). This means a destroyer might actually do what a noob pilot asks them to do unless they have a more important objective (like defend the carrier from direct assault).

I intend to make the rts aspects slightly optional - the game has to be playable even if all players in coop just want to fps attack only, and not worry about the RTS side of things - the carrier will be able to create rudimentary defenses and perform resource gathering to produce ships the players can use. If one or more players want to micromanage defenses, the team will likely do much better. Ultimately one will have more power, and it'll either be done via earned ranking, or which ship you're flying.


Yeah I figured I could just issue more shares anyway to make up for that. I haven't made a final decision on this yet, but I will before IPO.


What was the spell domination effect in the game, again? That part has slipped my memory. I vaguely remember spell researching and the ultimate "win" spell...was it something to do with that?

Yeah I didn't really like the "fixed city" aspect of HOMM...made it less of a strategy game. I wonder why a proper sequel was never made...it's got so many great aspects: Strategy, Fantasy, Research, Heroes, RPG elements. What do you remember most fondly of it? I loved the way heroes used to level in what was basically a civilization type game.

First I'd like to pologize for hijacking your thread I only just realized what I did.

So I'll try to be breif

Nailed it on the head in Multi RTS and sounds like you might already have if covered.

Spell Domination was what I called the "Win" spell but I also liked the Unique spell specializatios and trading for spells.
City building was selecting where to colonize to get best resource bonuses THEN what race of city and objects to build inside leading to different trees.

It's all good, and it's mostly project related anyway. I appreciate your questions, as I'm sure other do too.

I've played through the game mechanics hundreds of times in my mind and in prototyping over the last two years, and all I can say is that I'm really excited to getting this all out into code. The only thing I'm not fully decided on is the flight mechanic (newtonian vs dogfighter), but I'll figure that out when it's ready for feedback...otherwise I believe I've designed a highly innovative game that is simple to start but has enormous complexity for players who seek it. My hope is that when finished, it will be regarded up there with the other indie greats. I need help producing it, and in return I'm offering to share the spoils with those willing to do so.

Just a note to anyone watching this thread, since GLBSE has shut down, I won't able to go through with this IPO. I'm still willing to talk to individual investors for amounts above BTC1k, but I will be looking at opening the project on bitcoinstarter as it launches. If you don't already know about it, it's a crowd funding website that raises funds via bitcoins, and you can sign up to be notified of launch here: www.bitcoinstarter.com.

I will likely edit the OP in the coming days to reflect this new development.

Yay! I was begining to think this project was dead.

Nono, not at all, in fact I'm spending pretty much all of my time coding, and sorting this stuff out when I come up for air :). I'm way too personally committed now to let this one go.

or you could just list on https://cryptostocks.com

Thanks for the link, but with the ease at which GLBSE evaporated, how will the owners of cryptostocks keep it running if they too are used by scammers, and get the attention of those who can easily adversely affect them?

To me it seems the hard lessons of life are being re-enacted by the bitcoin community. Regulation exists because of human nature; MtGox learned that, Nefario learned that (as stoutly as he believed in his libertarian ideals), and as your business grows you may see that too. I would rather live in society and play by its rules than try in vain to have the best of both worlds, and as such, I am not seeking to list this on any bitcoin exchanges for now.

Private investment is still open and encouraged, and I have secured enough personal funding to squeak through production until this project is ready for the public. Such is the life of an Indie Game Developer.

On the bright side, PAX is coming to Melbourne next year! I'm going to try my best to get a stall there as a developer.