Re: [stella] POLL

Subject: Re: [stella] POLL
From: Glenn Saunders <krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 13:26:36 -0800
At 02:14 PM 3/3/97 -0600, you wrote:
>The problem with that is you've just eliminated a primary incentive to 
>create new games:  money.  As I said before, even a few hundred dollars 
>can be a great incentive to spend the time creating a new game.

That's fine, but I wouldn't sell games on the fragile tape format, rather a
PC floppy disk.  Plus with these games you have to worry about piracy since
audio or bin, it can all wind up as traded bins so it becomes problematic
to exclusively _sell_ new wares.  The shareware concept makes more sense to
me based on my experience with the Atari8 and Amiga camps.  The advantages
are clear.  Easy mass distribution on the internet with an ASCII
registration form attached, then hope and pray for the money to come in.
Then you don't have to run a business on the side.  Believe me, it's a pain
in the ass to have to process orders.

>we're all busy people, not just me.  But I'm mostly past the stage in my 
>life where I can spend the countless hours necessary to develop a game 
>just to have it freely distributed.  At least with the Lynx, I will get 
>some compensation for my time, though not nearly enough to quit my day 
>job.

It takes enough time to program these games.  Running a home-business is an
added frustration and most often not worth the time considering the limited
returns.  There are other more convenient ways to make money.  Not only
shareware, but compilation CDs put out by a 3rd party.

>The idea someone had about distributing on your own cassettes is a decent 
>idea, it would still allow you to get some compensation for your 
>efforts.  I'd probably even buy some cassette-based games for $8-10 
>apiece. 

It's a complicated issue with several factors involved:

1) How many potential buyers
2) How much manufacturing cost (color or xerox manual? Labels?)
3) How much do you sell it for (and what will the market bear)
4) How many do you make (relates back to 2)

Mistakes in the planning phases on one of these can result in net losses or
being left with a lot of unsellable overstock.

According to my business experience in this area, I don't think selling
tapes is a wise risk.

>I would love to see an updated Warlords (the ultimate 4-player 2600 
>game!), with slightly improved graphics and better 2600 AI.

I just want to see more rotations and more true-to-life ball physics.  The
rest is dressing.


--
To unsubscribe, send the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to
stella-request@xxxxxxxxxxx

Current Thread