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Tynan has previously said he is unlikely to make RimWorld his life's work, and that such expectations are unrealistic - in reference to the very long development cycle of Dwarf Fortress which as seen giant features like z-levels, adventure mode, etc added 5-10 years after the game first launched. I think that is a fair stance for Tynan to take - he's obviously a creative guy and I'm interested in what other games he might come up with!

Let's assume two things:
* RimWorld 1.0 comes out sometime in 2016, fulfilling and exceeding the promises to original backers, but still lacking some of the giant features on the community wish list.
* Tynan is open to further development of the game by another programmer employed at Ludeon, funded by a new round via Kickstarter (or other tool), while he continues onto other projects.

Assuming these two things, would you be willing to chip in on more funding? Last I saw (the data isn't shared anymore) RimWorld had sold over 90k copies, so if even just 10% of players chipped $10, that could easily fund another year of a programmers' time (if not more, either time or programmers). Perhaps allow someone from our intrepid modding community to go full time.

If you were to fund another year of development, what is the one feature you would absolutely expect to be included? What is the one feature you are most opposed to funding? No need for long descriptions, just curious about people's strongest preferences. And, let's assume that any new features include the necessary optimizations (so no need to demand that :) ).

Fund another round of development: yes, I'd chip up to $30 one-time if the features were right, or do a $10/year for a steady development commitment
Must have feature to fund: z-levels
Feature I wouldn't fund: multiplayer

And, of course, this thread is just for discussion, not intended to put words in anyone's mouth or rile up expectations!

i would for more than i have for rimworld honestly, but i wish that tynan would still be part of it in some way, it started from his vision after all, but a track record would improve my willingness to help more.

:)

I would. It'd be like being an early backer of an expansion pack, and considering Tynan has already proven to be more than reliable, I see no problem with it.

However, I would NOT back if multiple z-levels was on the plan. It's a nice feature in theory, but it would complicate the game immensely, especially because it's viewed from a top-down perspective. Dwarf Fortress has already shown that it ends up to be chaotic, and even in Gnomoria with it's isometric perspective it's hard to see at times what's going on, which is crucial in Rimworld.

Maybe $5 and would love to see 50+ more events they can be small like 'something strange has happened all your batterys have been drained' or something big like 'a massive sandstorm will be here in 1 hour get inside or your colonists will be lost'

I would think about it when RimWorld will be ready.

I would happily throw in another bucket of dollaroos, if it means that Rimworld will continue to evolve. While it is currently quite great, it has so much potential for more. I'd personally like to see added social options between factions, as well as perhaps an ability to extend your zone/travel to another zone on the world.

It doesn't sound like a bad idea to bring in another developer, for that dose of fresh perspective and ideas.

Quote from: Rahjital on August 29, 2015, 05:37:34 AM
I would. It'd be like being an early backer of an expansion pack, and considering Tynan has already proven to be more than reliable, I see no problem with it.

However, I would NOT back if multiple z-levels was on the plan. It's a nice feature in theory, but it would complicate the game immensely, especially because it's viewed from a top-down perspective. Dwarf Fortress has already shown that it ends up to be chaotic, and even in Gnomoria with it's isometric perspective it's hard to see at times what's going on, which is crucial in Rimworld.

I agree with this, I would gladly hand over $50 in order for 1 more year of development, only if Tynan had the last say as to what was implemented.... but Z levels would put me off the idea straight away

This is an interesting poll.

If something like were ever to happen, though, I couldn't just hand the game off to someone. I'd still have do the design work. However, I can do that in much less time than it takes to do the whole design/programming/management shebang, so it could still be valuable.

careful, wouldn't want people to mistake this for another Stardrive/Stardrive 2.


one step/thing at a time please.

(but yes, Tynan did a decent job thus far, wouldn't mind "expansion packs" etc etc).

*I would fork over 20 bucks tops personally.

The game has potential for all kinds of additions. It's understandable that Tynan would like to eventually focus on different projects but I think he can feel secure knowing that there will always be an appetite for new RimWorld content whenever he feels like making new features/additions. I'm looking forward to the 1.0 version and steam release as that will no doubt increase the visibility and audience of the game.

