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?"

Comments

Hint.

[Triskaidekaphobia]

Give the game away. Sell the hint/walkthrough book.

I want stuff too

[Anomolous Cow Herd]

I want to be paid millions of dollars a year for having sex with many beautiful women.

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.

Re:I want stuff too

[aozilla]

I want to be paid millions of dollars a year for having sex with many beautiful women. Is there any way I could do this?

Sorry, U.S. President only pays $200,000, and promiscuous sex was made illegal in 1998.

The short answer

[billcopc]

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!

Re:The short answer

[billcopc]

Amen to that! Make a game YOU love to play, not what you think the rest of the world will like.

Proof: I write stupid puzzle action games, like Tetris/Columns/whatever. I like these simple nerve fryers and I've probably played them all, so when I code my own game, I know the pros and cons of each title and thus have an idea what it's like from the player's perspective, so I can tweak the gameplay intelligently. Ask your typical consultant to write a Tetris clone, he'll make a flashy noisy thing, but it'll be the blandest, most un-fun game you've ever played (besides Daikatana). Why ? Because he has no idea what games 'feel' like. To be a writer, you have to love books. To be a musician, you have to love music. To be a game developer, you have to love games. True game programming is art.

Hard Market... Fun Job... Skills First

[metacosm]

My answer to your question is: "you are going about it all wrong" -- if you really want to be a game developer, here are some facts and tips

• Facts
• When looking to break into an existing industry with a new company, you should not even bother trying until you have worked for at least one of the players in that market.
• Game coders are known for being very smart, very hard working, and very underpaid. This is a simple market reality because:
  • Many developers want to be game programmers
  • Most games are flops and never make back the money they put into development

• 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.

Re:Hard Market... Fun Job... Skills First

[abdulla]

Whoa whoa, hold on, this is too much to take in, she's a programmer and likes games? Can you introduce me? ;)

Investigate Pre-Existing Projects

[Cycon]

I thinking about similar questions a few years ago, and I can tell you what I came up with:

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

We're doing the same thing

[mnmn]

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

Re:Write it for Linux/BSD...

[ConceptJunkie]

Yeah, that's right. If you want to make money writing software, purposely ignore 90% of the market. That'll teach 'em.

Repeat

[4of12]

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:

Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.

and I don't know who said first, either.

Some advice from experience

[mustangdavis]

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.