The Player Funded Development Process

Nightmare Mode explores the new business model being adopted by indies such as Minecraft and more in the gaming industry.
"...a new form of funding being used by independent developers that could very well be the future of beta testing and preorder bonuses for AAA and indie devs alike. Several independent developers have taken a new approach to getting the funding they need by allowing players to pay to play early builds of the game before it’s released. It’s basically alpha/beta testing that requires a credit card instead of an application with your computer specs attached.

...it turns out if it’s fun and playable, players are absolutely willing to pay to play a game that isn’t finished."

[thorstein]

Interesting...very interesting.

[HK6]

I think that this model is good for indie games because the developers listen to the community which allows players to form the game. However, I think this would be bad for a AAA developer that doesn't listen to fans because it would just be another money grab.

[jchedges]

When it comes to AAA developers, I think it should be more about encouraging player feedback by giving them a beta key with their preorder. That way they aren't spending any more money then they were already going to.