Portalarium’s Starr Long will be a panelist at the upcoming GDC Next conference, which takes place on November 3rd and 4th in Los Angeles, California. His discussion topic will be crowdfunding and crowdsourcing, using Shroud of the Avatar as an example for both:

If you already have an idea for a perfect game and just need the money to make it happen, game industry veteran Starr Long will be giving a Production track talk on the topic of crowdsharing — titled simply “Crowdsharing: Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing” — that should offer you some useful learnings.

Long has been heavily involved with the crowdfunding and crowdsourcing efforts surrounding Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar, and he’s coming to GDC Next to explain how the two practices can work together harmoniously to form a sustainable crowdsharing business model which empowers developers to make games for niche audiences without having to rely on a publisher. Long will run down Portalarium’s successes and failures crowdsharing Shroud of the Avatar and provide developers with specific examples of how they can replicate this business model to build their own passion projects.

I will have to make sure to look for a video of his talk in the GDC Vault at some point after GDC Next wraps up. It would be interesting to hear his take on where Portalarium has succeeded in its crowdsharing efforts, and where he feels it has failed.