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Author Topic: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game  (Read 14193 times)

Arcvasti

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2014, 05:49:48 pm »

I was trying to make a subtle comparison between this thread and the now-locked learning curve thread. They're both pretty similar in a lot of ways.
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PrimusRibbus

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2014, 06:09:35 pm »

guesssingo: You seem to be assuming that indie developers are mostly entrepreneurs, and applying undergrad business logic to them. I'd argue that the average indie developer has a lot more in common with community artists (painters, hand-weavers, sculptors, mosaic artists, poets, etc) that survive on grants, personal patronage from wealthy members of the community, and gallery admission fees or commissions (these guys and gals, even if fairly successful, generally are not making bank).

Kickstarters and the like are analogous to a crowd-driven version of arts patronage that was common in centuries past by wealthy merchants, nobles, kings, and bishops. In my opinion this is an extremely important option for funding indie developers, because anyone who has looked into the revenues and profit margins of indie game development knows that they're not amazing. Unless you're deluded enough to think you're the next Notch, game developers that are in it for the money will quickly move on to much more profitable and stable jobs in other areas of software development.
Frankly, many of the games that are put up on Kickstarter are far too niche to receive loans and angels without proof that there is a paying market for them; and some are just far too niche to even have a chance at turning a profit in the open marketplace at all. Kickstarters are not there to turn a profit for the people pledging because the people pledging are not investors; they are patrons!

Simply put, some of the games on Kickstarter could only be made via patronage because they do not follow established market trends or are not commercially viable at all. At the end of the day, it's up to you to do your due diligence on whether you want to be a patron/donator for a project, but don't begrudge other people for reviving a funding model to support things they love.
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alexandertnt

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #17 on: June 08, 2014, 08:59:16 pm »

or get a job. I have to work.

They don't have to work? How exactly do you think games get built?
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Bauglir

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #18 on: June 08, 2014, 09:45:11 pm »

or get a job. I have to work.

They don't have to work? How exactly do you think games get built?
I always assumed it was like this.
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penguinofhonor

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2014, 10:08:27 pm »

I'm stuck in the learning curve thread now. I need to see what happens next.
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GlyphGryph

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #20 on: June 09, 2014, 01:52:46 am »

They don't have to work? How exactly do you think games get built?
Hah. Programming games. That ain't working! That's the way to do it. Money for nothing, since kickstarter's free.

Lemme tell ya, those guys aint dumb. What, they're gonna get a blister on their pointer finger? Maybe get a blister on their thumb?

You should have learned to program Java - You should have picked up C++. Then you too could be living easy, making games, boy that aint rough. Look at Notch up there - making some space game about numbers? Banging on that keyboard like a chimpanzee. No, that aint working, that's the way to do it - money for nothing, and fame for free.
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miauw62

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #21 on: June 09, 2014, 05:08:33 am »

(Warning, large amounts if hyperbole past the first two sentences)

Programming isn't easy and if you think it is, you're dumb. Simple as that. There's 500 libraries that all update constantly that you have to keep up with, a few gazillion inexplicable bugs that nobody even has an idea of what could be causing them, a vocal minority of children that constantly want everything about your game changed NOW and that will never be satisfied, and in the middle of that you're trying to build a game, possibly entirely rewriting entire old systems that aren't as genius as they seemed, and all of these features then need art, bugfixing and balance.
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Graknorke

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #22 on: June 09, 2014, 06:48:42 am »

(Warning, large amounts if hyperbole past the first two sentences)

Programming isn't easy and if you think it is, you're dumb. Simple as that. There's 500 libraries that all update constantly that you have to keep up with, a few gazillion inexplicable bugs that nobody even has an idea of what could be causing them, a vocal minority of children that constantly want everything about your game changed NOW and that will never be satisfied, and in the middle of that you're trying to build a game, possibly entirely rewriting entire old systems that aren't as genius as they seemed, and all of these features then need art, bugfixing and balance.
GlyphGryph was joking.
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10ebbor10

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #23 on: June 09, 2014, 06:52:52 am »

I don't think he was referring the GlyphGryph when he said that though.
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miauw62

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #24 on: June 09, 2014, 06:53:16 am »

I know, I was replying to OP thinking programming is easy :v

(Also this should probably be in OG)
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they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

alexandertnt

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #25 on: June 09, 2014, 07:22:24 am »

The OP diddn't say programming was easy, they implied that building games isn't working, apparently. Perhaps the OP should try working in the often brutal world of video game development.

I am sure most people are aware of this, but playing video games and developing video games are two very different things.

Everything you said still applies to game development in general though.
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This is when I imagine the hilarity which may happen if certain things are glichy. Such as targeting your own body parts to eat.

You eat your own head
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Harry Baldman

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #26 on: June 09, 2014, 07:59:12 am »

5. Promise to spend all of the next batch of kickstarter money on development if we get to a certain: Can't remember which one said this. It was one that raised over $3.9m. They were about $80k short of that goal. So does that mean your spending the money on porn, hookies, crack, and a BMW? Remember spend on game is relative. They can choose to spend the money by giving themselves a big bonus or getting nicer offices too. That technical is accurate.

That particular example sounds like Pillars of Eternity, I think, and it wasn't so much that they were promising to spend the next batch of money exclusively on game development, but rather they wouldn't make the 4 million stretch goal an actual feature because (as the official line went) they didn't want people to feel like they were missing out on something if they didn't make it to 4 million (aside from Chris Avellone doing an LP of Arcanum). At any rate, they did make it to 4 million (when factoring in PayPal donations), but I find that it's a pretty good stretch goal nevertheless, given how it, even if that isn't the original intention, works against feature creep, the bane of most overly successful Kickstarters, a little bit.

Then again, it might be some other project you're referring to, in which case I wouldn't be qualified to judge.

In any case, funding a Kickstarter isn't an investment, and really it's just freely donating money to people you like with ideas you are interested in with the hopes that they will give you products you like and make you and probably themselves happier. Don't see a real problem with that, and, as has been mentioned, it's more patronage than anything.

This does seem to be more of a venting thread, though, and I really just felt like pitching in with the first paragraph's facts after following hints of femtohitlers from a sig, so good luck, everyone, and have a good vent.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2014, 08:02:43 am by Harry Baldman »
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scrdest

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #27 on: June 09, 2014, 08:21:58 am »

(Warning, large amounts if hyperbole past the first two sentences)

Programming isn't easy and if you think it is, you're dumb. Simple as that. There's 500 libraries that all update constantly that you have to keep up with, a few gazillion inexplicable bugs that nobody even has an idea of what could be causing them, a vocal minority of children that constantly want everything about your game changed NOW and that will never be satisfied, and in the middle of that you're trying to build a game, possibly entirely rewriting entire old systems that aren't as genius as they seemed, and all of these features then need art, bugfixing and balance.
GlyphGryph was joking.

You really should be able to tell from him paraphrasing a Dire Straits song.
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Darvi

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #28 on: June 09, 2014, 08:24:53 am »

Some people actually don't listen to music.
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scrdest

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Re: Things that will NOT make me buy your Alpha Game
« Reply #29 on: June 09, 2014, 10:50:55 am »

Some people actually don't listen to music.

You mean 'some humans'.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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