A game way to get $500,000 The team which is putting together Satellite Reign, from left, Dean Ferguson, Chris Conte, Mitch Clifford, Brent Waller, and Mike Diskett. About 7000 people have so far pledged more than AUD$330,000 to see a Brisbane-born idea come to life. Proposed game Satellite Reign is the brainchild of a group of Brisbane gaming developers who call themselves "5 Lives," and it's a project they're hoping can revive Brisbane's gaming industry which thrived up until about 2009. A Canadian CEO and entrepreneur Steven Dengler has pledged the biggest amount - $7801 to secure his name and likeness appearing in the game as an evil CEO, if it gets produced. Artwork from Satellite Reign, a Brisbane game likely to be funded by crowd sourcing. Satellite Reign is currently little more than conceptual artwork and a few animations, but it's generating considerable excitement and looks likely to raise the funds needed for production. With 18 days of a month-long fundraising campaign still to go, they're well into a crowd-sourcing target of 350,000 British pounds (about $567,000). There are different levels of pledge - some guaranteeing investors a copy of the finished game, which is slated for delivery in December next year. The game's summarised as: "A real-time, class-based strategy game, set it an open world cyberpunk city, from the creator of Syndicate Wars." "I'm an entrepreneur and an angel investor, and I regularly back Kickstarters at high tiers," Mr Dengler, the likely "evil CEO," said. I am a fan of Syndicate from back in the day and I got excited about a spiritual successor to the game. The 5 Lives team - Dean Ferguson, Chris Conte, Mitch Clifford, Brent Waller and Mike Diskett - is hoping kickstarter.com, one of many crowd funding platforms that bypass traditional avenues of investment, is the answer to their success. People cannot invest in Kickstarter projects for a profit and can only receive tangible gifts or one-off experiences. For example, a donation of USD$10 towards Satellite Reign will allow access to a game forum and wallpaper, while USD$5000 will get a signed hard cover book, a shirt, two copies of the game... and the list goes on. Brent Waller of 5 Lives sees this sort of crowd sourcing as a "valuable option for game developers." "Video game publishers have been focusing on fewer, but higher budget blockbuster games, ignoring markets that used to be their staple, bread and butter money earners," he said. Kickstarter allows us to pitch our game directly to the consumer, we're not bound by rigid publisher schedules and their demands for broad, generic appeal. Mr Waller is now hoping for a renaissance in the lucrative video gaming market in Brisbane. "Until around 2009 Brisbane was the epicenter of Australian games development, we had Krome Studios, Pandemic, THQ and Sega, all at one point or another [with] over 100 employees each," he said. Our hope is through our company and Satellite Reign we can resurrect Brisbane back to how it was before, and bring back many of the skilled developers who have fled the country for greener pastures.