At the start of the month, Harmonix launched a Fig crowd funding campaign in the hopes of bringing the latest incarnation of their Rock Band series to PC. But, as the developers explain in the video above, they don’t want to just do a straight up port and they need fans’ help in achieving their vision. Harmonix want the PC version to bring back user generated content to the series via Steam Workshop, allowing players to submit their own music and making those songs playable for everyone.

The developers go on to elaborate why they’ve chosen to crowd fund for this port, saying they want to use the money raised by the campaign to hire another studio, Sumo Digital, to make the PC version so that Harmonix themselves can continue adding new features to Rock Band 4 across all platforms. They hope that this way they won’t have to compromise on quality for either version of the game and that, in time, new features can be implemented for the console versions alongside a PC version, meaning all platforms get the latest features at the same time. They also add that they chose to use Fig specifically for their campaign as the crowd funding platform offers backers a variety of ways to show their support. Alongside traditional backer rewards—such as the full game before the official release date, extra songs, t-shirts and even an in-game credit—Fig also allows you to invest in projects, allowing you to gain a share of any profits a fully funded project makes.

For the indie side of the industry, funding projects with Fig’s twist on backer rewards makes a lot of sense. This approach further engages consumers and, as the campaign itself says, ‘democratizes’ game development as well as any financial success from those projects.

Rock Band 4, permitting the crowd-funding campaign reaches its target of $1,500,000, should be available for PC during the Autumn of 2016. Not only will the PC port have all the same content and features as its console counterparts plus Steam Workshop support for your own songs, but it will also support the wireless guitar controller, drum kit and microphone as well as have mouse and keyboard support for menu navigation.

With a month and over $1,200,000 left to go until the campaign reaches its funding goal, it’ll be interesting to see if the campaign really can drum up the cash. Its success (or indeed failure) will certainly paint a picture about the future of crowd-funding campaigns and whether Fig’s approach is truly the next step in its evolution. That Harmonix chose such a high funding ceiling and are using a relatively new crowd funding platform is curious but it is for a game in a massively popular series so perhaps Rock Band 4 PC will weather the odds and reach the goal in the end. Watch this space.