First generation games for OpenPandora?

[StreaK]

Any of You maybe know something about the first gen games that supposed to be released to OP as exclusive [and why they wasnt released]


What about these games? They we're scrapped?


TINCS


We Come In Peace

 

[gruso]

I guess some devs got tired of waiting for hardware and left, or finally got their unit but had lost interest by then. I'd love it if We Come In Peace was finished (dev thread, under its original name). Otaco hasn't been around for a long time though.


Eniko was working on an MMO and a cool looking beat-em-up, I know she got a Pandora but I suppose her priorities changed. Zomb'd looked fantastic (iprice & Mr Gonzo). Lerp was another interesting one.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

You never know someone might pop out of the woodwork someday and say here it is ive finished it sorry it took so long or not.


edit.rainy day looks good though if it gets finished.

 

[craigix]

The best way for us to get new commercial/quality new games for the Pandora is for the Pandora to get HTML5 HW support.


I'm pretty sure it could be wrapped to SDL, but there are major things going on with HTML5 now - pretty much every decent game on iOS/Android is going to appear in HTML5 this year.


Having HTML5 support means nothing needs to be ported to the Pandora anymore - it will just work.


That's the future.

 

[gruso]

Finally a way to get Wizzley on the Pandora.


What would be required to run HTML5 games on the Pandora? Would they have to be in a browser (yuck) or can they be run in some soft of standalone client?


What would be involved in gaining HW support?

 

[Miner49er]

Finally a way to get Wizzley on the Pandora.

I thought Craig said that he was converting Wizzley from C to javascript? If that's the case, why can't it simply be compiled for the Pandora?

 

[StreaK]

Yeah, lerp was nice indeed. It reminds mi "the boy and his blob" from nes

 

[foxblock]

Any of You maybe know something about the first gen games that supposed to be released to OP as exclusive [and why they wasnt released]


What about these games? They we're scrapped?


TINCS


We Come In Peace

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/59117-what-has-happened-to/page__p__944911&#entry944911


In the meantime I have contacted quite a few devs on that list privately, but have not heard back from any of them, so I guess most projects on that list can be considered "dead".


I tried to collect all available information, so in case there is a source code available you will find a link to it.

 

[StreaK]

This leads me to the point i posted here


Im speculating a bit , but maybe if these games mean to be commercial, and after things turn out for OP, authors scrapped games because it would a waste of time to dev anything commercial for OP.

 

[foxblock]

I highly doubt that.


While it's pretty obvious that developing commercial games EXCLUSIVELY for the Pandora has to end in failure (due to the low number of potential customers), it does not mean you cannot develop commercial games for the Pandora including other machines (normal PC release for instance).


Like they say: to make money in games you just have to concentrate on making good games and not think about the money. If you only think about making money you will only fail horribly.


If a game has low sales, that either means the market is unsuitable or it's a bad game (not necessarily saying Arora Rift is bad, I have not played it).


In the case of the games mentioned on gp32x.de, the biggest reason for failure was the long production time of the Pandora and people loosing hope/faith/interest in the project while waiting.

 

[StreaK]

Like they say: to make money in games you just have to concentrate on making good games and not think about the money. If you only think about making money you will only fail horribly.

Unfortunately, there's no way to stop thinking about money in commercial project. It just , the way it is, no matter how big idealist you are in thinking "i need to make a good game, and money will just comes next." Arora Rift is excellent example, that good/excellent quality game [compared to commercial ios apps] will not generate good money.

While it's pretty obvious that developing commercial games EXCLUSIVELY for the Pandora has to end in failure (due to the low number of potential customers), it does not mean you cannot develop commercial games for the Pandora including other machines (normal PC release for instance).

Believe me , joined OP + Dingoo + Caanoo market is pretty big, to sell indie games. Theres just one thing that disturbing the idea of commercial app , its GPL and emulators, thats why apple is not eally interested in any gpl + emulator releated apps in market. Emulators just rubs commercial developers in wrong way.. for example: Sega Ages Package would be huge failure, just because emulators exist. Low budget game like games from Midas / Phoenix [from ps1 era] or Telegames [from Jaguar era] would be big failure for OP as well, no matter how big idealist You are..

 

[Ziz]

Why is GPL bad for commercial games? If you want to sell you application, don't use GPL. Where is the problem?

 

[sebt3]

Why is GPL bad for commercial games? If you want to sell you application, don't use GPL. Where is the problem?

and even there, there is good games that sell well coming with GPL code....

 

[StreaK]

Why is GPL bad for commercial games? If you want to sell you application, don't use GPL. Where is the problem?

gpl kills commercial apps / games, just because there are many gpl apps / games [mainly ports] that will be in favor to mess with than any commercial app / game [created by one indie developer-*]. Being a alone developer you 'll need to fight with a lot of gpl'ed apps like prboom / pcsx / mupen to earn a money. And generally you'll loose, just because community highly anticipates emulators / ports than exclusive indie games / apps. Just compare dreamcast emulation threads / psx emu thread and any other commercial app / game thread on OP/gp32x.


*- one indie dev will never create quality software like doom3. 2D gaming is the only way to go, and compared to apps / games / emus that we have in OP it's highly uncommon to comercial succeed in here with 2D game. Too bad, vvvvvv engine wasnt commercial and added to repo, we would have ultimate example how good game sells on OP [sells would be very poor, imho].

 

[foxblock]

Unfortunately, there's no way to stop thinking about money in commercial project. It just , the way it is, no matter how big idealist you are in thinking "i need to make a good game, and money will just comes next."

