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[JackieJay]

I think you guys missed the point I was trying to make by mentioning Lugaru. Let me clarify; I was implying that if a brilliant kid can make Lugaru in a few months, multiple average developers should be able to finish a much simpler game in eight months in their spare time.

Then why is it that >99% of all indie games in development you see talked about on line are never finished?

That's usually due to lack of motivation, not lack of funds.

And you think the 2 are not related?

hum no, not everyone make games for money ya know. 99% of those 99% were going to be freeware games anyway.

[Snow]

I think you guys missed the point I was trying to make by mentioning Lugaru. Let me clarify; I was implying that if a brilliant kid can make Lugaru in a few months, multiple average developers should be able to finish a much simpler game in eight months in their spare time.

Then why is it that >99% of all indie games in development you see talked about on line are never finished?

That's usually due to lack of motivation, not lack of funds.

BANG! Right on the button. I can boast 30 unfinished projects... actually, that makes me sad now. But seriously, you get really excited about a game mechanic that you just invented one day, then you realize that it's either stupid or someone else made it as well or you just don't like it or don't think anyone would be interested in the project. So, it gets abandoned or placed on the proverbial back-burner.

[tametick]

hum no, not everyone make games for money ya know. 99% of those 99% were going to be freeware games anyway.

I'm not in it for the gold pit and yacht either (honestly I will probably make more money per hour staying at my current "normal" game developer job).

The money is so that we (2 people, one with a kid & a wife) can work on the game full time for a couple of months + contract out some more music & graphics + not starve.

[Fallsburg]

 Unfortunately, you won't get a ton of sympathy here, because a lot of people are in your situation (i.e. hobbyist trying to make it)

I would think that is exactly the reason I *would* get sympathy, as people can relate to my situation (of asking for an honestly fairly modest amount of money to work on my games full time).

Also, this isn't simply a donation as people do get something in return for the pledge.

Ok, my wording was off.  It will generate sympathy, but it won't generate willing donators.  If someone is in the same situation as you, it would seem to indicate that a) they need more money, and b) would be wanting money from someone else. i.e. Not the person who is going to be giving you money.


Unless you are suggesting some sort of magic circlejerk that somehow creates money for all of us?

[tametick]

Ok, my wording was off.  It will generate sympathy, but it won't generate willing donators.  If someone is in the same situation as you, it would seem to indicate that a) they need more money, and b) would be wanting money from someone else. i.e. Not the person who is going to be giving you money.

Ok, that is a much more understandable position

[bento_smile]

Unless you are suggesting some sort of magic circlejerk that somehow creates money for all of us?

If you give me $5 I will tell you how to make $5. 

[moi]

If I give you $500 will I get full access to the game's statistics?

What kind of statistics do you want to have moi?

The 5% for $500 sounds like a rather good offer.
But I would want to have access to the real time stats of the game (on Iphone or android or whatever mobile service) instead of trusting the number you would give.
The same for FGL (I think there is an option for "co-creators")

[tametick]

Sure, we can work it out moi.

You and every other person who gets a share of the profit will have full access to real time stats.

[JackieJay]

hum no, not everyone make games for money ya know. 99% of those 99% were going to be freeware games anyway.

I'm not in it for the gold pit and yacht either (honestly I will probably make more money per hour staying at my current "normal" game developer job).

The money is so that we (2 people, one with a kid & a wife) can work on the game full time for a couple of months + contract out some more music & graphics + not starve.

I'm pretty sure no one is dumb enough to go for indie game development expecting to make millions. What I meant is that most indie games that end up abandoned for reasons that have nothing to do with money, simply because they are planned to be released as freeware.

As for your objective, wouldn't it be better to make a few flash games, make money out of them, save that money, and then go full time ? I don't know where you live, but I'm certain those 6000$ will only be used for living expenses, not for the game, and you'll probably be running out of money by the 3rd month or so.

[NotHere]

I'm seeking indeterminate thousands of dollars to finish "Joe's Game, a game by one person who is named Arthur Lee" and if you donate $5000 I will send you a customised Nigerian 419 scam letter with your name in the name field.

I'll take two!

[tametick]

 I don't know where you live, but I'm certain those 6000$ will only be used for living expenses, not for the game, and you'll probably be running out of money by the 3rd month or so.

I think we can finish the game in less than 3 months of full time work.

[JackieJay]

 I don't know where you live, but I'm certain those 6000$ will only be used for living expenses, not for the game, and you'll probably be running out of money by the 3rd month or so.

I think we can finish the game in less than 3 months of full time work.

I thought you guies wanted to go full time in the long term. Abandoning your full time jobs to be a full time indie for two months sounds like a incredibly dumb move. Specially considering one of the members of your group has a family to take care of.

[tametick]

At that point the hope is that the money from FGL will allow us to further develop the desktop & mobile versions.

It is actually all explained in the page originally linked to

Our short term plan is to port the game to flash, polish all the rough edges, add the missing features and sell it to game-portals at FlashGameLicense.com
Once the flash version is sold we will use the funds from the sale to develop desktop and mobile versions.

[slembcke]

Well, to continue JackieJay's sentiment but a bit more lightly, I think that you are counting too much on future success.

