Hey, I hope it works for your guys but I have to ask, Isn't this more like a kickstarter thing :S?
Yes it is, but we're not located in the US or the UK, so we're not able to collect Kickstarter funds. You need to have an English/American banking account to do KS. Besides, we would rather like to try something new.
Why don't you just accept pre-orders via Bitcoin directly?
We do, actually. It's all on the page.
Are you funding a company that's making a game or just ownership in this one project?
Just for the project and all sequels.
How are you valuing the company/project?
The project is estimated to derive most of its value from profit dividends paid out from sales of alpha/beta access and copies of final versions. As we are in development for two more years, there's going to be a very low dividend for the first 1.5 years, and the biggest spike of profit influx around the release date, followed by a steep fall-off; therefore we estimate that before release the share has potential to gain speculative value, but after release and early post-release dividends, the share will most likely lose value continuously. Nothing lasts forever, but unlike other operations, the death of this one is timed.
However, if the combined all-time profit exceeds the value of the stock at issue date by 120% (we can debate this figure), we're going to do a sequel, and the shares regain new potential for additional dividends.
Are you willing to set progress goals and relinquish control of all the project's assets if you fail to meet those goals on time? Otherwise there is the carrot (completed project you have equity in) but no stick to pressure the project to timely completion...
Good point. We rejected an earlier offer to borrow funding for the simple reason that, should we be unable to pay back the loan, we would have to hand over the company and lose our IP; would we, however, only be able to pay back the loan plus interest, then nothing would be gained, and we would be right where we started. That risk was deemed too great to take. We're trying to build something here.
Therefore, by issuing shares and paying out dividends, we decided to share some of the risk with investors instead. I can see how a stick helps to build trust. We can set a hard release date, and e.g. release all project assets into the public domain should the date not be met. It's harder to commit exactly to milestones for the time in-between -- every shareholder receives access to an alpha account which would allow her/him to see first hand how her/his project is doing compared to the timetable of features we agreed upon beforehand.