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Making Money As An Open Source Game Developer?
Fastball asks: "I have a couple ideas for some web-based games that I'd like to develop. I'm an avid Linux, Perl, Apache, and MySQL user, and I believe in the GPL. However, I'm trying to figure out how I can develop these games as open source and still make a buck. It would be rewarding to produce them without seeing a profit, but I'd like to make enough money to get a company going and quit my current, uninspiring job. Can I get there via open source, would I be more profitable going closed source, or should I forget about make money altogether?"
Give the game away. Sell the hint/walkthrough book.
Do your engine development in private, make sure you make it easily extendable and robust then when you're done sell the game. Make sure the Data (the content of the game) is protected legally from pirating but give away the engine once you're done.
Essentially do the same thing as id software does, but just release the source a lot sooner (at release time)
Can I get there via open source, would I be more profitable going closed source, or should I forget about make money altogether?
Forget about making money altogether. Unless you're Microsoft, it's near impossible to make money selling consumer software.
If there's some way you can tie your software to a service, maybe internet gaming, then you can probably make money, and it really doesn't matter if you're open or closed source. Actually open source is probably better. I suggest you use the QingPL.
If the game is a multiplayer type game, you can charge customers to use a multiplayer online service, but otherwise play the game for free.
Or you could have an online game that's free but extra levels and add-ons would be available for subscribers.
Is there any way I could do this? I currently work the fryer at McDonalds and I'm looking to move into a more profitable venture.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush
What about GPLing the engine and charging for the rest of the game? You could be giving back to the community and you'd still have a way to support yourself as long as your game content is worth paying for.
1) Donations
2) Subscribers
3) Ads
Bonus stuff (like turns or resources) to whoever sponsor your website in any of these ways are always cool too, imho.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
Don't even bother. If you want to _start_ in game development, do it for fun. It's not something you can pick up from a 21-day book and sell your skills immediately. Making a game takes TIME, as you'll be doing graphics, audio and pure design work, which are each much more demanding than the code itself.
This isn't to say you can't capitalize on a novel idea, but those are hard to come by and most likely you'll get over-excited about your own project and release pure crap. Yes it happens to every one of us; you fall in love with your pet project so damned much that you fail to see how ugly and unfinished it really is. Then you expect everyone to wet their boxers the instant they witness your creation, and then you fall in a deep depression and start doing heroin when it's 2 years later and you haven't seen a dime from it.
Like anything in computers, if you want to do it right, do it for the hell of it. People who jump in "for the money" usually don't get very far, just think of all your former co-workers who had lame CS degrees from "ICS Remote learning" and you'll quickly remember the difference between a 'hacker' and a 'consultant'. Now which generalized term would you attibute to a game developer ? Ah-ha!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Dude, I think that until you dive in, it's just hard to tell. The ads/donations/membership suggested by other people is just barely survival wages, if that. I think the best thing to do is just dive in and start doing it. You may discover or build some way of making tons of cash, but most likely, your personal skills will become unquestioned to anyone in the business and you will be able to get a sweet job or charge huge consulting rates.
If you love this idea so much you are going to do it no matter what, it will probably turn out ok.
You could have the love and support of thousands of people (well, "virtual people"), but if you want to GPL a game but at the same time raise money so you can keep yourself afloat, you might have a hard time convincing the "money guys" to give you anything:
"Ok, so let me get this straight... You want to get paid to make a game, but give it away and let everybody see exactly how you did it? Waiter? Check please."
- Tips
- Start getting in on public betas and tests of games you like
- Be a very active participant in the discussions and bug reporting
- Make yourself personally accessable to the game developers
Someday, if you are lucky, you might get a shot at being an actual game coder, and if you are really lucky, that game might be a success! (A friend of mine slid into a development position at DAOC, but she had 10+ years experience coding, was a early tester of DAOC, lived in the area, and made herself extremely involved in testing and feedback, and had to take a massive pay cut to join the team).After you get this successful game under your belt, and you have a clue how the industry, the work enviroment, and the distribution work, then you can rethink this entire concept of an "open-source game" -- and if you decide todo it at that point, at least you will have a god-damn clue .
