Well put and thought out. With the holidays upon us time gets shorter
by the day.
Take the time you need to do it right and don't hurry. If they want
quality games they can wait.
And no! You can't be blamed for North's actions. i warned everyone on
this list about that and was told I didn't know a thing, and that he
was the nicest guy on earth. Well the hardship he left you with
wasn't needed, and proved me right!
So enjoy the holidays, spend time with your son, because they grow up
before you know it.
At 12:43 PM 12/4/2009, you wrote:
Hi everyone,
As this issue comes up off list quite often I thought I'd share this
with the list, and perhaps I can save myself some trouble repeating
myself time after time regarding Mysteries of the Ancients and
Raceway. Please, no flame wars etc over this, but I do think my
repplyto the original person's e-mail needs to be seen and read by
all concerned parties. Perhaps this may get the point across that
I'm not a Borg drone or a slave working for the masses here.
Hi,
Keep in mind when I took over those titles from Alchemy I thought it
would merely be a matter of completing the work that James North had
started, and I wouldn't have to start over from scratch with either
game. As it happened both games were heavily written in Visual Basic
6 which was already beginning to be phased out of mainstream use,
and the fact the Raceway track editor and Montezuma's Revenge level
editors were not accessible at all. So I decided to start over from
scratch with a newer programming language and newer development
tools. As a result a project i thought would take only a few months
at most has in fact become years. Definitely far more time than I
was willing to commit to this project in the first place.
Second, when I agreed to take over these titles I made no promises
when they would get done or released, or how much time per day I
would devote to working on them. Fact of the matter is I have a life
too, have a son to raise, a wife and family, and things like that
that have nothing to do with these games at all. If I take a little
time out of each day to read and respond to my e-mail that is my
right to do so. If I spend Saturday morning with my son watching
Saturday morning cartoons again that is my right to do so. If I want
to take a couple days off of game programming to do something else I
should have the right to do so without your or anyone else's input
in the matter.
Thing is I write these games purely for my own entertainment value.
USA Games is more or less a hobby and not a business where I get
paid a weekly, monthly, or yearly pay check for writing these games.
Therefore I'm not compelled to work 8, 10, 12, or 16 hours a day
just to sell a game for a couple thousand for all of my time and
hard work. I'm not getting paid enough by you or anyone else to
treat it as a full time job, and you have to understand that.
Third, you mentioned the fact that people have paid good money for
Raceway. I'll remind you of the fact you paid James North for
Raceway, and he kept all of the money for those orders, including my
own, when I took over the project. I have not received one cent for
Raceway, and therefore trying to hold me accountable for that money
is just plane wrong. I didn't hold a gun to your head to order the
game, i didn't take your money for Raceway, and all I agreed to do
was complete the game as soon as i could. I didn't agree to work
around the clock 24/7 on that or any other game just to keep a few
people happy.
However, I do take your point that by responding heavily on list I
appear to be lazy, neglecting the games I'm suppose to be working
on, whatever. It is certainly true time spent reading and writing
e-mail could be used for game programming, but you appear to be over
looking the time, money, and energy I've spent on working on these
games already. So if you want some facts here are some facts to consider.
First, I generally try my best to spend at least four hours each day
working on the games I create. Some times it is more and sometimes
it is less. Some days I don't have any time at all to spend on games
like going to church with my family on Sunday, playing with my son
on Saturday, or I just take a day or two off to play games, watch
TV, play my guitar, read a book, or something else I personally
would like to do better. Everyone needs some time away from the
computer, and just to give it a break.
Second, I spent considerable time between March 2006 and December
2007 creating one of the games you mentioned, Montezuma's Revenge,
and in mid January, just before final release, I got sacked with an
order to cease development of the game or face a copyright
infringement suit. I felt i had no choice to comply with that order,
and to make it right I started over with a new game, Mysteries of
the Ancients, which would be given to those on preorder status
instead of Montezuma's Revenge. That entire affair cost me a full
year and a half of development time and energy. So I've had one heck
of a major setback that I think gives me an excuse for being rather
slow on releasing either game you want.
Finally, do you have any idea how much money I've put into these
projects? How much I've paid for sound effects, music, not to
mention the time spent on working on them?
Well, here is a clue. Game music is quite expensive. For a
commercial license for a music track it can cost a developer
anywhere from $20 for a single track all the way up to $100 or so.
Sound effect cds are similarly expensive. It can cost a couple
hundred for a cheap collection of sounds to a few thousand for a
very large royalty free collection. It is time you realize the fact
commercial game development is not cheap, is not free, and it costs
a game developer dearly if he/she wants to start a commercial game
company for the blind.
Frankly I'm a bit sick and tired of people wining about the $30 or
$60 they spent on these two games. I've spent a heck of a lot more
than that on the music for Mysteries of the Ancients, and do you
hear me wining about it? James North game me quite a lot of sounds
for Montezuma's Revenge, but I went out and purchased better, high
quality sounds, etc which costs a lot more than that $30 or $60 you
and others are wining about. Do you hear me complaining about that?
Bottom line, I understand your desire for me to just get the games
done and sell them. However, it is not that simple, nor is it
especially fair to me to totally give up my life to work on these
games just to make a few winers and complainers happy. If I seam a
bit jaded I'm sick of the complaints, so-called friendly input, and
down right constant nagging from the community regarding these
games. I'm so sick of it I'm just about ready to tell the next
complainer here is the source code, here is the game sounds I
bought, now you deal with it. Write it yourself and leave me alone.
Can you see why I might feel that way?
If you are willing to spend 8, 10, 12, or 16 hours a day working on
these games you can have at it. If you are willing to put up with
the almost constant stream of when will the game be done, can I buy
the game yet, why isn't the game done yet, I think you talk too much
on list and should work on your games, type of e-mails you can have
them. If you want to spend time working and fixing bugs that pop up
you can have it. The point I'm getting at is ever since taking over
these games they have become a hassle in more ways than one. I
wouldn't wish this fate on anyone.Therefore your e-mail, no matter
how well meant, just adds to the hassle of having to respond to it
and explain my personal position. I hope you understand, and don't
take this e-mail personally. I just want some room to breath, to
live my life, and not be tied to these games like a ball and chain.
HTH
Undisclosed wrote:
hi tom, as i see it at the mo, you seem to be answering too many
threads on the audysey mag list rather working on your games that you promised?
while this is not a direct critisism i have paid my dues both with
raceway and monti and expect results soon. you seem to be adressing
the mag probs and not working on the games themselves, i am a
little disatisfied with your commitment that you seem you lack to
your work, but people have paid good money before you took the esp
titles over and i for one want to see results.
in no way is this a go at you, i believe that people should see or
expect some results from you, rather than replying to nearly every
single post on audysey.
i know your putting out demos and the like to test, but i think you
should settle down and try and get a product that you can start
making money out of.
again, i'm not having ago at your good self, but you can see where
i am coming from?
sorry if this email has offended you but i thought it had to be
brought to your attention.
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