I would pay for these features. I'm not to bothered about a Flash client, but the ability to make stand alone games I'd be willing to pay for.
I don;'t see an issue with it either. If you want extra features in a free program that circumvent any advertising it has (and by extension form of revenue) then you should expect to pay for them. Isn't having no ads one of the features of being a BYOND member?
Well, if all it took was being a member to bypass that then I'd happily pay for a membership when/if I decide to start developing a product.
Now if it was more than just being a member it'd depend on what Tom expects to receive. | |
I'd be happy with the stand-alone option being only good for single-player. It'd be nice to just have a way to toss a sort of "no-commitment" copy of my games out there, with a little added note that the game also provides a multiplayer experience, but they'd need to sign-up and install BYOND to access it.
In addition, I'd like to see a "lite" install version of the BYOND software, that only includes Dream Seeker. Not even the pager (which I personally only use to log myself in, then minimize it to a hidden spot in the taskbar, ignoring it from then on), just Dream Seeker. This way, there's a sort of less complicated option for all of the potential users who only want to play games (no creating, no server hosting) Of course, I do know that the various BYOND .exes work without installing them on a system. I do some of my BYOND work on a machine that I do not have administration rights on, and thus can't install BYOND, but it worked just fine for me to copy my BYOND directory from a machine that it is installed on to the other machine. (of course, this was done with build 498.1163. Not sure if anything has ruined this since then) Obviously, file associations are not made, and links on the site to connect to games will not work, but the programs themselves operate just fine (I can run DM, and run games in DS) So this could potentially lead to a pseudo-standalone package that developers could distribute. Just stick a copy of the BYOND directory (well, at least everything that's required for Dream Seeker to run) into your game's .zip package, add a little readme to explain how to run the game (as simple as unzipping the files, and dragging your .dmb onto dreamseeker.exe!) That's obviously not very good practice, but it's an option... (but maybe one that would need to be plugged?) | |
What I'm trying to get at SSGX though is the actual commercial publishing of a game.
If you were to right now try to publish a game on Desura, or Steam. You really would have a difficult time of doing it. It may not be impossible but it's going to be difficult. They expect to sell the actual game itself, as in a stand alone, playable game. (And yes, sometimes with multiplayer) What is needed for that to happen is something along the lines of this: Byond Member (or higher future tier, I don't know how best to work this in terms of monetization) Compiles a standalone package for their project. All it has is the EXE and whatever dependencies in a zip. End users run that and it's just as if they had Byond installed, no login, no pager, nothing at all, just the users game. | |
This has turned into an amazingly positive thread.
I agree with SSGX, the standalone client would be great for hurking demos out there for people. The flash thin client would also be awesome for multiplayer games, but there is some lingering concern about the handling of keys and guest users. | |
Of course, yes, that would be the ideal; the ability to package everything into a single, fully-functioning EXE for those that wish to fully publish their game independent of BYOND.
And I'd suspect that this would need to cost a little more than a BYOND Membership (or would mean a BYOND Membership price increase), because this leads to all ties to BYOND being cut. A fully standalone package in this sense means that any players you reach never have to even know BYOND exists, and therefore BYOND would need a far better up-front "cut" to make it worthwhile. But I guess I'm just not that eager to cut my games off from the site. I'm more than happy to let my games be used as BYOND promotion, and to draw any players I may reach back into the fold. I'd just like a way to hand out a "sample", so to speak. Nothing to install (or very little to install), to "hook" the players that are leery of installing BYOND (but would think nothing of running some random .exe! lol) | |
I think Tom mentioned a one-time $100 license per-developer. I don't think it's a bad idea for the standalone client. For the flash client, though, I wouldn't disagree with a negotiated revenue share.
I think for some projects, it would be wise to cut most ties, but Tom reserving the right to use images and descriptions of games made with BYOND for the sake of engine showcasing would probably also be in the portal's best interests. I wouldn't disagree with an on-login splash screen with a linkback to BYOND as well. "Powered by BYOND", seems a pretty common way to reference your product. | |
Ter13 wrote:
I think Tom mentioned a one-time $100 license per-developer. I don't think it's a bad idea for the standalone client. For the flash client, though, I wouldn't disagree with a negotiated revenue share. Ahh, now that you mention that, I think I saw that, too. That sounds decent enough. Now, is that per-developer? Or per-project? Hopefully per-developer (could get expensive per-project for some people; I mean, I currently only have one game that I'd even be close to publishing outside of BYOND, but I would like to think that will someday change...lol) I'm definitely on the side of a one-time charge, too (further pushing this away from tying it to a Member benefit), simply for the ease of administrating it. How exactly would they "revoke" a license if it were tied to a recurring fee? A hook built into the EXE that refuses to run if the publisher is not current? I'd hate that (both as a developer, and as a player; especially if a player has a game they love to play, but the developer leaves BYOND; game goes *poof*), so it definitely should be a one-time fee for never-expiring rights (which again, justifies a hefty up-front cost) I think for some projects, it would be wise to cut most ties, but Tom reserving the right to use images and descriptions of games made with BYOND for the sake of engine showcasing would probably also be in the portal's best interests. That's reasonable, I think. I wouldn't disagree with an on-login splash screen with a linkback to BYOND as well. "Powered by BYOND", seems a pretty common way to reference your product. Another very good point. Even commercial games make you sit through a handful of splash screens for every company involved in the development. I'd see no problem with a mandatory BYOND screen. | |
Don't we already have a mandatory BYOND screen? You know the big popup that appears when you're downloading a game from the website?
Perhaps it should be handles the way Game Maker does it. If you don't pay, you get a loading screen that says Game Maker on it. If you pay you can change this screen if you want to. | |
I think the former will come with the latter.