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[DizzyCrash]

Do you think this is Toady's full time job? Or is Dwarf fortress just a hobby they do in there spare time?

[Enemy post]

He used to, but currently he and his brother get enough money from donations to live off Dwarf Fortress.

[Shonai_Dweller]

You know the Internet is full of countless interviews with Toady and that he's active on this forum, replies to emails, Twitter messages, etc? He's not some recluse that fans need speculate over in the dark corners of the Internet.

https://youtu.be/HtKmLciKO30

[DizzyCrash]

You know the Internet is full of countless interviews with Toady and that he's active on this forum, replies to emails, Twitter messages, etc? He's not some recluse that fans need speculate over in the dark corners of the Internet.

https://youtu.be/HtKmLciKO30

This is true.. Me and my brother just got into a bit of a discussion over the subject, wondering how he made money and if donations/advertisers were enough to fun the whole thing.

Honestly he could sell the game, I would pay for it if it was on steam. Its probably my second or third favourite gam of all time.

[Shonai_Dweller]

In this thread, Toady reports on how much he's earning from donations. He doesn't use advertising as far as I know.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=170100.0

It's not much as I guess this is both of their income combined (before taxes). But apparently enough not to have to do anything extra except make an awesome game and draw crayon pictures for a living.

[DizzyCrash]

Maaaan... Why doesnt he just run ads or sell merch? I mean he really easily could the game is legendary. ( Its a shame its not more well known but still ) 

I thinnk toady should fix all the bugs create the most stable version he can ( for new players ) and than just release ads all over youtube and such, and open up some market and maybe run a kickstarter with special goals to entice more funds. He could make a really good living with some of these things. DF is better than half the games on kick starter will ever have a chance to be, if anyone deserves a good budget and success its the toad-man himself.

[DizzyCrash]

Gunna be straight up, if there was a dwarf fortress hat or Tshirt or plushies for sale I would buy the hell out of them.
Heck if he wanted promotional art done I would do it for free, he doesn't need to rely on just crayon sketches.

[Bumber]

I thinnk toady should fix all the bugs create the most stable version he can ( for new players )...

Are you honestly suggesting he should give up development of new features just so he can have a sort of "good enough" game that sells? That's kind of a sad loss of potential.

You might say he could go back to adding features afterward, but given the projected development time of DF, that basically means we could be losing out on stuff due to human life expectancy. Anybody can fix a bug. The artistic vision of DF's future is better left to Toady and his bro.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Advertising and sponsors come with all sorts of strings attached (usually). I believe there was...I forget...a board game proposal, I think, that was mentioned once.

And yeah. A slick bug free game that's just 44% complete just sounds rubbish. There's loads of slick (relatively) bug free site building games out there.

There's no simulator that procedurally generates a unique fantasy world (down to the actual lore) for every player and allows you to play in a variety of roles at site, individual and civilization level for as long as you want in each world before starting again. With full modding support and a world editor.

And yeah, maybe there never will be, but the journey towards it is really fun so far.

[Telgin]

I'd probably buy merchandise if any existed, but I'm pretty sure Toady has said before that he didn't want to deal with managing it.  Whatever that ends up meaning.

In a recent interview, he said that he viewed working on DF as just what he does for fun, but everything else, like administrating this forum, felt like work.  I imagine setting up and dealing with merchandise would be in that bucket for him, so I don't really blame him for not pursuing it.

[DizzyCrash]

I thinnk toady should fix all the bugs create the most stable version he can ( for new players )...

Are you honestly suggesting he should give up development of new features just so he can have a sort of "good enough" game that sells? That's kind of a sad loss of potential.

You might say he could go back to adding features afterward, but given the projected development time of DF, that basically means we could be losing out on stuff due to human life expectancy. Anybody can fix a bug. The artistic vision of DF's future is better left to Toady and his bro.

I am not saying he should sell it, just that if he is going to market it and run ads for it make sure the current version is stable and playable by everyone.
Like remember that 2 year period when you couldnt even play adventure mode cause only humans had cities and in order to actually play adventure mode you had to mod the game yourself to give goblins and elves human style cities? That was insane, i couldnt recomend the game to anyone new cause it was basically in a unplayable state for the easiest mode for new players to get into.

Just make sure the current version is polished and putting your best foot forward and than advertise the hell out of the game.

[DizzyCrash]

I'd probably buy merchandise if any existed, but I'm pretty sure Toady has said before that he didn't want to deal with managing it.  Whatever that ends up meaning.

In a recent interview, he said that he viewed working on DF as just what he does for fun, but everything else, like administrating this forum, felt like work.  I imagine setting up and dealing with merchandise would be in that bucket for him, so I don't really blame him for not pursuing it.

I mean yeah but he could probably just hire somebody to set up merchendising and stuff like that for him, a turnkey sorta deal where he doesnt have to worry about it. He just desrves so much more than 7000 bucks a month.. thats like... split betwene him and his brother l just over 3,000 each which is only about double canadian minimum wage.
With how amazing this game is he deserves to be making enough money to hire programmers and merchendise deals and have a whole team working for him...
But... I have to hand it to him, Toady is not greedy.. He is content having just enough money to live a very comfortable life and work on his passion project. He never over reaches or distracts from that, which is admirable.

[mikekchar]

He does sell merchandising.  For $X you can buy a Threetoe story or a crayon drawing.  I'll be honest, either of them framed would be the second geekiest, but awesome thing you could put in a frame (the only better thing is a cheque signed by Donald Knuth).

Buy one today!  (I need to pry the credit card from my wife's hand as I *still* haven't done this.  Which is criminal.  Or should be.)

[PatrikLundell]

He does sell merchandising.  For $X you can buy a Threetoe story or a crayon drawing.  I'll be honest, either of them framed would be the second geekiest, but awesome thing you could put in a frame (the only better thing is a cheque signed by Donald Knuth).

Buy one today!  (I need to pry the credit card from my wife's hand as I *still* haven't done this.  Which is criminal.  Or should be.)

Not criminal, but maybe not moral. You're not violating any terms, after all. However, you should put your conscience at ease and make a donation. Do it today!

[mikekchar]

I just gave my wife a handful of cash, so she should be in a good mood :-)

Edit: Bastard Pay Pal.  I have an old account which I can't log into because their data is corrupted.  They won't delete my account because they can't verify me.  I can't create a new account because I have an old account.  I can't pay.

I suppose it will have to be patreon, but that's going to require a significant discussion with my wife :-(