Is It About Time We Paid Home Brew Developers?

[The Mole]

Ok please hear me out before commenting.

When i first got my GP32 i got it because the system had some free content available and it was of a good standard. As the months went on more and more projects poped up, the system was growing and that was because the home brew game/emu makers were getting good feedback and helping the community.

Over the last month or two the GP32 has started to lose A LOT (not all) of its tallented coders, this is due to the fact the Zodiac gamers are paying them to develop for their system and giving them a free console to boot.

Is it not about time that the GP32 community rewarded the people that take the time to code things for our system?

If this does not happen then i can not see the console growing anymore and it does have room to grow even with the GBA, Zodiac and other hand held units on the market and coming soon.

I know a lot of you will have downloaded Beats Of Rage and i think that its of a higher standard than most of the current retail games.

Even though Squidge will not ask for the money i think he (and other coders) should be rewarded for making something great for our system. After all they do not have to put anything towards the system.

Even though it was not asked for i have donated £10 to Squidge and i will be to some of out other perminate developers when i have more of a cashflow coming in.

I urge you to give something back to the GP32 and its developers if you can.

 

[yaustar]

hmmm I just had a thought.... a lot of us dont trust paypal ( the most common use of donating ) but there are some that have used it without trouble. I was thinking of nomiating a central donater where others can send cheques/bank transfers etc to and the pass it on to the coder via paypal (or other). The problem is trust but if one of the staff did this.... well....

 

[The Mole]

Well i use paypal and its always worked out good for me.

I am shocked nobody else has any views on this.

 

[timeslip]

Im not keen on the idea of mandatory payments, If i wanted that I`d get a Zodiac.

But on the other hand we are a bunch of tightwads - we`ve been getting everything free for too long!

However ive got no probs with paying for FINISHED software

Maybe bring back shareware ?

For example when the full speed with sound emu`s for genesis and SNES come out
release either time restricted demos are full versions without sound and u have to pay up £5 or so to get the full version

 

[Josquius]

Paying for emulators is wrong, I see no problems with paying for original games of a certain quality though paying for emulators is the coder getting rich off the work of others.
How about some form of a minor bi-monthly (or something) competition?

 

[DaveC]

We should donate when finished emus/games are released yes. Demo versions are kind of a pain as the dev needs to make a special version for that. A good compromise would be to have the donate screen before the Download section on their website. Even if they didn't make it mandatory you would see that screen first and it would at least encourage the donation and make it easy to do.

Squidge has my vote for donations at the moment if he gets that Lynx emu of his finished.

 

[skeezix]

The GP scene is not losing "a lot" of devs to Zodiac because of briberies.. in fact, its not even happened once yet Peopel work on what is fun, and they float around; if you check the GP history, the devs come in burst.. someone shows up, does some cool sutff, then they chill out for awhile. Much of the eays stuff has been done (emu ports), and so the GP32 is right now hopping with new content (not ports), plus some cool ports as peopel discover new stuff to bring over. But don't go blaming a slow period on things liek the Zodiac.. its summer, people are relaxing, and GBAX is eating everyone up.. you'll get a pile of good stuff in a couple days

jeff

 

[Pirotic]

lol, i just put a tiny donate button next to the download link, that way i know everybodys going to see it hasn't worked yet tho.. lol, not that i really expected it to anyway

i think alot of people hold out for the software to be completed before donating, as they worry they'll donate then the author will get fed up and freeze the project.

its a tricky subject to talk about for a dev, as i code because i enjoy it - but at the same time everybody likes money right? lol.

i think the best option is just to offer them something if they donate, like a customized version of the application with there name on it etc, that way they get a nice warm feeling everytime they use it, (i've registered shareware before, mIRC, Getright etc - its nice to know i've helped the developers)

 

[don]