Quote from: Tynan on August 29, 2015, 01:10:13 PM
This is an interesting poll.

If something like were ever to happen, though, I couldn't just hand the game off to someone. I'd still have do the design work. However, I can do that in much less time than it takes to do the whole design/programming/management shebang, so it could still be valuable.

good to hear, i guess that's what i was thinking of too, more like helping with it or a less hands on job than making the game from the ground up yourself, at least something that would give you time off to be creatively fulfilled while still keeping an ear close to the ground.

I would gladly pay $30 for actual faction relationships. Where we actually hosted the visitors, with a feast, around a campfire, or around a table. Lots of social interactions, and mood boosts. Have a "feast" button, where you draft who attends the feast.

Actually have an inn where the visitors could bunk down for the night. And depending upon the colony's attractiveness, a visitor might ask to join. The visitors leave a token of the happiness with the visit, either silver or gifts.

Trading with the visitors, where they bring items, some unique.

The factions attitude towards the colony would be influenced by the trades, and the hosting. Not trading/hosting would be seen as an insult, and faction relations would drop.

And pirate raids would be actual raids, for items. Steel what ever they can, and leave quickly. Protection of the visitors from the pirate raids would also affect relations.

Quote from: TLHeart on August 29, 2015, 09:23:07 PMActually have an inn where the visitors could bunk down for the night. And depending upon the colony's attractiveness, a visitor might ask to join. The visitors leave a token of the happiness with the visit, either silver or gifts.

i honestly would have liked to be able to build visitor quarters too a bit, i mean they sleep in my colony already, would be a cool level of depth to be able to assign beds for visitors, should also prod players to keep spare bedrooms instead of filling the beds to 100% capacity.


[edit] not to mention, maybe we should be able to charge visitors for a night's stay and operate like a small motel or something if you want to put the work in, just a key and a door type business, but still, and if they don't want to pay they can still use the ground, after all, the rimworld could be a vacation destination at least somewhat maybe :)

heck the more i think about it, it could be cool to have nearby factions or something ask to use your medical facilities as a random event too, probably a lot of things could be applied to being something colonists could run as a service industry.[/edit]

All nice ideas. Good to see Tynan finds the idea interesting, at least. I obviously agree with others that there is a huge amount of potential with RimWorld. If Tynan doesn't want to commit 100% of his time to it, it would be great to see this gem continue to improve steadily with his guidance.

Understood regarding the concerns of some on z-levels being a potentially unruly feature to implement - but I still would love to see it done right. I suppose I should also soften my stance a bit on the "must have" - I would almost certainly fund more development even if it didn't include z-levels, trusting Tynan to focus development in the right direction. I do stick by multiplayer being a deal breaker, for me at least.

I've been thinking about what a Rimworld expansion pack would look like for a while now, and I think this poll is right on the money. I'd pay for more content to be added into the game.

My 2 cents is i would pay more specifically for something redefining, like zlevels, visiting different areas,  ect. This would be good both for feeling more worth it,  AND Adding new systems "officially" would also encourage more people to buy,  if mods then take advantage and use the features in mods.  (for those 2 ideas,  z levels are obvious,  relocation / visiting mechanics i could see plenty of mods for,  ect.)

Hmm... what is z-levels ?  :-[

Quote from: MultiDavid on August 30, 2015, 12:00:32 AM
Hmm... what is z-levels ?  :-[

multiple story buildings.

Quote from: mumblemumble on August 29, 2015, 11:38:44 PM
My 2 cents is i would pay more specifically for something redefining, like zlevels, visiting different areas,  ect

Same here, I would gladly scale up money-wise depending on next objectives.

Coop mode, a la Don't Starve Together, would be my main (not redefining mechanics though, but obviously redefines some parts of the experience).
Possible second could be Faction's interactions, though it doesn't say enough per se and I suspect mods can reach some things already, so Faction's missions would be more appropriate

I would hate to see z-levels in rimworld, it would put me off the game

It's really hard for me to picture "z-levels done well", but I would be all on favor of that. However, "z-levels done poorly" would be a huge turn-off for me, so I have really mixed feelings on that one.

