Kickstarter (or similar) campaign for software developers?

[Kumaki]

Potential copyright issues come up if you advertise that you can play a massively-popular for-pay game...for free.

Just sayin'

 

[rohezal]

Potential copyright issues come up if you advertise that you can play a massively-popular for-pay game...for free.

I think you misunderstood the concept. A port of an open sourced software like Jedi Knight 2 is something you can advertise, since it is your own work. Same as a self written open source engine for an existing product. A popular example is a third party replacement battery for a popular laptop brand like HP. They write HP® compatible batterty (X milli ampers). So we can write:

Play Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Outcast ® every where, with 10 hours battery lifetime on the worlds smallest laptop with real gaming controlls!

 

[thatgui]

Port a killer app to the Pandora

A game with a huge fan base (like Jedi Knight 2 / Jedi Knight Jedi Academy), which can be played with a gamepad (quake3 without a mouse is hard to play, light saber fights are fine) can attract a lot of people. Play Jedi Knight everywhere, with real controlls and 10 hours battery lifetime, sounds awesome. I think a lot of people would donate, if you would spread the news in the right locations, since it is a very popular title. If people understand that it is not only Jedi Knight but Outcast (via QEmu) and War Craft 2 and Diablo (via PSX), it is just great. The Open Morrorwind Project sounds very promising, if it could run on an overclocked Ghz Pandora (with low resolution textures, maybe replace alpha channel to simple transperency) you would sell a lot of Pandoras, if you would make a kickstarter project for it.

I doubt that many people will back the project after they have seen that they have to "invest" at least another 290€ to actually play the title.

 

[Franko]

Great post, Rohezal.  You hit on a couple of topics that I like.  You have a pulse on what drives some people/gamers/consumers.  Now let me paint you another picture.  What has been holding us back, showing our games/programs on the pandora?  The small screen.  That's part of it's charm and functionality of course, but "filming" and getting these great moments out there is almost impossible.   It's just another way that the Pandora Team shot themselves in the foot.  Get the tv-out cables into the hands of the public - the people that bought your gear.  It's free, unsolicited advertising by rabid fans.  Fuck.... I've always been dumbfounded by this.  You'll see the sales spike ONCE you get these cables out to your customers.  We all know what Youtube is...and we believe in this product.  Make it happen.

 

[Franko]

That's not to say that ED or Craig or anyone was asleep at the wheel here, but (IMHO), that should have been more of a priority - letting your customers give you free advertising in the information/video age would have been great....and it still can be.  I freakin' love this thing.  The "pnd" thing is as simple and perfect as you can get.  I'm going to sell units down here in San Diego, but let's hurry up with the cables...

 

[rohezal]

 

I doubt that many people will back the project after they have seen that they have to "invest" at least another 290€ to actually play the title. 

You can do again 2 things:

1. If your main goal is advertising for the Pandora, this is what you wanted. People saw the Pandora. If some are willing to buy one and even donate for the port, even better. 

2. If your main goal is to get some money for the porting work: Port it for Android and the OpenPandora. This will get you more backers and if you mention the Pandora in the description, it increases the Pandora sales. 

 

[Franko]

It's a noble goal, but unrealistic.  A software house will NOT produce a game specifically for the Pandora.  I like that it is retro, and that I can play the classics and I wouldn't have it any other way.  You can't have your cake and eat it too.  There are compromises in life and in cyberlife....I enjoy the pursuit of trying to run the cutting edge games, but they're just out of reach...what happens when you get whatever you want in life?  I love the Pandora for what it is and what it can do.

 

[rohezal]

A software house will NOT produce a game specifically for the Pandora.

I am not sure if you understand the concept of an open source port. So I will explain it. Some software / game companies release their source code after several years. Like Quake3, Doom3, JediKnight2.  But the source code will most times not compile for Linux or requires some modification to run OpenGl ES 2 (the graphic card api the Pandora uses). So you can't use it, you have to modify it, to make it work. There are a lot of examples, Quake3 and Duke Nukem 3D are the most prominent examples I think. 

Now is the modification (porting) of a game sometimes a lot of work. At best you have to make sure the port runs fast enough on the pandora, the interface is ok for the small resolution and sometimes it is good to use the nubs for mouse support. More advanced ports, need to modify the game render code to use the API of the Pandora graphic card and optimize the software to run fast enough on the Pandora CPU [e.g. improve caching, use NEON] (which is ARM not X86 which most games used). The advanced steps need someone with a lot of knowledge. 

So some people are trying to get payment for their hard work, like Steven. He made a kickstarter project for an optimized graphic plugin for the N64,which can be used on android and on the Pandora. And he succeed.

The idea is to get someone who wants to port a very popular game (like Jedi Knight 2) to the Pandora and make a kickstarter project for it. This way the person can gain a bit money for the work and make the Pandora more popular, since it is free advertising, if you are doing the kickstarter right. There is no involvement of a "software house".

 

[Franko]

No, I get that part of it...I was mostly thinking along those lines though - "retro" or games that the original developer can no longer make money with and it's just out there, for others to adapt or change, or port to other platforms.  I thought you might be talking about original works, but reading back, I realize I was mistaken in my assumption.  What really intrigues me is how someone can write a "wrapper" and convert OpenGL to Open GL ES....THAT's amazing to me...but then I'm just starting out here.  You are a bit above me, technical-wise.