I'm glad someone brings up this topic. It seems lately at least some people here are thinking about giving something back to the oh-so-praised scene. While I do not count myself in (because I'm still learning to develop and most of my products are of quite poor quality), I think developers should be rewarded MORE. It doesn't matter if it's a game or an emulator - there's a lot of work in both of them. Even emulator ports are often a pain in the ass to do in a nice speed; having a project done in a nice an portable way doesn't mean it's automatically easy to port to an embedded system like a handheld. Maybe people should have a look what Zodiac- or Palm-Owners have to pay for decent software, and what they get for FREE on the GP. I'm reading stuff like "hey, I really like the F-emulators and I've been watching them for a long time now" on a daily basis, why don't this people donate then? Imagine everyone who likes some project would donate only $2 or $3. Doesn't hurt for the individual, but think about the developer who might get quite a few bucks for their work.

 

[Alpha2]

The thing that seems ti frighten people about paypal is the horror stories about payments made that seem to get lost when dealing with people like ebay or online retailers with spotty finantial records that claim never to be paid or that have problems with their own Paypal accounts causing their accounts to be frozen.

As long as you;re carfull about who and what you;re dealing with you can use it easily without fear for minor tranactions such as donation.

As for people "leaving" Rlyeh and yoyofr have stated they've not left the GP32 scene and are coding instead a little on both sides. These people are coders, they do it more for the enjoyment of creating a working peice of code rather than payment (although I sure they wouldnt turn it down if offered) so it wouldn't really stop them from doing something on another platform if they really were inclined to dabble in it. If a peice of tech interests them they're going to want to tinker with it.

I dont fear them leaving permanantly, it just means they've given room for others to step up like Squige and Pirotic and several others that have been responsible for the most recent excitment.

 

[Q-Wi-Q]

I have a few things in my mind for which I'd donate money, and I think they're getting pretty close... it's not going to be much, but it's something

 

[yaustar]

www.paypalsucks.com

^ my reason ^

 

[Julius]

I guess I will donate a few bucks, to the coders of OpenSNES and Fgen as soon a a version arrives that plays my most favorite games with sound. Looks like I'll have to do that quite soon, but actually I think they deserve it very much, great work guys.

 

[sammster001]

I think the bottom line is that if the coder is dedicated to the cause and doesn't code for the money it is up the individual who uses it. If he/she sees fit to donate to the coder as a sign of thank you.

However if the coder like ryleh's future in the gp32 scene is uncertain then i think the individual should pay for it. Not as a bribe but as a way to persuade the coder that he is appreciated and that the gp32 scene wants them

 

[Tobriand]

I'll start donating a bit once my card actually arrives; a few quid here and there I'm sure wouldn't go amiss.

I just wish the Abbey'd get a move on with it...

 

[bringoutthegimp]

i hate these topics pressurising people to donate................

 

[kraahl]

Not as a bribe but as a way to persuade the coder that he is appreciated and that the gp32 scene wants them

No, exactly as a bribe. Nothing wrong with that though

 

[PinkSpider]

Yea. If people can afford to donate they will... If I had a stable job I would, atm though every bit of money goes towards alcohol! I got the gp32 because of the homebrew scene.

If im to donate to anyone though i will donate to pirotic cause im not paying for emus and the gigas engine is amazing

 

[The Mole]

i hate these topics pressurising people to donate................

This is exactly what i am NOT doing.

And i would not call it donating i would call it paying for a good product.



I know its not the money that amkes people want to code but it is an added bonus, i enjoyed Squidges port of BOR and if it were not for him i would not have played the fine game that it is. I am not saying give all your cash to the GP scene but if you download something and enjoy it then i think then that coder deserves something for taking the time to make the project so good.

If we donate then it will also give the coders an insentive to stay with the GP32.

Who here would be happy with the GP32 if you took away all the emus and home brew stuff, i bet not 1 person can honistly say that.

 

[solarice]

for me, the way im attempting to give back to the community is by making a game of my own that allows everyone out there to play, that little bit longer.

while at the same time learning a litle bit about coding.