Alpha funding

See also: open beta

This likely (but not necessarily) means that players who do fund the game also get to make their voices heard in the development direction of the game as early as possible, making requested changes (especially things that are in terms of behind the scenes material, the game code, larger things that would be too time consuming to implement later on) to the core concept more likely to happen. However, that is not guaranteed.

The only realiable thing about this funding model is that those who buy the game at the very least get a prototype if not the final game if the developer flops financially during the development phase.

Following services are known to allow/aid alpha funding: Desura, Steam, and Humble Store. Crowdsourcing also commonly employs alpha funding.