 

[Franko]

Well, what you're mostly talking about falls between a "kickstarter" campaign and a "bounty"...If WE (as a community) throws enough $ into a cyber coffer for completion of said game/project...then that could work....maybe like a similar "donation scale" that we might see every day on the right side of our posts here...It could work.  Maybe WE need to put out some feelers (another thread), and ask the people - WHAT is the most important "unfinished" work that we'd like to see completed?

 

[rohezal]

I think there is all ready a bounty thread for several software. Porting Aquaria to OpenPandora was the last bounty earned as far as I know. The pro of kickstarter would be to get more attention, if people would advertise it with a lot of effort. The cons of a kickstarter would be 5% of the money would be taken by kickstarter.

Edit: A software company would most likely not try to port software to a device with with 5.000-10.000 units sold, at least not when it is more work then pressing a pandora compile button. Unity, where are you?

 

[Franko]

Perhaps there is a bounty thread, but I've never seen it...or if I have it was just cursory and it was gone in a blink of an eye.  What makes the "donation" thing work is that it's always visible on the home page and it showcases the last 4 "donators" names....IF we had that sort of public support (bounty) towards a common goal (porting a big game or piece of software), then that would garner a lot of attention and maybe would harness more than one person's talents toward a common goal.  Who needs a kickstarter when we have it here?

 

[Franko]

The thing is that you have to be sure of yourself when going to Kickstarter.  I was pleasantly surprised when ED said that there must be 5,500 Pandoras out in the wild.  I thought that there might be 4,000 or so....that means that he's moving some units, but still - that's not a strong base to draw upon.  You can't just launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund a port of an old piece of software for an obscure  portable, niche device.  We might fund it - heck, we probably would, but your starting price better be low.  What I'm saying is that to do a port of a specific software title, maybe we should just do it in house, and put out the word to other Linux devs...that'd be good form and might get other people interested in our platform.

 

[Franko]

July 18th to July 21st, I'll be dressed up as some silvery, metallic nerd and typing on my Pandora...and some jerkoff will be filming me... Look for that.

 

[gotwake424]

^Edit button instead of triple posting? 

 

[Franko]

My apologies, gotwake424.  I'm relatively new here.  I even stopped posting after three straight posts, but I didn't know that I needed to delete or edit them.  I just shut up when I realized that I was talking to myself.  I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.  My only brief blogging experience was on Fox Sports and Facebook.  Boring...

 

[Mr_Loon]

It's appreciated that administering the fund would be a non trivial task but IMHO it would be worth it if the hard working devs could see a bit of financial reward & if it meant that projects that genuinely added value to the Pandora were completed.

If the scope is really well defined and realistic, and priced correctly, this may be a good idea. Why do you not have a go at setting it up ?

IMHO the Dev fund needs to be set up and administered by someone in an 'official' capacity rather than just a forum member such as myself.

 

[rohezal]

Paying the wage for a real developer would not be possible with donations, it is around 25$ per hour (even reading the documantion). People like notaz, exo and the others are working for fun and in their spare time here and maybe some of them get a small thank you (50$ or something) from a competition. I am very happy we have this guys. Thank you and big respect .

A dev fund however is good thing, to get something specific done like one port of a special software or maybe "fixing wifi driver". But it should be considered, that most of the software work, is done without payment which is very nice of the coders.

An other thing: 

Kickstarter is great way to advertise things. A lot of companys start a kickstarter not (only) to make money but do marketing like they are using facebook. If someone want something they will send it to their friends, so it get funded. 

Maybe do it this way, and sell some rebirth units^^: 

"Play Jedi Knight 2 everywhere you like. On the bus, the school toilet, the plane and at the shopping mal when your girl friend buys shoes! With a mini laptop with 10 hours battery lifetime and real gaming controlls. And after finishing it, write a poem about the dark side of the force on libre office, chat on facebook with a real browser and keyboard, play some star wars episode 1 on PSX and make and edit a video of your best kills. And then have 50% battery lifetime left! All this is possible with this device, which fits into your pocket. Currently porting Star Wars Jedi  Knight 2 (Jedi Outcast) and Jedi Academy to it. With special Star Wars bundle offers on kickstarter, for 1 month. Don't miss it". 

All prices exclusive vat!

5$ beta access

19$ beta acess + a copy a JD2

299$ a classic Pandora + a JD2 copy + beta acess

499$ a rebirth pandora + a JD2 copy + beta acess 

699$ a ghz Pandora + a JD2 copy + beta acess

1199$ 3 rebirth Pandora + 3x JD2 copy + beta acess

1199$ 2 ghz Pandora + 2x JD2 copy + beta acess

1999$ a meal with ED, where you get signed copy a Ghz Pandora. See Askaru and ED creating Pandoras, make a short video of your trip you can show your childrens and grand childrens.  Prices includes Flight, Hotel costs (1 day) etc. from mid / western europe. 

 

[Franko]

Interesting, but if you're thinking on this grand of a scale, then maybe you already have a goal/project in mind?  I can see where the Pandora2 would need such a "kickstart"....but I still don't get what incentive other people (outside of the Pandora community) would derive from such an endeavor.  I understand that Kickstarter has it's place, and that maybe it's evolved into more than it was initially (like a good advertising campaign), but I still don't get how non-pandora owners would be excited over such a venture.  Maybe I'm too myopic here, but I can't see the forest for the trees.

 

[Franko]

There has to be a clear vision - a map towards a goal....what would you propose?

Ahhhh crap...I double-posted.  Somebody kill me.