Waitwut wrote:
martinwarnett wrote:
Bigger than the subscription tiers for me is the long term future of the game.
Boss man has done, imo, an amazing job in not only creating this game but also in keeping it going. It's clear that there's currently not enough income going in to cover costs and allow him to maintain a good enough wage for doing so to make this his full time job.
Issue then is that working full time means less time to work on the game. That then means users leave seeing no progress.
It's clear that either more devs are able to donate time to help with some of the coding work to alleviate the time pressure, but would that be a sticking plaster? What's the alternative - selling the game off as a going concern to a company able to expand and make it a better commercial concern?
I don't know the answer, don't pretend to have the answers. I'm unfortunately in the position where I can only go the free tier route. My personal circumstances right now are that I've heavy private education bill that gives me zero free cash ( youngest son has special needs, local council here in UK wanted him to go to a school where he'd effectively be 'warehoused' and not develop); whilst we've had some financial support from a charity to it and remain fighting the council over it, I simply can't afford to pay boss man the money he imo really deserves.
This is your opinion. Idk that JDB is himself actively trying to seek help. Money doesn’t solve time issues, and with a game populated by 200 people he is not bound to make enough to hire a full time developer.
No one is going to donate time when JDB doesn’t donate time to his own project. No where has he mentioned enlisting help for coding. He has only insinuated three primary objectives which are broad in general, none of which involved outside help.
I didn't say he was seeking help, I said it's something that should be considered.
It's clear that JDB cannot continue as things were. The money simply wasn't there to allow him to develop this full time, which I'm sure he'd prefer to. There are always options, but he has to weigh up the time and effort of each - he's got his family to support after all, I think people sometimes forget that.
Does the game have the metrics to justify a bold pitch to angel investors? I don't think so; I'm sure given the premise of the game - which for all the gripes, isn't too shabby - there may be interest but then JDB is tied up in preparing for pitches, etc, which can be time-consuming in and of itself.
Sell the codebase and membership as a going concern? I'm sure there may be some interest in buying the game but equally, JDB would need to find a company willing to invest, willing to pursue his vision of the game. Maybe a company came in with an offer, which meant he has no more involvement... not always ideal. If you then found the game offered plays to "buy", it would destroy it and **** all over everything JDB has achieved.
I get people are upset but JDB to me seems to be between a rock and a hard place. Continue as is, improvements then absolutely crawl due to a lack of his time, people leave, game dies. Build up a dev team, well, he's then got to pay and I doubt the game is anywhere near profitable to support that. IMO, the subscription tier is the "best worst" option.
I think maybe community engagement could help - anyone able to help out, give the odd bit of time ( website styling, develop REST apis etc) would alleviate some of the pressure on JDB from a time perspective. Maybe that's another possible avenue to explore.
