A BLACKBURN entrepreneur hopes to bypass the traditional route into video game publishing by raising money for his ‘point and click’ computer game through a global crowd-funding website.

Alex Byrom, who grew up in Oswaldtwistle and studied at Blackburn College, is one half of independent games studio Falchion Games, set up with university buddy Ben Burns.

He said: “It became apparent that even if I did manage to bag a job in the industry, I would have almost no creative control over what I worked on.”

The pair, with help from workers in Australia and the States, decided to bypass the big studios and to develop their own game, ‘Go To Hell Dave’.

Alex’s partner Ben Burns said: “As individuals, Alex and I had a specific set of skills that were useless, but as a team we basically made one all-round jack of all trades developer. Alex can edit sprites, design levels and animate. I can edit audio, programme and work in the engine.”

The pair decided to launch a Kickstarter project to fund its development. Kickstarter is an American company that provides the tools to raise funds for creative projects through ‘crowd funding’ on its website. Crowd funding is the collective effort of individuals, usually online, to support efforts initiated by other people or organisations.

Alex said: “I’d like to think that what we’re doing proves that you don’t need ten years of industry experience or a £20,000 budget to follow your own path in this industry. But we’re not quite there yet. We’re about to launch a make-or-break Kickstarter project which will garner us the money needed to finish the game.

The duo have spent the past ten months developing their action game and a playable demo is nearly ready for release.