Salutations Philip.
Awesome to hear that you've got yet another project on the way. Below are my
answers to your project survey:
1. Game on CD: With the proliferation of broadband access methods to the
Internet, I sincerely believe that the era of physical media for content has
gone by the wayside. Rarely is it necessary to delivery content on such
platforms anymore; they were mostly used in the past to subvert the tedium
of downloading via cumbersome download methods such as low-grade DSL or
dial-up. While I can see the merit of having a physical copy of a product,
most of these products require a license key of some sort to unlock them,
requiring the original software distributor to keep records of some form. By
that reasoning, a distributor may as well just keep records of purchasers
(perhaps via an account system), and allow people to redownload and
reauthorize purchased applications. In conclusion, I personally believe that
physical media is no longer necessary for content below 4 GB, since even a 2
GB file can be downloaded much more quickly than it can be shipped. This
also relieves a lot of the burden from the developer, since they no longer
have to maintain a physical storehouse or master copy of the physical
content to duplicate. I believe an online download and management system
would be sufficient for the majority of customers.
2. Content Size: From my personal experience working on Swamp, the size of
the content is less of an issue now than it has been in the past. What with
the aforementioned higher speed Internet access methods and the plethora of
large hard drives available to the average consumer, the size of a game
download becomes fairly inconsequential. Indeed, since many mainstream games
often exceed the 1 GB limit by a fairly significant margin, I believe that
even 300 MB would be fairly light-weight for a well-developed and executed
game. Swamp itself has jumped from being 45 MB in its beginnings to now
being roughly 400 MB, and people still download it without issue. That being
the case, I doubt size limitations should be of much concern to you or any
other developer in your field of expertise.
3. Documentation Format: While I can understand and appreciate the desire
for an audio manual, I don't personally feel that it's so important as to
invest the time and resources for such a production. there is scarcely much
of a difference between digesting material via text form than via audio
narration, particularly with people who are already accessing their
computers via speech synthesis methods. I'd rather lessen the demands on you
the developer and not require you to produce such a demanding accompanying
project to go with the main content, especially if that same content could
be delivered in a much smaller, much more quickly accessible, and much more
easily organizable package such as in an HTML, CHM, or indeed text file.
4. Purchasable Unlockables. I actually can agree with this particular
marketing method. Proof is in the Sony and other online gaming stores;
people are willing to buy upgrades, packages, and unlockables for their
games, if the price is done correctly. I, for example, wouldn't expect to
pay 10 dollars for unlockables, if the initial price of the product was,
say, 20 to 25 dollars, since that 10 dollars is roughly one half to one
third the price of the original product. Furthermore, if such unlockables
are available as rewards for effort, there should be no negatives to
offering such an unlocking service; you'd be allowing two methods to achieve
the same ends. In short, I approve of such a marketing model for a product,
and it does ensure that your initial selling point is not the only method of
profit.
Kai
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