Independent Game Development Zone (still not quite there YET!)
by John Spivey · 10/26/2007 (5:55 pm) · 5 comments
Its been roughly a week or so since I made the announcement about Indiedevzone.com. Reviews have been mixed. Most people are loving the idea of having a new resource available to them for game assets. The largest bit of complaints I have heard so far have been in relation to the payout to contributers. I have even been told that I should make no money off other peoples work. Well I hardly want to discuss that all over again but I believe that I have come up with a nice model.
Development of www.indiedevzone.com has been slow going. Much, much slower than I had anticipated, (having to work full time on top kindly sucks as well) but things are looking up. In a effort to save more money on hosting expense I have managed to find a nice open source shopping cart and bulletin board. I have already received a few requests from folks to contribute assets. So things really are looking up.
You can view the site at THIS location. Keep in mind that the store is not open yet and there is not much to look at. Target date for opening day is mid November. Keep your eyes peeled for our opening day contest. By then there will be some content added and I should have all the shopping cart issues ironed out.
Thinking about the project I have realized that it may take quite some time to build up our coffers with content but I am dedicated to the project. Documentations and contracts are almost complete as well.
One nice feature that will be implemented will be the tutorials section. I plan on providing some tutorials for BSP modeling using 3D World Studio and Constructor. Sorry Quark guys but I have lost enough hair messing with that. Well anything is possible I suppose.
So by all means get signed up for the Message Board and throw out some ideas for what you might like to see.
Oh and another thing. Yeah the web site is simple. That was very much intended. I really wish to keep everything really basic and easy to use. Sometimes simple is better and I think this is one of those cases.
Well back to killing the buggies in the shopping cart. Take care and happy game making.
#2
For example I was interested in GG's distribution infrastructure to sell my pack because it offered all of this, so I could get on and make stuff, while GG handles the e-commerce side of things.
Good luck though, any indie venture is a great venture in my books.
10/27/2007 (5:50 pm)
Erm... isn't every content pack developer essentially offering this service? Why would I want to pay the middle man unless they were offering something I couldn't provide myself? It doesn't make sense, especially if you are using freeware tools to make a site and not offering a distribution infrastructure that is rock solid, professional and secure. Also what about marketing? If I make content and put it on your site, how will the world know about it?For example I was interested in GG's distribution infrastructure to sell my pack because it offered all of this, so I could get on and make stuff, while GG handles the e-commerce side of things.
Good luck though, any indie venture is a great venture in my books.
#3
10/27/2007 (5:52 pm)
So I checked out your site and it looks a little light on in the presentation department. Despite what I said before I can provide you with free tutorials as I'm happy to help.
#4
Well the open source software is not going to cut the mustard. For a standard product that are tangible and needs to be packaged and mailed Zen Cart is perfect. The downside is that down loadable content is not so easy. I have had people tell me that they can do it for free with Paypal and while that is true you cannot give immediate download access. For the free service that Paypal offers there is no support for down loadable content. So that means paying for a merchant account.
The new shopping area has a SSL certified shopping cart with digital download capabilities. It lacks the customization that Zen Cart has. As far as having something that the others don't. Well we are not live yet and I hope to generate some interest with some contests and what not. Special offers and so on. The contributed assets will generate very little on my end. I will have to provide plenty of content on my own. Even though there are a few out there that are selling content there is still just a FEW of them out there. What is stopping you from selling here at GG? Nothing.
I have dropped a nice chunk of change on this project and I hope to get my money back but either way I have learned a tremendous amount about e-commerce. I expect that taking classes on this stuff would cost considerably more.
Andy. Again I cannot thank you enough for the offer. The site is young and despite the desire for me to go in and make it all shiny and stuff I really really really wanted to keep it as simple as possible. As it is right now there is room for content that I plan on adding later. The simple look is exactly what I am going for.
Its like this...... If no one ever buys a single asset from me thats fine. I offer the service because I am so very passionate about game development. I am too old and stuck in my career to drop everything and go back to college. I am too broke to go back to college. My wife would NEVER let me take us somewhere far away to pursue a career in game design. So I do what I can. Besides I am about half way to retirement and dropping careers now would be a bad bad idea. So I make the hobby as fun and exciting as I can. There will always people knocking you down a notch, well trying to. But I am doing something that I can get behind, do well, and have fun at the same time.
So maybe I am taking up just more space on the web but its my space and I plan to do good things with it.
10/27/2007 (8:47 pm)
Quote:Erm... isn't every content pack developer essentially offering this service? Why would I want to pay the middle man unless they were offering something I couldn't provide myself? It doesn't make sense, especially if you are using freeware tools to make a site and not offering a distribution infrastructure that is rock solid, professional and secure.
Well the open source software is not going to cut the mustard. For a standard product that are tangible and needs to be packaged and mailed Zen Cart is perfect. The downside is that down loadable content is not so easy. I have had people tell me that they can do it for free with Paypal and while that is true you cannot give immediate download access. For the free service that Paypal offers there is no support for down loadable content. So that means paying for a merchant account.
The new shopping area has a SSL certified shopping cart with digital download capabilities. It lacks the customization that Zen Cart has. As far as having something that the others don't. Well we are not live yet and I hope to generate some interest with some contests and what not. Special offers and so on. The contributed assets will generate very little on my end. I will have to provide plenty of content on my own. Even though there are a few out there that are selling content there is still just a FEW of them out there. What is stopping you from selling here at GG? Nothing.
I have dropped a nice chunk of change on this project and I hope to get my money back but either way I have learned a tremendous amount about e-commerce. I expect that taking classes on this stuff would cost considerably more.
Quote:So I checked out your site and it looks a little light on in the presentation department.
Andy. Again I cannot thank you enough for the offer. The site is young and despite the desire for me to go in and make it all shiny and stuff I really really really wanted to keep it as simple as possible. As it is right now there is room for content that I plan on adding later. The simple look is exactly what I am going for.
Its like this...... If no one ever buys a single asset from me thats fine. I offer the service because I am so very passionate about game development. I am too old and stuck in my career to drop everything and go back to college. I am too broke to go back to college. My wife would NEVER let me take us somewhere far away to pursue a career in game design. So I do what I can. Besides I am about half way to retirement and dropping careers now would be a bad bad idea. So I make the hobby as fun and exciting as I can. There will always people knocking you down a notch, well trying to. But I am doing something that I can get behind, do well, and have fun at the same time.
So maybe I am taking up just more space on the web but its my space and I plan to do good things with it.
#5
I would be keen to put content on your site, so let us all know when you are going to launch, and I'll make sure I have stuff ready to put up on your site before then. I already have about 4 tutorials ready to go anyway.
10/27/2007 (11:09 pm)
Even though what I said could feel a little negative, it's just my feelings on the site. From what you have just said, you seem to have really nutted out the distribution infrastructure which is very reassuring. I think you will succeed but it's going to be hard work. Get the marketing engine going early (I guess you already are with this announcement).I would be keen to put content on your site, so let us all know when you are going to launch, and I'll make sure I have stuff ready to put up on your site before then. I already have about 4 tutorials ready to go anyway.
Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
You are proposing a payment system for contributors to your site.
They do accept the rules, you are fine.