Now I'm curious. What game made, maybe, 8 to 10 thousand bucks? I wonder if I have it? Thanks. --- In God we trust! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org> Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 12:13 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] free games was Piracy
Hi Willem, Well, I haven't been in the business as long as GMA, Jim Kitchen, or BSC, but it doesn't take long to get a feel for what the market is really like. I can probably answer your questions as well as the next person. Is it really worth all the effort to sell an accessible game? I would say no, and there are plenty of reasons why I say this. First, of course is copyright issues. Companies tend to turn a blind eye towards the free and open source projects like FreeCiv, KDE Packman, and Open Quake, because although they are based on the commercial products they are free and open source. It usually isn't worth a company's time and money trying to sue the developer or open source community for creating a free clone of their software. However, the minute that same developer tries to market the product, sell it commercially, he owes royalties to the company that holds the copyrights. If he makes enough at it and doesn't pay the royalties he can be taken to court in order to redress the money the company believes they are owed for the use of their copyrights and trademarks. Obviously, this is not something an accessible game developer ever hopes to face. Second, back when I was creating STFC I truly enjoyed writing games. Partly because it was for the most part freeware, and there was little pressure to get it done by a certain date. As soon as I took over the games from James North I was suddenly expected to get the games done as soon as possible, and there has been nothing but pressure to get the games done. That has largely effected my desire to do the games. Third, when you take money for the games you have to report the income to the government, file taxes, and you end up with almost nothing for your troubles in return. Considering there isn't much to be gained from game sales it usually just ends up covering the sounds and music costs, things like that, and the developer ends up with no real extra money to spend. Can you make a living writing accessible games? No, you really can't. You can make some to pay off a few bills, perhaps buy a new computer, or something like that but it isn't a job that pays you a stable income to live off of. The most I've heard an accessible game made was something like $10,000.00 USD, and after taxes go out you maybe end up with $7,000 to $8,000. That's assuming the game really did well. Usually, from what I've heard, a game usually makes $2,000 to $3,000 grose, and after taxes you are not making much off the game at all. So say about $2,500is average for a game as best I can guess. HTH Willem wrote: > Hi all. > > Now the issue of piracy has reared it's head, I have a question for > everybody. > > Is it really worth all the effort to sell an accessible game? I know > you make money, but is it really enough to live off? As things appear > from my side, a potential developer, making audio games is almost a > charity job anyway. The market is so small and many people can't > afford the games or just crack them plain and simple, which makes the > buyers even less. Either way, you have to do it because you love what > you do and not to make money. In fact most developers have other jobs > as I understand it. > > In fact some programmers build useful utilities just to have a website > worth visiting so they can put up adds and a donate button, which > works better in some, if not most cases. > > Lastly, I know there goes more into a game than programming. You spend > thousands on sound libraries, licensing systems and the like, but > wouldn't a free, community-driven project be more worthwhile? I have > also heard the arguments against community projects, namely that > everybody has their own coding style and ideas and that there isn't > enough people who would contribute without wanting something back, but > at this stage it's all one man shows, except GMA who sub licensed the > GMA engine. > > I know there are exceptions, like Thomas Ward and Raceway/mota, but to > my mind trying to live off making games is like squeezing water out of > a piece of wood, all be it a wet piece of wood. > > Like you can see I don't have much experience in this area, but I > would like to hear what you all think. I especially want to hear from > the people that have been doing it for years. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the > list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
