Wow, I have to say, the funding structure for BYOND looks really cool and innovative, although I'm a bit concerned on a few counts, especially since I've been hearing more and more lately about Web funding going down the toilet. So just a few questions...
1. So how many BYONDimes are being thrown around here? It doesn't look like there are many projects out there that seem to be using any in-game payments yet, although granted, at this point there don't seem to be many games out there large enough to really warrant them.
2. Just what's the average hosted game server package? If I were to ever develop a worthwhile game in BYOND, I wouldn't want to be throwing huge wads of cash into it buying ten times the bandwidth I need, but on the other hand I'd want to get enough hosting to support my game. On a related note, is there any mechanism for upgrading/downgrading hosting?
3. How stable is the BYOND funding structure? It looks really cool and it would be awesome if it all worked out, but, well, they thought that about banner ads paying for hosting too.
ID:138093
 Apr 16 2001, 8:44 am
|
|
On 4/16/01 12:44 pm Leftley wrote:
1. So how many BYONDimes are being thrown around here? It doesn't look like there are many projects out there that seem to be using any in-game payments yet, although granted, at this point there don't seem to be many games out there large enough to really warrant them. The financial stuff was just added recently, so not many games take advantage of it yet. The DDT games (the development team comprised of me, Guy Tellefson, and Gazoot) are likely to all use some form of the financial system. 2. Just what's the average hosted game server package? If I were to ever develop a worthwhile game in BYOND, I wouldn't want to be throwing huge wads of cash into it buying ten times the bandwidth I need, but on the other hand I'd want to get enough hosting to support my game. On a related note, is there any mechanism for upgrading/downgrading hosting? I think there's lots of info on the costs, and how you can upgrade and all that, by clicking on the Space link on the left. 3. How stable is the BYOND funding structure? It looks really cool and it would be awesome if it all worked out, but, well, they thought that about banner ads paying for hosting too. It really depends on you...how you charge people is up to you. There are lots of text-based MUDs out there charging a monthly fee, and getting enough money to support a full-time staff. And the website http://spiderwebsoftware.com/ is a good example of a company producing games you could do in BYOND (though they aren't using BYOND themselves), which they charge for and which they make enough money off of to support 3 fulltime employees. The DDT game DragonSnot is trying one approach...the full game is playable on the server for free. If you want a personal copy so you can play lag-free on your computer without other people (or so you can host your own games with friends), then you pay $1 to download it. We're not done with the game yet, so we have no idea how many people will decide to pay the $1. | |
Where IS everyone? The only games I ever see on the live hub are Fantasy Quest online and the DBZ one. Don't get me wrong, Fantasy Quest looks really nifty and I'm sure the DBZ game is OK, but some of these other games look interesting too and I can't ever find anyone else to play. I've been trying to get my friends interested in BYOND but so far they haven't quite shared my enthusiasm.
| |
On 4/16/01 4:04 pm Leftley wrote:
Where IS everyone? The only games I ever see on the live hub are Fantasy Quest online and the DBZ one. Don't get me wrong, Fantasy Quest looks really nifty and I'm sure the DBZ game is OK, but some of these other games look interesting too and I can't ever find anyone else to play. I've been trying to get my friends interested in BYOND but so far they haven't quite shared my enthusiasm. We have weekly GoBs (Games of BYOND) every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm Pacific / 10pm Eastern, and every Sunday at 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern. Sometimes only one or two people show up but a few times I think we've had upwards of 7 or 8. Look for us those times and hopefully we'll start getting more than that! | |
On 4/16/01 4:04 pm Leftley wrote:
Where IS everyone? The only games I ever see on the live hub are Fantasy Quest online and the DBZ one. Don't get me wrong, Fantasy Quest looks really nifty and I'm sure the DBZ game is OK, but some of these other games look interesting too and I can't ever find anyone else to play. I've been trying to get my friends interested in BYOND but so far they haven't quite shared my enthusiasm. This is one reason I encourage everyone to make their games playable by a single person. If you play a game for 10 minutes, there's a good chance someone else will pop in. | |
On 4/16/01 6:17 pm Deadron wrote:
On 4/16/01 4:04 pm Leftley wrote: You'd think so, but I've sat and played Sheep II for at least a running hour today and haven't ever had one person join in, which is a shame because it looks like it would be so fun with multiple players. | |
On 4/16/01 6:24 pm Leftley wrote:
You'd think so, but I've sat and played Sheep II for at least a running hour today and haven't ever had one person join in, which is a shame because it looks like it would be so fun with multiple players. Well we're just getting BYOND off the ground and haven't really publicized it yet. That should happen soon. In the meantime, come around 7:00 PST tomorrow and we'll have to show you multi-player sheep! It is a lot of fun. (As is DragonSnot multiplayer, if I do say so myself...) | |
This is one reason I encourage everyone to make their games playable by a single person. If you play a game for 10 minutes, there's a good chance someone else will pop in. One thing that most people don't realise (or even know) is that BYOND is still open-beta, so we haven't really had a chance to spread the word yet, so to speak. Plus, if we did spread the word, people would come along, and then when they found a technically unfinished product they would leave. Not that BYOND is ever possible to be completely finished, but it can be stable and suitable for a 'full release' title. After that... that's what the Referral program is for. But like Air Mapster said, though they are technically called Gatherings of BYOND (in a delightful play on Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) made by yours truly ;-), we have a GoB every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 PM PDT and every Sunday at 4 PM PDT. | |
On 4/16/01 7:09 pm Deadron wrote:
On 4/16/01 6:24 pm Leftley wrote: Actually, I did finally find someone to sheep with (that sounds very dirty.) It's quite fun and very wild even just with two people, but it kept crashing on my end. I think out of 6 or 7 games I only made it all the way through one without Dream Seeker crashing. | |
On 4/16/01 8:18 pm Leftley wrote:
Actually, I did finally find someone to sheep with (that sounds very dirty.) It's quite fun and very wild even just with two people, but it kept crashing on my end. I think out of 6 or 7 games I only made it all the way through one without Dream Seeker crashing. Oops...well Zilal probably hasn't had a chance to update that in a while. So play DragonSnot! | |
On 4/16/01 10:21 pm Deadron wrote:
On 4/16/01 8:18 pm Leftley wrote: Well, it's probably not Z's fault if the DS is crashing. But I'll blame her anyway :) Actually, Leftley, can you give me some info regarding the state of the game when it crashed? Did it seem to happen the same way each time? The system has been pretty stable for me recently, but I probably don't test it as much as everyone else! I agree about DragonSnot, though. Great game. | |
[snipped, too much nesting]
Actually, Leftley, can you give me some info regarding the state of the game when it crashed? Did it seem to happen the same way each time? The system has been pretty stable for me recently, but I probably don't test it as much as everyone else! Unfortunately, I can't. I've played it (relatively) extensively in single player without any problems at all, but on every ocassion I've been in with more than one player someone crashed out within a round. | |
I would say more then 1000...Only dantom knows.
the average is around 4 dimes a day.
here some of the deals:
2 dimes for game hosting only.
4 dimes for web space & Game hosting.
this is just about what anyone wound need. but us we'll need the largest we can get :)
from what i seen very stable. and the best way to pay for it right now seems to be to team up whith some of the other programes & run some adds. we'll be hosting around 3 - 4 games soon & a lot more later so we'll be able to pay easyly once we put a price on some of em.
..Xzar (UGW) & (DarkShade)