Gamma IV Sets Up Kickstarter Appeal To Finish Funding GDC Event

You may recall that Gamasutra and sister site GameSetWatch has run some stories about the awesome Gamma IV 'one button games' event that's having an open-to-all showcase evening in San Francisco, around the time of GDC 2010 next month (as well as having the selected games playable on-site, for those who have GDC passes).

Well, some very generous indies have stepped up to help sponsor a chunk of their offsite event, but they need just a little bit more help with event funding and other costs, so they've established a Kickstarter appeal to do just that. We'll turn it over to them for the details:

"Kokoromi here. We're an experimental art game collective based in Montreal; perhaps best known for our annual Gamma event. Since 2006 we've showcased all-new short-form video games created on a specific theme, at a one-night-only music and gaming party. Our format of challenges + limitations + showcase has yielded such games as Jason Rohrer's Passage and Paper Moon by Infinite Ammo with Adam Saltsman.

This year we were invited by Think Services and Flashbang, the organizers of the Indie Game Summit, to bring Gamma to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In response to our call for One Button Games, we've had an incredible turnout of more than 150 new five-minute pieces, which we are now furiously playing in an effort to select the most innovative games to present at Gamma. On the funding side, we've had great support from Think and from an amazing community of indie developers from around the world.

But! Given the general state of the economy and the higher expense of running the event in San Francisco, we are just over halfway to our funding goal for our March 10th Gamma IV showcase event at Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street @ Mint) in SF, which everyone - including backers of this Kickstarter appeal - is welcome to attend. (Following the opening event, the games will be shown on the Expo show floor at Game Developers Conference 2010, in space that the GDC organizers are donating.)

We've launched this Kickstarter campaign because we're making one final push to raise the funds we need for major event expenses like the venue and hardware rental. Luckily for us, our friends in the indie games community have donated some incredible incentives... Kokoromi is a completely profit-free, and run entirely through our volunteer efforts; all money raised through this Kickstarter campaign goes directly to Gamma4 event expenses. With your help, we can make Gamma4 the most memorable Gamma ever!"

As you'll note, lots of indies and other contributors have got together to help donate games (from Osmos through Audiosurf and beyond), T-shirts (Minotaur China Shop, Critter Crunch, and more), limited-edition physical goods (Shank maquettes, PB Winterbottom lithographs), and even 3 All-Access GDC passes for the most generous. So what are you waiting for? If you'd like to see this event take place, go and make a donation today.