I'm doing the indie game dev thing right now with buddy of mine from college. We both saved up almost a year's worth of salary; enough that we figured we could survive without making money for ~2 years. I gotta say, I would have been pretty screwed if I hadn't done that. You know, life happens and you get hit with all sorts of expenses that you couldn't have accounted for. When my car broke down and had to be completely replaced I wasn't freaking out because I didn't know where the money would come from to pay for it.

The stuff we made on our own time (Crayon Ball, Upshot, Twilight Golf) barely made us enough money to justify the time we spent on them. (which is maybe 2-3 man months each). The only way we are still making money to pay the rent and keep going is because we do a lot of contracting work. Most of that contracting work comes from the visibility we have that thousands of people have used our open source physics library or from other contacts we've met. This sort of social networking isn't something that happens in 3 months. It took us over two years to get back to making a comfortable wage.

Not to say that you can't strike gold, but you cannot rely that you will. Unless you were feeling that you wanted to quit the job anyway, it is a little crazy to live your life out a few months at a time.

[jrjellybeans]

Jeez Luiz, all the guy is asking is for funds for him and a partner to develop a game full time.

Yes, $6000 is a lot of money.
Yes, it's probably going to cost them MORE money just to make the thing.
Yes, there are people who've made games for cheaper.  As it's been said, those are the exceptions...
Yes, it's probably a risky thing for them to go full time.  A lot of the decisions in life tend to be and it's also a difficult thing to decide upon.

You guys act like you've never tried to make and finish a game before.  If you had, you'd realize that it's A LOT more work and A LOT more expensive then most people think it is.

Even if they DIDN'T release the stats, they just want to finish the game.  And, that's a hard thing to do when you have bills to pay...

I'm not a fan of Rogue games at all, but I just wanted to show some support tametick.

[tametick]

I'm not a fan of Rogue games at all, but I just wanted to show some support tametick.

Thank you, it is much appreciated.

[JackieJay]

Jeez Luiz, all the guy is asking is for funds for him and a partner to develop a game full time.

Yes, $6000 is a lot of money.
Yes, it's probably going to cost them MORE money just to make the thing.
Yes, there are people who've made games for cheaper.  As it's been said, those are the exceptions...
Yes, it's probably a risky thing for them to go full time.  A lot of the decisions in life tend to be and it's also a difficult thing to decide upon.

You guys act like you've never tried to make and finish a game before.  If you had, you'd realize that it's A LOT more work and A LOT more expensive then most people think it is.

Even if they DIDN'T release the stats, they just want to finish the game.  And, that's a hard thing to do when you have bills to pay...

I'm not a fan of Rogue games at all, but I just wanted to show some support tametick.

+5 paragon.

Seriously though, I made several games in the past and I never spent a single cent. The only thing he could really use the money would be to pay the flash licence, but it seems they have that sorted out already.
Like I said, life is tough, and what he's asking basically is for us to pay his rent and feed his, his partner and his partner's family's stomach.
I'm not really condemning him for it, but I don't think it's not the aim of 8bitfunding and he is misleading whoever wants to fund his project because he says there that he wants to go both full time and pay for contract work which not only is unnecessary, but 6000$ is not enough to feed 2 people and one family for more than a month or two + pay for contracting work.
Like slembcke said, it's still a dumb idea to abandon your jobs in the hope that the money from FGL is enough to develop the game more. I'm starting to think you have no idea how much living costs, and I have a feeling you expect FGL is a money making machine. It's not, and you might never see any money in the first place.
This isn't only a risk, it's a suicidal move. There are other, less pleasant but working ways to go indie full time, but that require saving money for years perhaps. Waiting and saving that money is probably harder than ask for it, but it's the only way if you want to last more than 2 months.

[tametick]

I do have some savings from my current job as a game developer at a small local company, I won't be only dependent on those $6k.

[tametick]

Like I said, life is tough, and what he's asking basically is for us to pay his rent and feed his, his partner and his partner's family's stomach.

So that we can afford to spent more time working on the game full-time. If you don't want to support us that's cool, but I think we have covered that part of the conversation by now.

I'm not really condemning him for it, but I don't think it's not the aim of 8bitfunding and he is misleading whoever wants to fund his project because he says there that he wants to go both full time and pay for contract work which not only is unnecessary, but 6000$ is not enough to feed 2 people and one family for more than a month or two + pay for contracting work.

We live cheaply (and probably in a cheaper place than you do) and also have some savings.

The 6k is only needed to fill the gap between what we have and what need to get this finished.

The contract work we require is new music (the current single track is good but will make your ears bleed if you listen to it looping for 45 minutes) & some background pictures to use for stuff like splash screen/char creation screen, game over (1 for victory & 1 for loss) and if there is some left to replace the shitty sounds i've made with sfxr.

[Christian Knudsen]

I really don't understand why some people are getting their panties in a bunch so much over this. It's just a form of preorder. People aren't just donating for nothing in return, they're (at least) getting a copy of the finished game. And even if they weren't getting anything in return, the donators are free to use their money for what they want. You can be annoyed that people are donating to a game or some developers that you feel may not deserve it -- but then it's just a matter of jealousy, which is even more odd since anybody can put their project up on 8BitFunding.

And, sure, other people have made games without external funding (I'm currently doing so myself at the moment), but there is no honor in being a starving artist and if you can get your project funded so that you (and your family) don't have to starve (or otherwise compromise your lifestyle), more power to you!