06-08-2015, 09:07 PM
Hi!
A few days ago I came up with an idea which might change a bit the intensity of our works on Colobot: Gold Edition and other minor projects. So yesterday I started making this idea more real by setting up the base.
I see the team as not entirely efficient in what we are doing. We don't really have much time for developing the project, and so, the site from newcomer's perspective looks a bit inactive. Here's what I think would help us: motivation increase. And how to increase open-source/free-time/hobby/whatever team's motivation? By giving them money, that's how. Our motivation was always like 'the game deserves that' and all, but what if we could make real money (not just occasional donations from time to time) out of developing it? Would treating the project more like a job, not a free-time hobby, motivate us to work faster? Since I am the one managing our PayPal account I'd like to present you a great possibility.
What is Patreon?
For those who have no idea what it is - it's basically like Kickstarter, except for one major thing: the money is given to us every month (or per release, or whatever). I suggest watching an informative video on their website.
How in the world is that supposed to help us?
Well, it's like a circle - we create content and hmm, let's say people like those things we are doing and they become our patrons. And then we reach a goal of for example 100$/month. So we are motivated to work harder, better, faster and release even more content. So that means more people are reached and satisfied.
How does this system handle the money case?
The money is transferred right to our PayPal account, so from our current perspective nothing but the possible amount of donations and their frequency (monthly or per release nature) will change. But if our activities are appreciated enough, I will be able to send everyone at TerranovaTeam his salary every month/release (I guess we should split the money evenly for everyone on the team and give some percentage to the occasional contributors if they worked for the project during that month).
Sounds great, so how do we start?
I've constructed the base on https://patreon.com/TerranovaTeam, it's not yet visible for everyone, but I'd like to show you some screenshots: http://i.imgur.com/UuO86zE.png, http://i.imgur.com/u33oEIQ.png, http://i.imgur.com/6H0VXgG.png, http://i.imgur.com/YUInosN.png
But it's not that easy! Of course, I can just press that 'Launch' button right now, but we don't really have anything to encourage people to start supporting us. The first step is to create a video that will describe our project in a few words. Aand... a huge description of who we are and what we do, something like a combination of things written on our homepage.
This initiative would require quite a lot of activity. I'd like to see your thoughts on the subject in this thread. So, what do you think?
A few days ago I came up with an idea which might change a bit the intensity of our works on Colobot: Gold Edition and other minor projects. So yesterday I started making this idea more real by setting up the base.
I see the team as not entirely efficient in what we are doing. We don't really have much time for developing the project, and so, the site from newcomer's perspective looks a bit inactive. Here's what I think would help us: motivation increase. And how to increase open-source/free-time/hobby/whatever team's motivation? By giving them money, that's how. Our motivation was always like 'the game deserves that' and all, but what if we could make real money (not just occasional donations from time to time) out of developing it? Would treating the project more like a job, not a free-time hobby, motivate us to work faster? Since I am the one managing our PayPal account I'd like to present you a great possibility.
What is Patreon?
For those who have no idea what it is - it's basically like Kickstarter, except for one major thing: the money is given to us every month (or per release, or whatever). I suggest watching an informative video on their website.
How in the world is that supposed to help us?
Well, it's like a circle - we create content and hmm, let's say people like those things we are doing and they become our patrons. And then we reach a goal of for example 100$/month. So we are motivated to work harder, better, faster and release even more content. So that means more people are reached and satisfied.
How does this system handle the money case?
The money is transferred right to our PayPal account, so from our current perspective nothing but the possible amount of donations and their frequency (monthly or per release nature) will change. But if our activities are appreciated enough, I will be able to send everyone at TerranovaTeam his salary every month/release (I guess we should split the money evenly for everyone on the team and give some percentage to the occasional contributors if they worked for the project during that month).
Sounds great, so how do we start?
I've constructed the base on https://patreon.com/TerranovaTeam, it's not yet visible for everyone, but I'd like to show you some screenshots: http://i.imgur.com/UuO86zE.png, http://i.imgur.com/u33oEIQ.png, http://i.imgur.com/6H0VXgG.png, http://i.imgur.com/YUInosN.png
But it's not that easy! Of course, I can just press that 'Launch' button right now, but we don't really have anything to encourage people to start supporting us. The first step is to create a video that will describe our project in a few words. Aand... a huge description of who we are and what we do, something like a combination of things written on our homepage.
This initiative would require quite a lot of activity. I'd like to see your thoughts on the subject in this thread. So, what do you think?
Prepare for unforeseen consequences...
Half-Life
Half-Life