Let me introduce myself:

My name is James Dance and I am the owner of Loading bar, a gaming café and cocktail bar based in the Southwest of England.

After graduating I came up with the idea to open my own gaming venue. I worked full time as a chef and I filled my spare time with research and development for a new type of gaming bar.

In 2010, after three years of inhuman hours and after sacrificing both my social life and sanity, Loading bar opened its doors, offering gamers a place to drink, relax and play.

Not your average bar:

My business is unique in its take on the “Gaming bar” format for the following reasons:

• Use of our consoles is free, as is access to the internet.
• Gaming cafe during the day, gaming bar during the night.
• Unique, industry supported gaming events all year round.
• High concept gaming themed cocktails such as this and these 

What's the plan?

We want to create a bar run by people focused on the venue not the profit margins, in London; The centre of the UK games industry. We would like to take the successful format we have down here in Cornwall and move it to the capital where we can serve a greater number of people as well as offering unique, industry sponsored events in a fit to purpose venue.

We will be Collaborating with Mitch and The Drunken Moogle to help curate drinks and Daniella from Gourmet Gaming to help lay on game themed snacks.

London based Nintendisco now Gamerdisco will be bringing their monthly ‘arcade for adults’ approach to the bar once a month as well, the aim really is to create a centre point venue for all things gaming culture in the UK and beyond.

We also want YOU to get involved to help us create something new and community driven.

Your support and contributions will ensure that London gets its first dedicated gaming venue. There are a few bars with consoles and a couple of competetive gaming centres in the UK but Loading is a different beast altogether; A celebration of the social side of gaming. Somewhere you can just come and spend time with your friends, grab a drink and play a few rounds of Mario-kart should you feel like it, no payment, no pressure.

How do we intend on achieving this?

The more eagle eyed (or prone to google) among you may be thinking “$50,000 is NOT enough to open a venue in London” and you would be correct.

The money will be used to allow us to secure the rest of the funding needed to make the project a reality. We already have the design, concept and experience and have been successfully running it on a smaller scale for two years, we know what we are doing and have already ironed out the bumps down here in Cornwall.

We will also be saving money by taking over the lease of one of the many pubs that are closing down in the city. These classic London pubs are perfect for two things; avoiding hordes of marauding zombies and developing into gaming venues.

Doing it this way rather than from the ground up not only saves us a bunch of cash, it also means that we avoid pricey and time consuming planning processes and issues.

The Perks:

From students to superstars, we have perks suitable for every wallet. We have various pieces of gaming “swag” we have been kindly donated by our sponsors as well as tshirts, hoodies and various other rewards of our own creation.

At our basic level however, all we are really asking you to do is pre order a cocktail and make your mark by having your own custom message printed onto our wallpaper!

So what happens if we do not reach our target?

We chose Indie-gogo because it is perfect because regardless of the outcome, we still get to deliver our perks to you, the supporters.

We are committed to this project and are determined that we WILL open in London one way or another. Having achieved what we have so far on a practically non-existent budget we can assure you that this project will happen even if we do not reach our target, it will just take a whole while longer.

All of the perks will still be valid including our drinks vouchers; you can use them at our bar in Cornwall, at any of our promotional events or just keep them as a keepsake as they will fold out into limited edition papercraft projects.

Why we think this is important:

As far as the gaming community goes, this project is valuable as it gives you, the community, a focal point, a place to gather and catch up whilst also having a damn good time.

On a grander scale, we feel it is important that venues like this start to be taken seriously. Places like Loading help legitimise gaming both as an adult activity and a genuine art form.

This is a space for collaboration and co-operation, a place you can be proud to be a part of and actively have a say in how it evolves on a day by day basis.

Some previous projects:

Our very first taste of internet fame when ‘The Drunken Moogle’ featured one of our drinks and since then, due to various projects and images, we have been featured by Edge, IGNUK, The Sun, GamesTM, Gamesmaster, Wired, The Daily Mail, G4TV, The Drunken Moogle, FHM and the Huffington Post as well as dozens of community blogs.

We’ve made branded cocktails for Capcom, EA, Guardian newpapers, THQ, Minecraft and loads more.

YOUR support means the world to us and will allow us to continue to do what we do best but on a larger scale and in a central city location.

Conventional lending would be take too much control over what we do and how we do it.

You guys however, can fund this project and become actively involved in a community rather than a business deal. Your ideas are always welcome as your support is the lifeblood of our business.

What happens if we exceed our target amount?

To put it simply, the more we get from the community, the less we have to rely on investors and banks and the more control we keep in our company. More details to follow in future updates but essentially, if we could raise enough to open the bar right now, we would be extremely happy.

I have no money, how can I help?

Already been cleared out by a recent steam sale or sunk the majority of your wealth into the latest releases? We still value your help.

Please share our video with your friends, show them some of the cool drinks we have made and help spread the word.

We rely on our audience to help us and you guys can rely on us to do the best we can to create a place for you to meet with like minded people, drink, relax and play.

Thank you for your support.