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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperBusinessDonation Figures
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #20 on: October 23, 2008, 10:48:44 AM »

True, if you didn't intend to make anything, it's relatively successful. But every site costs time and effort, as well as hosting fees; the hosting for my site alone can sometimes be $100 a month, so if I sold less than that... D:

And yes, I've a lot of respect for Jason, I like his games and ideas quite a bit. (I wonder if he uses solar panels and well water, that'd be even more independent.)
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undertech
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« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2008, 08:24:35 AM »

You're not truly independent until you figure out how to make your own toilet paper.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #22 on: October 24, 2008, 08:25:28 AM »

Toilet paper? That's easy, leaves work well enough.
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #23 on: October 24, 2008, 08:44:36 AM »

Toilet paper? That's easy, leaves work well enough.

But, as I learned in boy scouts, you REALLY, REALLY should learn how to identify poison ivy and oak before you attempt it.

...I think that kid screamed for days.

On a completely unrelated note, apparently I don't have an allergy to poison ivy.
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increpare
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« Reply #24 on: October 24, 2008, 08:55:41 AM »

Toilet paper? That's easy, leaves work well enough.
Pfft; real people use dried out corncob husks.
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Cymon
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« Reply #25 on: October 24, 2008, 09:33:31 AM »

Toilet paper? That's easy, leaves work well enough.
Pfft; real people use dried out corncob husks.
Yeaaaargh! No. No they don't. Good grief, I can still feel it from when... never mind.
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Movius
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« Reply #26 on: October 24, 2008, 09:54:55 AM »

By figures I mean how many people donate for the extra content per download or something. I.e. that Dwarf Fortress gets a lot of donations is good, but it's less good if it's only a small percent of the people who play it (since it's a hugely popular game). I have heard they make enough to live on, but if the game has, like, 10 million downloads, only a tiny percent of those need to donate in order to make a living from it. So it'd be interesting, for example, to know how many of the people who downloaded Yahtzee's games donated for the special versions of them.

Donations can often be more publicized actually -- think of PBS's donation drives, or Wikipedia's. But yes, generally they're less publicized.
I would have thought its only the final amount of cash dollars you get that counts though. Surely the rational game developer would prefer $10 per day from 20 downloads, than $9 per day from 2 downloads (all other things being equal).

But again its not really something you can directly compare between 2 different sorts of game.
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Casey
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« Reply #27 on: October 24, 2008, 10:16:15 AM »

Toilet paper? That's easy, leaves work well enough.
Pfft; real people use dried out corncob husks.

Corncob husks?  Pfft; real people use pine cones covered in steel shavings.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #28 on: October 24, 2008, 10:17:33 AM »

I would have thought its only the final amount of cash dollars you get that counts though. Surely the rational game developer would prefer $10 per day from 20 downloads, than $9 per day from 2 downloads (all other things being equal).

Yes, but the topic of this thread was whether these sorts of donations systems work or not. If they only work for games which have millions of downloads, then it's out of the range of most people, because most freeware games aren't going to be anywhere near as popular as Dwarf Fortress. So it "counts" in terms of figuring out how well these semi-shareware, semi-freeware hybrid systems compare to other systems, independent of total number of downloads.
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Movius
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« Reply #29 on: October 24, 2008, 11:34:09 PM »

The game being free is how get more people playing the game. The amount of people willing to try something new (ie. some bizarre incomprehensible ASCII game about "dwarves" with alcohol issues,) decreases dramatically the more restrictions you place on it. With a free game, you can lure in many potential new donators, perhaps at the cost of money from people that would otherwise payed for the full-version after playing a demo. With something original (Dwarf Fortress) you'd probably benefit from the extra attention far more than the loss of sales. The opposite is probably true from something in a known style (yet another platformer/shooter.)

As I said you can't really directly compare titles or even relative rate in dollars earned vs. download, because the whole point of making a game free is to get more people (in total) to play it, which by definition will attract more people who have little more than a passing interest in the game.
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« Reply #30 on: October 25, 2008, 12:37:54 AM »

Bonesaw: The Game - 16,000 downloads from my site (I cant keep track of other places, its mirrored around and crap by now) - 7 donations - $120 total.  120 more than I expected.  Pays for my webhosting, weeee.

edit:  wait.. are you looking for flash only or anything?  I'm so tired.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #31 on: October 26, 2008, 06:52:05 AM »

The game being free is how get more people playing the game. The amount of people willing to try something new (ie. some bizarre incomprehensible ASCII game about "dwarves" with alcohol issues,) decreases dramatically the more restrictions you place on it. With a free game, you can lure in many potential new donators, perhaps at the cost of money from people that would otherwise payed for the full-version after playing a demo. With something original (Dwarf Fortress) you'd probably benefit from the extra attention far more than the loss of sales. The opposite is probably true from something in a known style (yet another platformer/shooter.)

As I said you can't really directly compare titles or even relative rate in dollars earned vs. download, because the whole point of making a game free is to get more people (in total) to play it, which by definition will attract more people who have little more than a passing interest in the game.

I'm not quite sure this is true. I've made freeware for a long time, and my first shareware game has had more downloads of the demo than all of my freeware games combined. It's not a different in quality either, I'd say my freeware games tend to be about as good as my shareware game. So I think the assumption that freeware games are downloaded more is false. And it's not just the case with my games either, freeware games (besides a few exceptions like Cave Story) tend not to have anywhere near as many downloads as the typical mainstream commercial game has sales. I'm not saying that more people would necessarily play a game if it were commercial than if it were free though, there are other factors involved (such as commercial games generally being better than free ones on average).
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Movius
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« Reply #32 on: October 26, 2008, 08:06:23 AM »

etc.
I'm almost certain theres more variables at play than just freeware vs shareware. Though no doubt the perception of "if it costs money then it must be good" is real and has an effect, I'm certain differences in promotion, quality, etc. have far more impact.

To take an extreme example; Television networks worldwide have made trillions of dollars from sending a broadcast into peoples homes at no cost to the viewer and certainly more people watch TV than go to the movies or hire/buy videos or DVD.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #33 on: October 26, 2008, 08:09:36 AM »

Well, I wouldn't say there's no cost to the viewer. There's no monetary cost, but there's a time cost and perhaps even a health cost (due to lack of exercise).

And sure, games with advertising can work too, a lot of Flash games rely on that model, and there are probably more indie Flash games than there are indie shareware games, and they probably make more money on average, even though they tend to be lower quality, just like television usually makes more money than movies even though it tends to be lower quality. There's room for both television and movies, just as there's room for both ad-supported games and shareware games.
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