Is there a standard demo budget? Is $200,000 too much in terms of pitching to an investor? Thanks, Darkan

There is no standard amount for investment because investors seldom if ever invest into development companies (unless you are already very well established or the founders have a track record of investment from their time in other industries). Further more they seldom invest in the start-up/prototyping phase of a company - they expect the company founders to provide the initial seed money from FFS (friends, family or savings). Investment is usually used to grow an existing company or at least to fund a proven concept.

Investing into a prototype makes no sense for an investor because the finished product that you produce with their money won't pay back their initial investment, let alone the large return on investment they would require. You (and the investors) would still need another round of investment to fund your project before they could even hope to recoup anything. It makes far more sense for the investors to fund all the way through to completion because at least a complete product can come to market without having to rely on another investor.

Unless you have experience of raising investment from angels/VCs you would be far better off researching art related grants and business start-up loans (as well as the above mentioned FFS) to try and fund your prototype. As for the issue of how much, well the cost will depend on what you are trying to prototype, what format and how much/what features you intend to include and many other factors.

Obscure, is there a method whereby indie computer game developers can get access to art grant money?

And I agree that from my understanding of the industry the amount of money an investor will give you is inversely proportional to the risk that they will take. If you have a good track record or a great working prototype, then that might be a reasonable amount of money. However, if all you have is an idea, then the risk will be too great for most investors to give you any money at all.

Obviously it varies from grant to grant. The key to grants is to make your project appear to suit the grant you are applying for. For arts/multi-media grants you need to stress the artistic nature of your project (and often play down the commercial). For business start-up grants you first need to register an actual company but then make sure to stress the commercial aspects.

There is nothing to stop a one-person-indie applying for art grants or for applying for business grants (provided they structure their venture as a proper company).