That train of thought is exactly what's wrong and why there are things like the Indie Fund, Extra Credits fund and more. Give this interview with Jonathan Blow a read or this transcript of a talk by Andy Schatz

Believe me , joined OP + Dingoo + Caanoo market is pretty big, to sell indie games. Theres just one thing that disturbing the idea of commercial app , its GPL and emulators, thats why apple is not eally interested in any gpl + emulator releated apps in market. Emulators just rubs commercial developers in wrong way..

While I would love to believe that I would need some figures...


I don't think at all that the GPL created some kind of generation of people only wanting "free" software, it's quite the opposite actually and you can see that with every Humble Bundle. Each bundle you can see that people using Linux are actually much more generous than people using Windows or Mac. Sure this figure is not exactly accurate as you can check whatever OS you want and the Windows crows is just that much bigger (so more $0.01 buys go in there), but it's still a valid point.


I actually think the whole DRM crap is making people more and more switch to piracy as you already are treated as a criminal, even when buying the game, you may just be a criminal and get out of the way of tedious online registration, always-on DRM and stuff like that.


I rather have people donate a few bucks if they like what I do, than force to pay them and immensely limit my target audience. Sure I have not made $90 with this principle yet (not even close), but I feel much better that way as I just want to get as many people to experience my work as possible (then again I don't try to make a living in games... yet maybe). Also initially building a good reputation is much more important than making money right from the start (just look at guys like notaz or Exophase who released free software for years, you would be much more willing to pay them a few bucks for a new game/emulator than me for example, who has not published anything decent or finished yet).


Yes many people mistake the "free" in the GPL for the "free beer" instead of the "freedom", but that crowd is slowly being educated and actually see the benefit of free software and are much more willing to pay than when they are forced to pay (the whole reason why "Pay what you want" has taken off as much as it has).


Also people using the GPL to re-brand software and sell them as their own with minor edits are becoming less and less popular as they are being called out and looked down upon by more and more people.


Actually I feel the whole "GPL is bad for business" thought is exactly ho the big publishers see the world through their money-glasses and not how small indie developers should see it.

 

[foxblock]

Why is GPL bad for commercial games? If you want to sell you application, don't use GPL. Where is the problem?

gpl kills commercial apps / games, just because there are many gpl apps / games [mainly ports] that will be in favor to mess with than any commercial app / game [created by one indie developer-*]. Being a alone developer you 'll need to fight with a lot of gpl'ed apps like prboom / pcsx / mupen to earn a money. And generally you'll loose, just because community highly anticipates emulators / ports than exclusive indie games / apps. Just compare dreamcast emulation threads / psx emu thread and any other commercial app / game thread on OP/gp32x.


*- one indie dev will never create quality software like doom3. 2D gaming is the only way to go, and compared to apps / games / emus that we have in OP it's highly uncommon to comercial succeed in here with 2D game. Too bad, vvvvvv engine wasnt commercial and added to repo, we would have ultimate example how good game sells on OP.

So you are saying the competition is where you see the problem? I don't see what the GPL has to do with that.


I feel like you are just looking at the money side of things.


"I can't make money, because there are better, free programs available" - then go and actually make a better program. People will pay if they see your work is worth paying for! If all those free apps would be commercial, too you would not have this problem and would compete through the price? If so, that's exactly the wrong way to think for all the reasons I listed in my previous two posts.


Also you are using "GLP" as a synonym for "free", which is just plain wrong.


The thing with emulators is, that many people don't see the amount of high skilled work that goes in them and there are many criminals who just re-brand someone else's open work and sell it.


Still I don't think everyone is thinking "hey, I don't pay for emulators", looking at Zod and the iPhone you can see how much money there is to make.

 

[StreaK]

So you are saying the competition is where you see the problem? I don't see what the GPL has to do with that.


I feel like you are just looking at the money side of things.


"I can't make money, because there are better, free programs available" - then go and actually make a better program. People will pay if they see your work is worth paying for! If all those free apps would be commercial, too you would not have this problem and would compete through the price? If so, that's exactly the wrong way to think for all the reasons I listed in my previous two posts.

Lets example Arora Rift, costs only 3$. Game looks awesome, its quasi 3D. Good graphics / good sound. Is it worth paying two lollypops and one can of coca-cola for it? Yeah. 2800 pandoras on a wild and 30 licenses sold. You mean that 2770 guys/lads thinks Arora Rift isnt worth that 2lollys and one cola can for it? If not, wheres the problem then?


Another example PolloPollo, 6 licenses sold. Game isnt good, looks awfull, sounds crappy? Of course not.. maybe is too expensive? Of course not. For 3 euro i'll buy 2 bars of mars and pepsi can. Well after all maybe it isnt just worth buying? NOT. Its because gpl alternatives out there in instances like "PicoDrive". Just download picodrive , download columns rom, and you have fun with quasi-like pollopollo there. Dont like columns, maybe Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo then.. go mame go spf2t.zip and you're ready to go..

 

[foxblock]

Lets example Arora Rift, costs only 3$. Is it worth paying two lollypops and one can of coca-cola for it? Yeah. 2800 pandoras on a wild and 30 licenses sold. You mean that 2770 guys/lads thinks Arora Rift isnt worth that 2lollys and one cola can for it? If not, wheres the problem then?

Actually, yes I think that, but it's a personal impression I get from the description (not my type of game), from the reviews (mediocre game with framerate problems) and marketing (32bit as a selling point, are we back in the "bit wars", really?).


Maybe I will give it a try some day (after exams) and will be proven wrong.


Also most people probably don't even know of this game as the only means of advertising were a thread on the forum (not every owner goes here), a mention on PandoraPress (not everyone reads it) and the official website of the game. Even with those groups overlapping you won't have targeted nearly 2800 users.

 

[StreaK]

Just edited prev post.. btw.

 

[craigix]

HTML5!


HTML5 has solved this already.


Write your apps in it.


Release on EVERYTHING.