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[PompiPompi]

I have setup a donatins page because I am in between jobs and cannot afford simple things like sound and music.
My donation page is probably not ideal, so I would like you to give feedback if this looks serious enough or more like a pathetic "attempt".
What are your tips and suggestions?
I am using a beta widget by paypal.

http://www.pompipompi.net/

[Hima]

I like it. Especially the part where you are transparent about what you need it for and how much you estimate it to cost.

Maybe what missing is a perk or a reason to pay. It can be as simple as an option to put your name up there as a supporter.

[Quarry]

70 bucks for a rocket launcher? Daaaayyyuuuuum

[PompiPompi]

Quarry, those are the prices I see on TurboSquid.

Hmm, I might add perks but I don't think it's right to specify them as donations.
I thought of putting a "buy perk" button which will practically be an overprices limited edition perk.
To be honest, I am not sure how this whole perk thing really work with donations, legally.
Another issue is that I am too worried to invest money in perks when I am not sure anyone is going to buy them. I am also not too happy about selling perks before I have them, because I don't really know I can create the perk I am selling until I actually have one in my hands.
Another minus is that I don't have a system to automatically display donations. It's not so simple since PayPal doesn't provide a proper solution for that.

I should add a nickname field to the donation, and have it set it's default to be "anonymous".
Then I will still have to write all the donations manually.

Edit: Quarry, btw, $70 for a high quality rocket launcher is very cheap. Consider that one 3D artist hour's work is worth more than that. And a good rocket launcher would take more than a single hour to make.

[Quarry]

That's way too high, I've never checked on model prices...

[michaelplzno]

3D artists make more than 70$ an hour? Damn, when did that start?

[Quarry]

Welcome to the rise of the indie industry

[PompiPompi]

Yea, $70 per hour might be a little steep.
But seriously, these kind of assets cost quite a lot. You think a few hours of artist work is worth less than $70?
Anyway, this is not the discussion of this thread, you are welcome to open a new thread somewhere with these kind of rethoric drama.

[michaelplzno]

You're right, my comment was off topic.

Feedback:

I personally don't find the color scheme you are using to be that attractive, but I guess that's just my personal taste and I can't offer you a better scheme. I also don't like the weird white shadow you have on the text. I'm not sure how you even do that. Your marketing text is a little weak. "The game doesn't focus on story but rather focus on fun gameplay." might be better as "The game focuses on fun gameplay first and story second." for example. But that's just the first thing I came up with. You might even want to cut your reference to your disregard for story. Its a legitimate design philosophy but I wouldn't try to sell your game by your lack of a feature. If you were to talk about how your game has a gun that shoots chainsaws and you can cut holes in walls with your super high powered multi barreled machine gun you wouldn't really need to add that you aren't prioritizing story. People will pick up on it.

Also, there is a disconnect between the features you claim to offer and the cost you are asking for. It seems from the bottom that you think you can make this game for between $133 and $134 and yet you also claim that you are going to do DX11 with cutting edge features you imply only DX11 can do, and have a fallback, and release it on mac linux and tablet. If you could release a Tetris clone for all those platforms at a cost of $135 that would be pretty good work. I find it hard to believe you will be able to get a first person shooter to work for that kind of money.

[PompiPompi]

Hmm...
You are right about better "marketing content".
It is also not clear that the wish list is not everything I need, it's just the things I need now.
How would you suggest I will make it clear that I am also going to update the wish list when I will need more stuff?
Of course this does not cover the worth of my time I am investing. I am not asking for a salary here.

[surt]

I don't get why a person would donate. What do they get out of it?
Will they receive a copy of the game?
Will the game be released as freeware?
Will the game be open source?
If the donor isn't getting anything tangible out of this then only the intangible remains and I think very nearly everyone would receive greater intangible benefits from donating to starving kiddies in the third world than giving money to some dude so he can make yet another FPS.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

in regards to the rocket model. Are you looking for the visual fidelity of the ak in the video with no texture?

 

[michaelplzno]

How would you suggest I will make it clear that I am also going to update the wish list when I will need more stuff?

This question pokes at a lot of problems with your project. It seems like this is sort of a hobby project you are enthusiastic about but that you don't really have a clear end goal and so on. If you say on your page that "I'll add more stuff when I think of it" it really comes off as you are just looking for someone give you free money on the internet for basically no reason. That, combined with surt's point about how you really aren't offering anything in return for donations makes me wonder about the whole thing.

When I paid for Doublefine's kickstarter they had less actual game content than you, but it was a much more attractive deal. It was clear they had people who had worked on that kind of game before, and they work at a studio which ships games at standard industry pace, and they had a realistic goal in terms of how much the production would cost, and they offered valuable things in return for donating. If anything they undervalued what they offered for donations. 15 bucks not only got you the finished game, but access to their behind the scenes "making of"  documentary. I think that might get you access to the beta as well? And a member forum.

You are in a very different position though and I'm not sure what I would do if I were in your shoes. I wish there were more opportunities for independent studios to find their legs.

[PompiPompi]

InfiniteStateMachine,

I wold prefer something that looks good for "next gen" and with textures. The gun is mostly black anyway, so the textures didn't matter that much.

Quarry

The game is going to be free regardless.
What I am offering is that I am goig to finish an interesting FPS game. I have already finished a game before, so it shows I can deliver.

I am not sure that perks are even legal in regards to donations, but I can offer "overpriced fan products" to buy.

I don't think I need to go into the route of the business guy. I just need to make it clear that I am going to finish a game, and that I have the abilities to make a realy advanced and cool 3D FPS game.
People can donate if they believe I am going to make this game. I thought all these kickstarter donations were mainly because people wanted a game to be made, not because of the perks.

The hungry kids comparission is stupid. As I said, people should donate for me if they want to see my game being made(faster).

[InfiniteStateMachine]

You might try asking at the cdg forums. They specialize in vweapons and have amazing work. Much of it is better than most AAA games. If you are releasing the game for free you canproably find someone who will donate something. Members have done it for a game I worked many times.

http://www.cdg.net/forums/

[bateleur]

Change the font! Times isn't quite as awful as Comic Sans, but it's just as amateurish for something like this.

Even if you can't be bothered using a nice embeddable font at least switch to something like Verdana which will look OK on most systems and default to something readable on the rest.