Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mesa]

I wish I could donate.
Fuck you, inflated Polish złoty!

[Grakelin]

Edit - Also, regarding those 7k for 3-4 months.

Take into account that about 10% are given to kickstarter and amazon for fees. another 5-10% are being lost due to payments not processing through at the end, taxes and for some projects you got the physical rewards expenses (here its pretty limited, which is good). so those 7k quickly turn into 4k and even less which for 3 months is really not that much to ask for.

That's part of my point. I'm not optimistic he'll actually be able to survive off of that while making a free game which offers minimal possibility for future earnings. If it was a hobby project which required money to pay for an artist or some music or some extra programming help, I'd be all for it.

[GlyphGryph]

Ethan is a freelance contract workers right now, so this won't be all that functionally different for him. Three months was about how long he could run without problems on such a low amount; for the stretch goals and adding more time, the monthly amount will be higher.

It's not a lot of money, but in large part these guys (Ethan and his backups) really just want an excuse and opportunity - they are all working on the game already, and this just allows them to stop worrying about a lot of other things in the meanwhile.

It's just (in many ways) a particularly low-paying contract piece, and they will handle it the same way they've handled other contracts.

Besides, even if you did get 7,000 dollars how would we know this won't just turn into vaporware? You said that the main developer could disappear randomly, and that's pretty sketchy especially since your donators are entrusting you with 7,000 dollars to make a game.

Well... uh... the game definitely won't turn into vaporware. Since it's already, like, a thing. The features? Well, I'll be holding onto the money until it comes time to pay the programmer that is working on fulfilling the promises, so it's not like he'll be able to disappear randomly with the money. And it's something you have to deal with for any project like this - bad things happen to people that you can't do anything about, and it's good to have a backup plan. It's something we hope doesn't happen, but it's something we are prepared for as well.

I'm wary of donating to this project because I do not see where the money is actually going, or why it is needed to produce a roguelike of this nature.

It will be going to food, rent, and utilities for one person, who will be working on the game 40+ hours a week and producing a log as he goes to keep people updated on what he's working on.

[Lectorog]

A funding program to speed up the development of a game. I approve, enough to throw a tenner your way. Kickstarter may be the wrong way to go, with its focus on individual rewards, but I don't know of anything better, especially for exposure. The fanbase isn't large enough to make $7000 easy.

[Moghjubar]

Pledged tree fiddy, don't even play Cataclysm but hey, if it'll support what looks like a neat game I'll put a little in.

[PrimusRibbus]

I hope this succeeds, as it would be a great sign of the maturity in the OSS game market.

One of the big obstacles with any OSS project is that your average contributor wants to add features, not fix bugs. Many OSS projects have greatly benefited from having paid part or full-time developers who help manage the project, ensure that code contributions integrate seamlessly, and do the often very not fun job of hunting down the project's most frustrating bugs.

With over a decade of evidence pointing to how effective paid developers are for OSS projects, I can only hope that this helps light a fire that further ramps up the democratization of gaming.

[Lectorog]

To be clear, Cataclysm DDA will remain open-source throughout the 3 months of individual development, correct? And will the others stop working on it while the one focuses?

[Neonivek]

I was a bit worried this wouldn't gets its funding... But apparently it picked up quite a bit.

The concept of the developer outlining three months to work on it and demanding $7000 (ostensibly for living expenses) is also a bit silly

This comment made me laugh, not because of anything particularly written here... but I am trying to imagine the developer going "I DEMAND you give me 7000 bucks! You have no choice in the matter!"

"But... its my money"
"NO CHOICE!"

[PrimusRibbus]

To be clear, Cataclysm DDA will remain open-source throughout the 3 months of individual development, correct? And will the others stop working on it while the one focuses?

My understanding is that because Cataclysm DDA is released under the CC-BY-SA license (https://github.com/TheDarklingWolf/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/LICENSE, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), they would need the approval of all the project's contributors to change the license.

EDIT: Most importantly, Whales' code is CC-BY-SA licensed and I doubt that he has any intention of approving a change in license.

[FritzPL]

How dare you people call this vaporware and 7000$ unreachable? This game has been in development for longer than I can remember(like, '08 or '09) and it's been active all that time. It is so popular when the original developer quit it got picked up by fans and is now maintained by their lately grown group. This is not a scam.

Besides, they raised 1,230$ in the first day.

EDIT: Thanks, people. Helping me fight with glossophobia ever since I got here

[Lectorog]

My understanding is that because Cataclysm DDA is released under the CC-BY-SA license (https://github.com/TheDarklingWolf/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/LICENSE, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), they would need the approval of all the project's contributors to change the license.

Er, what I meant was, rather than changing the license, the programmer might not bother to update the online files regularly.

How dare you people call this vaporware and 7000$ unreachable? This game has been in development for longer than I can remember(like, '08 or '09) and it's been active all that time. It is so popular when the original developer quit it got picked up by fans and is now maintained by their lately grown group. This is not a scam.

Besides, they raised 1,230$ in the first day.

Do you understand how worthless this comment is, or would you like someone to explain it to you?

[nenjin]

About the only thing I find slightly weird about this is seeking funding to so you can get paid to develop an source open game. Graphics and stuff is neat, for sure, but will you guys be charging for the final product? (I haven't read the Kickstarter.) Something about that doesn't sit too well with me, but I guess however people manage to get their foot in the door. I'd only hope you have the blessings of the original product creator. Because it's their shoulders you're standing on.

Consider if there was another group like you, actively trying to develop Cataclysm, who also went on Kickstarter.

I mean, no offense, but it sounds like you guys said "Well, we're doing it anyways, let's see if someone will pay us to do it."

Do you understand how worthless this comment is, or would you like someone to explain it to you?

Dude. You're well on your way to getting reported by someone.

[Neonivek]

This game has been in development for longer than I can remember

You might want to see a doctor about that

[burningpet]

About the only thing I find slightly weird about this is seeking funding to continue to develop an open source game. Graphics and stuff is neat, for sure, but will you guys be charging for the final product? (I haven't read the Kickstarter.) Something about that doesn't sit too well with me, but I guess however people manage to get their foot in the door. I'd only hope you have the blessings of the original product creator. Because it's their shoulders you're standing on.

Do you understand how worthless this comment is, or would you like someone to explain it to you?

Dude. You're well on your way to getting reported by someone.

That made me think, actually.

what is a more "true to the spirit" use of kickstarter, raising funds for projects that will later cost money, or projects that will be free of charge? for some unexplained reason i tend to go with the latter.

[PrimusRibbus]

About the only thing I find slightly weird about this is seeking funding to continue to develop an open source game. Graphics and stuff is neat, for sure, but will you guys be charging for the final product? (I haven't read the Kickstarter.) Something about that doesn't sit too well with me, but I guess however people manage to get their foot in the door. I'd only hope you have the blessings of the original product creator. Because it's their shoulders you're standing on.

Using funding to hire developers is very common for OSS projects outside of games. OSS has never meant that funding or professional development cannot be involved, it merely covers the rights of a projects' end users. Indeed, combining professional development with end-user contributions has proven to be WILDLY effective in OSS.