I do not intend to be harsh or mean, but the game market is really brutal, and from what I have heard, really fun to be involved in, so I wish you the best of luck. Perhaps you could use an individually completed open-source game as a resume point.
Me and my roommate have been writing a game - we're about halfway done. We're running into the same questions. Open source would be nice, but making money would be good too (breaking even on hosting/bandwidth fees would be a step in the right direction).
Currently our plan is to charge $5 for an account on our multiplayer servers. This has two advantages: 1) We get some money. 2) People are less likely to make a billion accounts to abuse the rating/scoring system. Also that means that we can give the client away for free, open source or not. But it's totally one of those things where... there's not way to predict how well it will work until you try it.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
if you only have a few (can count them on your fingers) ideas for games, don't even bother.
1 in 10 will actually get done, 1 in 100 of those will be enjoyable for more then 2 minutes, 1 in 100 of those a consumer will be willing to pay for.
just keep your job, life sucks.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
And never release a windows version. Maybe a MacOS port later, but definitely give us something that winslaves can't touch.
Give me at the very least good screenshots/synopsis, and maybe a crippled version. And don't forget to give me your paypal ID. If I like it, I'll certainly pay more than you could get for 10 copies worth of royalties... and I'll encourage my friends to buy it too.
If you open source the engine(not GPL; maybe LGPL) and make the data files for the game propreietery[sp]. Its probably the best way to make money off of your game. Better yet, make the engine open, and the data structure ultra-modular. This way you could keep 90% of your game intact when/if you release an expansion, while allowing people to mod it like Half-Life and Quake III.
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
Create your own license, which states that the sources are available but binaries built on this source cannot be distributed without a significant improvement. Then define "significant improvement" (which is the real tough part).
If done well enough, I'm sure it could end up mighty popular
Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
Write a series of small games, paying attention to details like story and plot development. End each game with a cliff-hanger, or at least an opportunity to continue the story.
Give each game away for free, and see which (if any) of them become popular. Create a sequel to the most popular game(s), and charge a small fee for it (something like $5). If the sequel does well, consider making more sequels in the series.
If you build your project like this, you won't be spending all of your time building a large game that doesn't end up going anywhere. Small games are also easier for a single person to create in their spare time (so you won't have to quit your job and take a chance on your project).
All that being said, you might want to investigate already-existing projects. You might find a lot of GPL'd code you can use for your own games, and you may be able to learn from other's mistakes before you get too involved.
Disclaimer: I've written my own Open Source create-your-own-game software.
--Cycon
Your Brain + EEG + LEGO Robots = Brainstorms
Hi,
I am the owner of the firm Techyon (techyon.ca) and my friends and I have been trying to start coding games and make a living off it. The project (wired3d.techyon.ca) is an FPS game that is completely opensource but its protocols disallows cheating no matter how you alter the code.
Our plan is to give out the engines and subsequent patches to that point release all opensource, and sell the online gaming serial numbers just like halflife, along with the artwork. We will also release the artwork for free 2 years after its release, so there. And by the way we're making sure it compiles and uses opengl on Win32, linux, freebsd, beos and macosx and more if we could lay our hands on it.
The bottom line is you havet to sell something. Something without which the player wouldnt enjoy the game completely and something he would crave, and it shouldnt be just copied online like a serial number. Also dont forget to release it for windows if you plan to actually make a living off it. The reason I'm telling you this is because we believe in opensource and want centre of gravity of the gaming world to shift to *nix. It would be great to see coders of more than one game genere entering this scene and cooperating to create larger composite multi-genere games, and gamers creating and releasing mods for each of them.
I wish you luck with the project.
