| 1 |
The game is "Done", it's been "Done" for years. We just only have one shot at a steam release, so we want the game to have a really good new player experience, a nice looking lobby, a smooth download, install and first play experience. We got in a germany gaming mag, chip.de, some years ago and had this massive influx of players, but we were not prepared, most of them only booted the game up once, many left because we didn't have enough german veterans to instruct them, many didn't even get past their first game. Given the workload of just maintaining the game, getting that stuff done has taken a long time given none of it is really required for actually playing the game. The skills needed are also only possessed by a small portion of the developer base (Mostly Licho): I've not been an active dev for a long time partly due to uni and life but partly because my skillset is prettymuch useless at this point for doing anything except maybe creating singleplayer content. I designed a lot of the game and made a lot of the units and models, but that work is all done now.
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1 |
The game is "Done", it's been "Done" for years. We just only have one shot at a steam release, so we want the game to have a really good new player experience, a nice looking lobby, a smooth download, install and first play experience. We got in a germany gaming mag, chip.de, some years ago and had this massive influx of players, but we were not prepared, most of them only booted the game up once, many left because we didn't have enough german veterans to instruct them, many didn't even get past their first game. Given the workload of just maintaining the game, getting that stuff done has taken a long time given none of it is really required for actually playing the game. The skills needed are also only possessed by a small portion of the developer base (Mostly Licho): I've not been an active dev for a long time partly due to uni and life but partly because my skillset is prettymuch useless at this point for doing anything except maybe creating singleplayer content. I designed a lot of the game and made a lot of the units and models, but that work is all done now.
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| 3 |
We could definitely do something better than just maintaining the servers with the money we get, even the stuff we get through donations, personally I'd like to just throw money at Licho so he can work on Zero-K more. He needs to be willing of course. Whether we pay them or not though, many new developers who come to contribute take more time to train up than the usefulness of the work they do. Maybe this would change with money incentives, but given the years of effort put into this game by the current devs anyone hired would have to be pretty hardworking and impressive to be worth it.
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3 |
We could definitely do something better than just maintaining the servers with the money we get, even the stuff we get through donations, personally I'd like to just throw money at Licho so he can work on Zero-K more. He needs to be willing of course. Whether we pay them or not though, many new developers who come to contribute take more time to train up than the usefulness of the work they do. Maybe this would change with money incentives, but given the years of effort put into this game by the current devs anyone hired would have to be pretty hardworking and impressive to be worth it.
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| 5 |
In the end, Steam and Kickstarter are basically the same. They're ways to 'sell your product', only Kickstarter you sell it before it exists. Ours already exists and we aren't looking for money. So they're ways to put your name out there, but the attention you get through either are often merely a slight amplifying effect to your current PR machine (We don't have a PR machine). There are dozens of games like us toiling in obscurity, most you log in and the servers are dead. Nothing is sadder. We've actually managed to keep a playerbase alive for years and I'm actually pretty proud of that.
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5 |
In the end, Steam and Kickstarter are basically the same. They're ways to 'sell your product', only Kickstarter you sell it before it exists. Ours already exists and we aren't looking for money. So they're ways to put your name out there, but the attention you get through either are often merely a slight amplifying effect to your current PR machine (We don't have a PR machine). There are dozens of games like us toiling in obscurity, most you log in and the servers are dead. Nothing is sadder. We've actually managed to keep a playerbase alive for years and I'm actually pretty proud of that.
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| 7 |
You want to help, help throw some attention our way. Any gaming communities (You said you played supcom?) or forums or sites you're a member of? Post about us. The way you would about any new game you've discovered, not some obnoxious PR exercise. Get your friends to play. Where would you go to find out about a game like us? What sites or blogs or streamers would you look at that you'd expect to find us? Tell them about us.
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7 |
You want to help, help throw some attention our way. Any gaming communities (You said you played supcom?) or forums or sites you're a member of? Post about us. The way you would about any new game you've discovered, not some obnoxious PR exercise. Get your friends to play. Where would you go to find out about a game like us? What sites or blogs or streamers would you look at that you'd expect to find us? Tell them about us.
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| 8 |
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| 9 |
Frankly
after
years
of
doing
this
I'm
not
sure
how
to
break
into
mainstream
attention.
I
would
have
thought
that
after
producing
so
much
content
on
YouTube
(
Shadowfury
mostly,
but
many
others)
we'd
get
somewhere,
but
all
the
related
videos
to
Shadowfury's
VOD's
are
hilariously
unrelated
things
based
on
the
usernames
of
those
playing
(
ElTorero's
games
get
bull
fighting,
Kshatriya's
games
get
videos
in
Hindi,
games
on
the
map
"Iced
Coffee"
get
"How
to
make
Israeli
Iced
Coffee")
.
If
we
just
managed
to
get
featured
by
one
of
the
old
Starcraft
2
streamers
(
Who
are
mostly
bored
of
SC2
at
this
point)
or
even
Supcom
or
PA
streamers,
such
we'd
get
a
huge
number
of
RTS
veterans.
We
have
to
snowball
our
way
up
to
that,
but
we
need
to
be
ready.
|
9 |
Frankly
after
years
of
doing
this
I'm
not
sure
how
to
break
into
mainstream
attention.
I
would
have
thought
that
after
producing
so
much
content
on
YouTube
(
Shadowfury
mostly,
but
many
others)
we'd
get
somewhere,
but
all
the
related
videos
to
Shadowfury's
VOD's
are
hilariously
unrelated
things
based
on
the
usernames
of
those
playing
(
ElTorero's
games
get
bull
fighting,
Kshatriya's
games
get
videos
in
Hindi,
games
on
the
map
"Iced
Coffee"
get
"How
to
make
Israeli
Iced
Coffee")
.
If
we
just
managed
to
get
featured
by
one
of
the
old
Starcraft
2
streamers
(
Who
are
mostly
bored
of
SC2
at
this
point)
or
even
Supcom
or
PA
streamers,
such
we'd
get
a
huge
number
of
RTS
veterans
(
Or,
better
yet,
if
Shadowfury
suddenly
exploded
in
popularity,
he
deserves
it)
.
We
have
to
snowball
our
way
up
to
that,
but
we
need
to
be
ready.
|
Possible Kickstarter?