I'm really REALLY in favor of improved/expanded faction relations, though, and there's do many ways it could grow and be awesome. I would definitely save up my spending money for that!

I'd be in for another round IF Tynan feels up to it. That would mean having a plan with a new list of features to work on from the get go. So far this game has proved to be the best DF "for normal people" ;) alternative and that's already a huge achievement imo. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing it go even further if the motivation was there.

Quote from: milon on August 30, 2015, 01:22:33 PM
It's really hard for me to picture "z-levels done well", but I would be all on favor of that. However, "z-levels done poorly" would be a huge turn-off for me, so I have really mixed feelings on that one.

I'm really REALLY in favor of improved/expanded faction relations, though, and there's do many ways it could grow and be awesome. I would definitely save up my spending money for that!

could always leave it opt in in the settings stuff while it's being adjusted/built still, maybe could stay like that if some people just flat out don't want it.

I understand zlevels sounds odd but my theory is based off minecrafts astronomical success. A TON of minecraft development was spent on almost invisible or just light at first glance changes, which also opened Pandoras box for modders / mapmakers.

And face it,  that was a huge part of its success. Yes zlevels is almost endlessly daunting,  but if done properly?...  The possibilities would not end. High cost yes,  but VERY... VERY high reward.

Quote from: mumblemumble on August 30, 2015, 11:47:16 PM
I understand zlevels sounds odd but my theory is based off minecrafts astronomical success. A TON of minecraft development was spent on almost invisible or just light at first glance changes, which also opened Pandoras box for modders / mapmakers.

And face it,  that was a huge part of its success. Yes zlevels is almost endlessly daunting,  but if done properly?...  The possibilities would not end. High cost yes,  but VERY... VERY high reward.

a very good point in some ways, if terraria had a 3D world we'd surely see a much different popularity list, it's undeniable that 2D is better for platforming, but at the same time it's also pretty undeniable that for creativity/survival sandboxes 3D provides a much more long term interesting environment, just try thinking about it like this for the programming minded:

you have 100 tiles in which to hide something the player can find in some way or another, that's less permutations to worry about than there are brute forcing a combination lock (3 digit) in a 2D plane, that is to say that many places (not considering anything else) it could be placed.

now i'm going to just preface this right here and now, i'm amazingly bad at math so my apologies in advance but the general idea should still be true to the best of my knowledge
same deal, 100 tiles to use to hide something that must be found, except this time you have not only x and y (horizontal and vertical respectively) as well as mister z level, this means that at the very least when you had 100 total places something could be squirreled away in the previous example in this one you should have at least 300 permutations at the very least given that extra plane of perspective we call z-level (depth).

Quotez-levels chatter [snip]

Perhaps spin a technical/philosophical z-levels discussion off into another thread - my main focus here was on gauging how supportive the community would be of a expansion/2nd funding round, and if there were any deal breakers/makers for people. From the poll its quite clear that the majority are in support of richer mechanics/content, which hopefully is good encouragement for Tynan to brainstorm what form that may take, both from a design and human resources perspective.

I'd definitely put another $10-15 towards the game for a extended development cycle, as long as Tynan was on board with it. I wouldn't consider this offer unless he was involved, as I've come to trust him as a developer - something that's really damn hard to do these days.

I've been thoroughly impressed when looking from what was advertised in the Kickstarter and what's been delivered; I've said in the past that I'm disappointed that he views the game as pretty much being in a complete state, but that disappointment comes from me wanting more - because this is a game that I've thoroughly enjoyed (despite the uncomfortably high number of hours I've put into it).

So yeah, if Tynan were still on board and could ensure the integrity of the project, take my money. Please.

