Independent Game Developers Event

Hello addicts and ignorant ones (those of you who are not addicted),

Today a short report on an event we visited last saturday; Indigo.

Indigo was a playable exposition, organized by the Dutch Game Garden (DGG), where around twenty indie games were showcased. DGG is an organization which stimulates (small) dutch game companies by introducing them to other game developers, investors, incubators and other interesting entities. Together with Florian and Martin I had an inspiring afternoon. We picked many brains and gathered loads of interesting information. We will be visiting more events like this in the future.

Pictures (click on the image):

Other developments:

- A potential office. DGG has a building in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Around 40 game companies are accomodated there. In order to take another step towards professionalization we would love to have a small office there. But whether it will be possible (financially) remains to be seen. With a little more continuity of donations it just might be. Hate asking for money but there is no harm in trying i suppose ;)
- We have met three (yes, three) design artists who are very enthusiastic about joining our project. After a productive meeting last sunday they are now working on some first sketches for a new Call of Combat logo and some banners. If any of you would like to make some logo/banner designs as well that would be awesome, the more ideas the better! The three designers have the chance to prove themselves in the coming weeks. After the logo and banners they will start working on modelling and animations together with our current designers Frans and Martin.
- The game development is underway at high speed. Florian will post a development update next week.

Salute!

Erik

Comments

DeathStriken's picture

Guys I am loving the work your putting in! this is gonna be amazing! I just hope we can have an alpha up soon :) my hands are tingling to get into CoC once again!
Mudrunner's picture

Can not wait to see the game up an running again, looks an sounds like its going to be bigger an better then ever.
Keep up the good work.

Go CoC
letraset's picture

Thanks to you guys for all the work!
What's a realistic time frame for 1st tryout?
Florian's picture

We have a preliminary internal schedule for when to have done what, but I think it is wise to not yet make that public. This is also because we are still debating when and whether to go for a public alpha release, in other words whether to do public testing or rather with a private and dedicated test group.
Alex's picture

Imagine this was an enormous hand about to slap you across the face Erik. Guess what I'm going to make sure you've checked ;)
Hoping someone was able to guide you at that conference!
Erik's picture

Umm.. what lol??

Either way: we have received a couple of donations already in the past few days. Thanks to all the donators!! We really are forever grateful. It works incredibly motivating. The donation HoF is updated.
Alex's picture

Donating to a limited company can have tax implications depending on the country. My point was making sure you aren't accidentally digging a legal hole for yourself
Ryan's picture

Unsure about whatever tax laws you need to abide by in the Netherlands, but I don't think corporate tax is really going to be an issue. If donating EUR 400.00 ~ EUR 800.00, to a startup with no other source of income causes them to make a profit they either need to consult better accountants as something has clearly gone wrong or Erik and Florian are amazing at getting developers and graphic designers to contribute in exchange for no monetary benefit. Regardless, I very much doubt heads will roll.
Ryan's picture

Well, yes you do if you exceed gift tax thresholds, but irrespective of that this isn't giving money to a mate - you are contributing to a for-profit company.
Severus's picture

Then I regularly see websites and people breaking that law. However, I don't think governments care about it as long as it is small scale.
Alex's picture

It doesn't apply to donating to family and friends as Ryan said

Governments do care believe me. You'd care if 1000s of companies were doing it on a small scale.

My point was also more that originally donations went to KAding, so his own income was being affected as it's a payment to keep the game running. It's always been outlined as a hobby but KAding was receiving payment for running the game which would be taxable.

If an independent has a website that generates enough income it becomes taxable. If it goes to the Ltd company then arguably it is actually a sale or even capital in the eyes or the tax authority. The donation description basically is capital. The donations are as good as investments which starts opening up the issuing of shares. This is the primary reason donations get put under sales by every company. Any money you receive has to be traceable and accountable otherwise you open yourself up to problems.

Even if they can be treated as donations they would probably be subject to some form of tax. I believe the Dutch has a gift tax paid by the beneficiary. I'm 99.9% sure you cannot donate TO a limited company.

On the topic of developers, the company will have to pay contributions in tax if they are employed. I do have a funny feeling that if donations are treated as sales they may have a profit as v1's main expense was the servers.
ChiefDiddy's picture

When Does the Game Actuallly Realease? Can you give a time frame? its been forever.
Ciro Magnus's picture

They planned to have alpha out this summer, but that was kinda optimistic. I feel like they'll have the alpha going really soon. I think they haven't decided if it's going to be open alpha or their dev team only that's working on it. That's what I've come to understand so far.
Erik's picture

Yep.. See Florian's post above. Public (golden) release is still set for Spring 2014.