Ghazan Haider
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Good luck! Personally, I suggest just doing it for fun.
And work from there. It doesn't nessesarily have to be game related, RPGdev will be using XPCOM and other Moz tech. That is, when I can get back to dealing with RPGdev.
Making money is all a matter of licenses -- if you create the engine as MPL'd software, then you can later on use the engine in a closed-source game for the shelves.
Chris 'coldacid' Charabaruk Meldstar Entertainment
Over the past few years I've cut n saved some of the Slashdot signatures. One, in particular, applies to this situation. I don't recall the specific Slashdot poster whose signature said:
and I don't know who said first, either."Provided by the management for your protection."
but copyright everything. Give away the series and sell the stuffed animals.
Damn, you couldn't imagine how much I spent on Blues Clue's, Arthur and muppets stuff!
And if you could sell them to Micky D. or B.King you would be styling.
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
I have been running several free online (Space, WWII, etc) games for the past three years. You can take a look at them at http://www.coldfirestudios.com.
:)
Let me give you a little advice concerning game programming and making money.
1. First, be prepared to work MANY long hours for very little thanks from your players. You will find a hand full of people that really appreciate what you are doing, but most will just complain although you are providing a free service for them.
2. We have had very little success with getting people to pay-to-play. Our games generate all of their revenue through banner advertsing. At one point, this was a very profitable market (2+ years ago), but now has become about 1/10th of what it used to be. I wouldn't plan on quitting your job to do this, but instead, do it for the experience and for fun.
3. Have your game WELL planned out before you begin coding it. After you release an alpha or beta, pay close attention to what the players say. Take their advice!!!! They'll appreciate it.
4. Be sure to not only provide a game that is challenging, but also visually appealing as well. This market is very competitive now, so you'll need every advantage you can get to generate those precious banner views.
5. After you establish a solid user base, you can ask for donations. I have several players that have donated $500+, and many are willing to donate $25 or so, but be sure to publically recognize those that do donate. Also, take the banners off of the games of those that donate. It will help keep donations up, keep profits up, and prevent those that don't donate from complaining about the banners
If you (or anyone else) is still seriously interested in making a game and need a company to hos the game and provide advertising (getting accepted into banner ad companies these days is rough), send an email to adavis@coldfirestudios.com and I will try to help you out. Basically, we're trying to encourage people to make free games on the web, and we're doing our best to encourage it. At a minimum, you will break even with us. If you're game becomes a huge success, you'll make some money off of it.
My best advice, do this with a couple other people! This is a bigger project than you may think it is, and you'll need all the help you can get. I'll atleast try to provide hosting, ads, and systems admin support if you have a good game.
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
The basic strategy I would see for open source game development would be to keep the data proprietary, similar to the current situation with Doom and the first two Quakes (and I think some others).
This is based on the idea that game engines resemble each others to some degree and that the differentiating factor will be the maps/levels/artwork/scripting and so on. You can thus get improvement done on the engine contributed back to you, and others can make their own original games with your engine, but nobody is playing your exact game for free.
This strategy, of course, supposes that there is some significant amount of non-code data involved. If this is a puzzle game whose's only non-engine resources are backdrop images, this strategy is not effective.
Remember to mark down contributions from the outside somehow, because you might want to relicense the engine under a non-open license (or maybe just change the license to another open source one), and you'll have to ask permission from the copyright owners of these patches (remember what is happening to Mozilla!). Having them assign copyright to you, having a "clean" codebase branch or keeping contact information are three possible approaches.
Also, if you have some truly innovative technology in the engine that you think nobody else has, it might make sense to hold off the release a bit, so that you can build a market lead on that technology, then as competitors come up with equivalent technology, you can then release the source code.
See Software Secrets: Do They Help or Hurt?.
Ok, so I saw a couple people go over this, but, here is the crux of the matter with open source game development; Content Vs Code.