Me personally, I'd buy another copy of Rimworld for that. It's another $30 from me.

i'd probably chip in for a kickstarter for around $20-30, as long as it would include z-levels and pvp multiplayer.

none of that kumbayah co-op only crap for me.

fighting an AI who's only winning strategy is to throw more crap at me is no fun at all.

i wanna fight against badass people who can win fights by tactically outwitting me or planning out more efficient logistics and long-term strategies..

so either the AI gets really, really good.. or the game allows us to fight against badass players on z-levels of physics mayhem.

that's probably the next version of rimworld i'm hoping for.. (oh and yea, we need better graphics for rimworld. probably like the artstyle of dungeons of the endless and galactic princess or kentucky route zero)

anyways, if tynan manages to pull that off, i'd probably don't mind emptying my wallet just to play multiplayer for that game. (give options for both LAN and online play as well as team vs team pvp or AI)

Quote from: akiceabear on August 31, 2015, 02:39:09 AM

Quotez-levels chatter [snip]

Perhaps spin a technical/philosophical z-levels discussion off into another thread - my main focus here was on gauging how supportive the community would be of a expansion/2nd funding round, and if there were any deal breakers/makers for people. From the poll its quite clear that the majority are in support of richer mechanics/content, which hopefully is good encouragement for Tynan to brainstorm what form that may take, both from a design and human resources perspective.

sorry, didn't mean to start a big discussion here, just have a hard time stopping myself to explain sometimes. :)

also though, it made me think, just regards to tynan and ludeon, after how happy i am with rimworld i'd be assuming that he's a designer who won't work on contract (many bad kickstarter experiences, personally) because of compromising the design that way, from what i've observed he really had something special and unique he wanted to create and sought out to do just that, can get behind that more often than not for sure.

I wonder if a Kickstarter is even necessary. They've sold 75k+ copies already, and that's been enough to fund development up to this point and even further. A Steam release would boost sales dramatically - Prison Architect has sold over 1 million copies for example, and even Gnomoria (which I've always thought looked a bit unappealing) has managed to sell over 200k.

Quote from: strata8 on August 31, 2015, 04:35:04 AM
I wonder if a Kickstarter is even necessary. They've sold 75k+ copies already, and that's been enough to fund development up to this point and even further. A Steam release would boost sales dramatically - Prison Architect has sold over 1 million copies for example, and even Gnomoria (which I've always thought looked a bit unappealing) has managed to sell over 200k.

I could not agree more. This game is so unique, I'm positive it will appeal to a larger audience. Launching RimWorld on Steam will skyrocket its reputation and bring in tons of new players.

Quote from: postm00v on August 31, 2015, 08:17:20 AM

Quote from: strata8 on August 31, 2015, 04:35:04 AM
I wonder if a Kickstarter is even necessary. They've sold 75k+ copies already, and that's been enough to fund development up to this point and even further. A Steam release would boost sales dramatically - Prison Architect has sold over 1 million copies for example, and even Gnomoria (which I've always thought looked a bit unappealing) has managed to sell over 200k.

I could not agree more. This game is so unique, I'm positive it will appeal to a larger audience. Launching RimWorld on Steam will skyrocket its reputation and bring in tons of new players.

This is known. The only reason it hasn't been released yet is that Tynan's about to go on hiatus for a few months, and he didn't want to release it to Steam (as Early Access) and then cause people to think that the game had been abandoned because he's taking a break. The lack of any updates in the first few weeks would cause the reviews to plummet, since most people already have negative expectations of Steam's EA anyway.

Point aside, the poll's asking if you, personally, would put more money towards seeing more development out of the game. We all know that the sales will jump considerably once it hits Steam, but it's a question of how much more we'd put into the game to see more out of it (since Tynan's stated multiple times that he believes the game to be at a finished state already).

Quote from: strata8 on August 31, 2015, 04:35:04 AM
I wonder if a Kickstarter is even necessary. They've sold 75k+ copies already, and that's been enough to fund development up to this point and even further. A Steam release would boost sales dramatically - Prison Architect has sold over 1 million copies for example, and even Gnomoria (which I've always thought looked a bit unappealing) has managed to sell over 200k.

Expecting Tynan to fund a new, ambitious round of development solely on profits from a prior project doesn't seem very financially sound, or more importantly like a good way to incentivize a great developer to keep at it.

If the first product is good value for money, that should be more than enough in that transaction.

