Having successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of Zombies, Run!, developer Six to Start has taken to its blog to explain how the funding model can work with an iOS project.

Much attention is initially focused on how the studio gave away more than 3,000 free copies of the title to its backers when Apple limits games to 50 promo codes and 100 devices for internal testing.

The solution to such a problem, the developer states, is quite simple.

No free for all

In the case of Zombies, Run!, the studio developed two near identical apps.

The original Zombies, Run! was launched as a paid release, coming in at $7.99, while sister game ZR Advance was available without charge, but locked to those without a 'ZombieLink' account – access to which was granted to backers via email.

More broadly speaking, however, Six to Start advocates keeping Apple fully briefed as to such strategies.

The firm claims Apple appears to have no set position in regards to Kickstarter, but was happy enough to green light Six to Start's plans because it kept the giant informed.

High price

"They were very helpful and in fact offered some other potential solutions, along with the advice that the free ZR Advance app must have at least some content for curious downloaders," said the studio.

"Please do not take this post as any kind of official Apple policy. Even if this strategy was fine earlier this year, there is no telling whether it’ll still be fine next year."

Studios also need to think about whether they need to use Kickstarter in the first place. Free or 69/99c releases are less likely to need the model, the developer states, because of their cheap – or non-existent – price.
Zombies, Run!, however, retails at £5.49/$7.99, making Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general is an "ideal way to help higher-priced indie games like ours attract backers and become a reality, which is good news for developers, for gamers, and for Apple."



[source: Six to Start]