I too have been thinking a great deal about this, and here's the scheme I've thought of that would be both open source, and able to make money. In a nutshell, as someone else already suggested, release the engine, and keep the content under copyright. Now, here's the catch. Where do you draw the line with what's content, and what's code? Most would say, if it looks like code, it is, but I say that, if it's pure game logic, that's content. Lets say, for example, that, as most games with extensive in game AI or physics logic code do, you build a scripting engine into your game to drive the tweakable details. This is how a good number of game engines work, the Unreal engine being a good example. If you wish to open source your game, I'd say, open source the engine, and keep the game logic under the same 'pay for distrobution' licence as your content. Most likely best to provide it under a 'viewable source' licence, at least for the more basic/example logic, to encourage mods (good for any game), but aside from that, that type of code has more to do with your game design, the part you are trying to sell, than it does with the nuts and bolts part that everyone would benefit from having to use, like networking or graphics code.
Anyway, just my $0.02 ;p
You are talking about making "web games," so I'm assuming you are going to make a suite of games, not just one. My approach I was going to use, was to release a suite of games for free under the GPL. Then use a updater program that would automatically update the games when new versions (bug fixes) come out. Then, I was going to charge for "exclusive rights" to certain games. It would be written in that the money would also support the creation of another GPLed game. I know this means that it's not ALL GPL, but it's a way to do it. Perhaps you could say that the "exclusive rights" would only be for a year, then the program goes GPL.
You should put some commercials in your game.. After each level is complete -> "And now we pause for a message from our sponser..."
There's no place like ~/
Make Money?
Open Source?
Game Development?
LOL
To make money, you might want to make your game engine open source, but sell your expertise as an a consultant making particular games for clients. For example, the Military is getting more interested in using modern game systems for training and weapons development. Corporations may also be interested in training simulations, or in games for promotional purposes.
I would make the game engine code GPL, but all the art work, levels, designs, textures; private.
So people can use your code to make their own game, and also you get the communities support, eg find/fix bugs.
and you also keep what make you game unique to your self to make money.
I aim to produce a couple or more "one more turn" style strategy games played in-browser. I have two ideas in mind, one centering around baseball; the other, politics.
First, I have a database of all major league players, managers, teams, ballparks, etc. that I found at baseball-reference.com. From this, I believe I can put together several types of fantasy baseball games involving historical leagues, all-time leagues, salary cap leagues, tournaments, etc.
Lots of variations of one game, baseball. A game-play engine can probably evolve in open source, and the rest of the implementation can be behind the scenes. There's a wealth of fantasy baseball games out there, but I think baseball enthusiasts always enjoy new opportunities to try their luck. Second, I'd like to put together a fantasy U.S. Congress. Users would try to build a political career by selecting a branch of government they want to serve in and they set out to earn as much political capital as they can by casting votes for legislation that passes, having posts related to debates modded up, or even selling out to special interests and lobbyists. Users could even trade political capital for votes or vice versa as is the game in Washington, right? This has some value I think as a tool for educators and civics teachers in addition to all of us arm-chair pols. I'm excited by the potential this idea has.
From what I gather, money needs to be a byproduct of the labour of love. And I agree. I just don't want to piss away an opportunity to do something like this for a living (even a meek one) if such an opportunity exists. But first, I need to get something working.
As I said, these will be web-based, in-browser, strategy games. I imagine there will be some use of Java, Perl (mod_perl), SQL database backends. I'm more worried about finding graphic design talent than anything. I can draw shapes in the Gimp, but I doubt that'd get me anywhere.
I have a web site named Teamchemistry.com that I'm going to host these games and their project development on. I'll register the projects with Sourceforge and see what happens. Thanks to everyone for responding.
Hmmm. This is a tough one. Those how say to open source the project and charge for a service have no idea what they are talking about.
Within a week, someone/group will have hacked the code and started open servers.
I've worked in the OpenSource arena. As far as I can see, OpenSource mean Free! End of story, they won't pay!