If a new project sounds worthwhile, than kick money into it.

Of course, Tynan can do what he wants with his earnings, including further development for free, but I think its unreasonable to assume him into that position.

Quote from: akiceabear on August 31, 2015, 09:29:02 AM

Quote from: strata8 on August 31, 2015, 04:35:04 AM
I wonder if a Kickstarter is even necessary. They've sold 75k+ copies already, and that's been enough to fund development up to this point and even further. A Steam release would boost sales dramatically - Prison Architect has sold over 1 million copies for example, and even Gnomoria (which I've always thought looked a bit unappealing) has managed to sell over 200k.

Expecting Tynan to fund a new, ambitious round of development solely on profits from a prior project doesn't seem very financially sound, or more importantly like a good way to incentivize a great developer to keep at it.

If the first product is good value for money, that should be more than enough in that transaction.

If a new project sounds worthwhile, than kick money into it.

Of course, Tynan can do what he wants with his earnings, including further development for free, but I think its unreasonable to assume him into that position.

Yes, it's true.
There should be some kind of development/feature interest for him to propose to players as a priority, then financials/dev investment/other concerns to possibly elude unrealistic concepts from his plan, if any

Quote from: akiceabear on August 31, 2015, 09:29:02 AM
Expecting Tynan to fund a new, ambitious round of development solely on profits from a prior project doesn't seem very financially sound, or more importantly like a good way to incentivize a great developer to keep at it.

If the first product is good value for money, that should be more than enough in that transaction.

If a new project sounds worthwhile, than kick money into it.

Of course, Tynan can do what he wants with his earnings, including further development for free, but I think its unreasonable to assume him into that position.

Obviously I don't think that Tynan should be obligated to pursue another stage of development following extra sales on Steam. A Kickstarter would help gauge demand and define a clear set of goals for further development, but from a financial perspective I don't feel that it would bring in significant amounts of cash beyond what would be achieved with the Steam release.

just want to say on kickstarter, i'll never make that mistake again, i funded only two projects that i felt like i really couldn't live without (carmageddon reincarnation and toejam and earl back in the groove) and honestly from carmageddon all i got was my closed feedback ignored, from toejam and earl however is drastically worse, radio silence.

if kickstarter is involved, me and my money are out, respectfully.

I'd happily pay around $10-$20 for an expansion, although at this point it's hard to say what features I'd want that won't likely be included in 1.0

Mainly I'd want:

Backpacks/carry more than 1 weapon type per colonist. (Not using more than one weapon at a time, but being able to carry both a ranged & a melee weapon would be super handy.)

Surgery for pets: Being able to give my dogs replacement limbs or cyber eyes would be especially handy.

Ground ore nodes: Basically sections of flat ground that have minerals you can mine, and once mined out they turn into patches of rock or dirt. This would make colonizing flat lands much more viable.

Feature I'd most like to see:

Romance/off spring for colonists.

Unfortunately I rather doubt this will be implemented given the fact children colonists would be treated the same as adult ones, meaning they could be killed, enslaved,  cannibalized, etc.. which would no doubt draw an inordinate amount of negative publicity and flak from the weenie anti video game violence crowd. (The same group of morons that got up in arms over Fallout 2 having killable children, and push for the govs to ban hammer games like Saints Row IV so they never even get released in some countries like Australia, Germany, etc.)

Feature I don't want to see:

Multiplayer: The game's not really suited for it, although I can see how it could potentially be fun raiding someone else's base, it's nothing I'd ever play personally, so I could care less about the time and work that would go into adding it and would rather see it spent on an aspect of the game I'd find more fun.

Assuming I have the money, I'd more than happily fork over at least $50. Possibly even up to $100!

I would pay £50 any day. This game is my favourite of all time, it would be sad to see it go. Even if there isn't regular alphas and updates anymore, a bit of work here and there would be greatly appreciated!

What we're really talking about here is a sequel.

