For game developers who thought about applying for the $100,000 Build Fund from rewards network Kiip but didn’t get around to it yet — good news! The deadline has been extended from today until May 30. And for those of you who weren’t planning to apply, well, the company is adding some features to the fund that may entice you.
The goal is to encourage the creation of games that incorporate Kiip’s reward programs in their initial designs (rather than adding them later). Twenty developers are supposed to receive $5,000 in cash (adding up to $100,000 in all) — it’s not a huge amount of funding, but CEO Brian Wong says it could make a real difference to an independent developer.
And now it’s not just about the money. Kiip has created an advisory board for the fund that includes Roy Bahat, President of IGN, and Lee Linden, co-founder of TapJoy and founder of KarmaScience. It’s also offering some free developer services:
- A $2,000 credit with Amazon Web Services
- A pro six-month pro license with Urban Airship
- A six-month pro license with StackMob
- A lifetime enterprise license with Crittercism
It’s pretty normal for the deadlines to shift in a new program like this one, but I still asked Wong to explain the delay.
“We pushed back the deadline because this was one of those initiatives that gained a ton of steam once the industry found out about it,” he says. “We’ve had hundreds of applications to the fund and we are excited to extend the program to an area that makes the fund work for itself. We’re also looking forward to making the fund potentially a regular program with this first batch.”