So I'm pulling the trigger. At this point, I have no funding, other than a little money myself; nothing ready to launch, either. But I do have a partner, the offered support of some other companies, a clear sense of what I need to accomplish in the next few months, and a draft (not a final one) of a business plan and financials. This is, of course, terrifying; I'm leaving a nice comfortable job for an extremely early stage startup, with the prospect of no income for possibly as much as a year (or more). But there does come a time when you have to stop whining about things and try to change them.

He aims to increase awareness and distribution for PC games which otherwise would have little or no chance of seeing a successful retail release. With companies such as Valve pursuing similar goals through Steam and digital distribution becoming something of a popular topic in general lately, it's looking like an endeavor that might have a chance. Costikyan plans to document the entire endeavor (save some inevitable financial bits his investors request stay confidential) on his blog.

The company, called Manifesto Games, has a placeholder site up at the moment, containing a press release and some background information. Manifesto hopes to bring products to market by early next year.