More than ten years ago, I worked at Cyberlore Studios and was the lead designer on a game called Majesty. I had come up with the original idea, and worked with a team to make the game come out well. And the game was well received, and is still selling copies through an online service today. You should at least play the demo of it.
But one thing that always bugged me about the industry is the overall lack of respect for game designers. For some reason, it was one of those things that they thought anybody could do. Also, when a project went well, it was a team effort, and when it went badly, it was the fault of the designer. The pay scale at Cyberlore Studios, where I worked at the time, in order from highest to lowest paid, went: owners, managers, programmers, artists, game designers, play-testers. Kind of funny when the goal is to make a good game that the people have the most specialized knowledge about that aren't paid more.
Anyway, a few years ago, Cyberlore - which is now defunct except in name and idea ownership - decided to outsource the intellectual property for Majesty to a company to make a revamped version to be released as Majesty II. They wondered if I was available to do design work, and I said only if I got a direct royalty, because I felt that was one lesson I had learned about letting good ideas out into the world. They said no, and went on with the project. The end of the story is that Majesty II came out and was very pretty and well programmed, but the players had lots of complaints about the design.
I guess they got the design they were willing to pay for.
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
How I made 37 cents on the internet
All over the internet there are these offers and amazing ways that we can all supposedly make money almost without effort. And they all seem like scams. Even the legitimate ones draw you in with similar ideas. I signed up for Google AdSense, just to see what would happen. After a year, I hadn't made enough to get even a single payment from them, and then they disabled my account. Recently they re-instated my account, after I explained that is was my girlfriend trying to help me out.
In between the the disabling, and the re-enabling, I tried Adbrite, an alternative ad service. It was up for about two months, and I made 37 cents (which I will never see).
What I am learning is that there is no real secret to making money from your websites. The only thing you really need is visitors. Then you can make money off ads, or even off of offerings you sell. Without the traffic, you can't make money. And getting traffic takes lots of steady work, like lots of endeavors do. You have to have good content, and continually promote yourself. Also, there is a huge luck factor.
Seems basic, but important for me to write this note about it.
In between the the disabling, and the re-enabling, I tried Adbrite, an alternative ad service. It was up for about two months, and I made 37 cents (which I will never see).
What I am learning is that there is no real secret to making money from your websites. The only thing you really need is visitors. Then you can make money off ads, or even off of offerings you sell. Without the traffic, you can't make money. And getting traffic takes lots of steady work, like lots of endeavors do. You have to have good content, and continually promote yourself. Also, there is a huge luck factor.
Seems basic, but important for me to write this note about it.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Free vs Pay
I was going to write up my thoughts about free vs pay to play browser games, and will do so, but also found an article that covers a lot of ground from a point of view I can relate to: Free vs Pay
My views are that I should get paid for doing the work of creating games. I don't care where the money comes from (except for I would prefer it came from moral work), but I do want some as compensation. If I came up with a good way to get money but not have players pay, I would do it.
I think that since the reproduction, distribution, and maintenance costs of electronic things like games, and MP3s and so forth, is quite low, we have to face that usually revenue from those things was used to subsidize creation costs. Now that that can't happen it seems more obvious that we have never really paid artists for the creation costs of their work, at least not in the USA.
Maybe a new system which pays artists to create things, and them lets the public get them for free would be a way to satisfy many people at once. I guess you would have to convince people to pay for creation up front. Would it work in general? Would you contribute to a musician's upkeep while he or she made a new album, if the album would be free to everyone afterwords? I'm not sure I would. If they were really great, and I had the money I might, though. That means most people probably wouldn't.
But what if people could do other things like cook meals for or offer housing to an artist while they made art?
-Jim DuBois
My views are that I should get paid for doing the work of creating games. I don't care where the money comes from (except for I would prefer it came from moral work), but I do want some as compensation. If I came up with a good way to get money but not have players pay, I would do it.
I think that since the reproduction, distribution, and maintenance costs of electronic things like games, and MP3s and so forth, is quite low, we have to face that usually revenue from those things was used to subsidize creation costs. Now that that can't happen it seems more obvious that we have never really paid artists for the creation costs of their work, at least not in the USA.
Maybe a new system which pays artists to create things, and them lets the public get them for free would be a way to satisfy many people at once. I guess you would have to convince people to pay for creation up front. Would it work in general? Would you contribute to a musician's upkeep while he or she made a new album, if the album would be free to everyone afterwords? I'm not sure I would. If they were really great, and I had the money I might, though. That means most people probably wouldn't.
But what if people could do other things like cook meals for or offer housing to an artist while they made art?
-Jim DuBois
Friday, November 13, 2009
Advertising, Experiments, and Money
Being a self-publisher has led me to try many different things in order to increase my exposure on the web, as well as make money with my creations. Selling games directly was one idea, which sometimes worked, but sometimes didn't. A combination of free and premium service with virtual currency for the online games has been an OK way to make a little money but that has also been sporadic.
So, I decided to try putting advertising on Arcane Journeys. I was hesitant because advertising interferes with clarity of design often, and detracts from the main offerings, but I thought maybe with Google Adsense it might be ok. Well, after a almost a year, I haven't made the $100 minimum required to withdraw money from my account. Maybe I'll reach it in a few years. The result being that I still need more exposure to make money.
Then a casino contacted me, asking if I would put an ad on my page if they paid me a monthly fee. I was hesitant again, but they paid right away, and now that one boring text ad at the bottom of the main page makes the most consistent money on the site. I halfheartedly went looking for more casino ads, but came up empty.
Recently I decide to try TrialPay, which is a weird twist on the advertising scheme, where when a person signs up for someone else's offer, you get paid, and the person signing up gets your thing as a bonus. So far, lots of people have looked at it, but no one has done it.
I thought I would write about these experiments in order to give a perspective that was different than the 'make money with no effort' & 'succeed beyond your wildest dreams' often seen on the internet.
-Jim DuBois
So, I decided to try putting advertising on Arcane Journeys. I was hesitant because advertising interferes with clarity of design often, and detracts from the main offerings, but I thought maybe with Google Adsense it might be ok. Well, after a almost a year, I haven't made the $100 minimum required to withdraw money from my account. Maybe I'll reach it in a few years. The result being that I still need more exposure to make money.
Then a casino contacted me, asking if I would put an ad on my page if they paid me a monthly fee. I was hesitant again, but they paid right away, and now that one boring text ad at the bottom of the main page makes the most consistent money on the site. I halfheartedly went looking for more casino ads, but came up empty.
Recently I decide to try TrialPay, which is a weird twist on the advertising scheme, where when a person signs up for someone else's offer, you get paid, and the person signing up gets your thing as a bonus. So far, lots of people have looked at it, but no one has done it.
I thought I would write about these experiments in order to give a perspective that was different than the 'make money with no effort' & 'succeed beyond your wildest dreams' often seen on the internet.
-Jim DuBois