I would be willing to pay a little money to keep Rimworld in some kind of post-release development cycle with ongoing changes to the 1.0 iteration, but I would prefer to pay a lot more for an ambitious new version incorporating some of the dream features being discussed regularly on the forums. There's a sizable community, good reputation and trust for the studio... early access on a new project would hit the ground running without having to go to Kickstarter with hat in hand. And that's before you put a playable version on Steam (Steam addicts are like hoarders watching QVC, they will buy into literally anything).

Thanks for that comment Murdo - that's a very useful disambiguation for the thread. There is a big threshold between a classical expansion and sequel and my willingness to fund would be commensurate with that.

For example, I'd be willing to pay $5-10 for a content-enriching "expansion" that builds within existing systems, but probably $50 or more for a "sequel" that is willing to tackle the dream features. The reason for different funding appetite - Abrexus has already shown how rich/polished a content mod from passionate fan can be within existing systems, so I'd hesitant to fund just that for very much. I'd rather Patreon it to Abrexus for content, actually, and pay Tynan to concurrently build more features!

The one reason I didn't explicitly say "sequel" is that based on Tynan's past comments I think its more likely he would label it RimWorld v2.0 rather than RimWorld II. This games' development process is different than most titles developed by classic studios, so the labels get a bit blurry - but I think you're right in bringing them up, at least to clarify what we are talking about in this thread.

I would definitely buy a RimWorld addon :)

If Tynan isn't going to be doing it, then we'll have mods for extra content, just as we do now.

I'd pay $20 to see a few enhancements to vanilla:
-A colonist bar at the top (like in EdB Interface)
-Colonists can carry both melee and ranged weapons.
-Ability to train combat skills (like a punching bag/gun range, or preferably a sparring system similar to DF)
-Ability to craft guns and armor (or at the very least, the low-tech variety)
-Many more random events

Wouldn't mind spending some more euro's on this.
My holy deity knows that I spend more monies on less fun stuff :D

Quote from: Murdo on September 02, 2015, 04:29:21 PM
What we're really talking about here is a sequel.

I would gladly pay for an expansion pack, but I would not fund a sequel. Not without a demo at least.

Why? Because Rimworld is already a game I love and an expansion pack would build on that base, bringing some large new features (like travelling on the world map and so on), whereas a whole new game would be rebuilt from the ground up. There's probably things Tynan would do differently now that he sees how the game works, and if those things happened to ruin my enjoyment of the game, I would be throwing money away on a game I wouldn't play. I don't want another Gratuitous Space Battles 2.

I'd be really curious how many copies of Rimworld have sold to date, and how much profit Ludeon has made from it :) I'm really not sure how many other players there are! The forums have 34,200 members and so I have to assume each one of those have likely bought the game, with probably a decent amount more who have just never bothered to register here. I can only imagine how much that would go up with a foray onto Steam, I bet that could easily double or triple, or more. Among my friends, Rimworld has achieved a very high place on a pedestal, and is considered a really, really cool game. Much like how FTL has achieved placement in the hall of nerd awesomeness.
The reason I say all this is that, with all the revenue that is surely going to pour in in the future, it might stand to reason that we could end up with a few additional content patches in the future, free of charge. I don't know how many people here play Terraria, but they have been rolling out free, huge refinement and content patches for a few years now, periodically, even though it's not making them any more money. But one thing it has done, is create enormous loyalty for the company. I genuinely love those guys, and I would eagerly support them with anything they choose to do in the future, and trust it to be a masterpiece. They love the fans, and it really shows!
That being said, I love Rimworld so much, I would certainly be up for splashing out $10 more for a decent content update, maybe one that contains something new and exciting, like procedural-generation for weapons and critters and other things.

On a slightly different note, one thing I would love, love to see, is Tynan's take on Spacebase DF-9, in a similar style to Rimworld, or maybe as some kind of extension. DF-9 would have been excellent with the right direction, it's very sad that it failed, as I love the concept.

QuoteI'd be really curious how many copies of Rimworld have sold to date

There used to be a counter for this on the webpage, last I saw it was around 90k, although now its been taken down. You can take a guess at the costs of a fairly lean dev team versus that revenue...

i would imagine steam would give the game a second wind, so further funding from us wouldn't be needed.

but saying that, i did up my contribution to name in game because i thought the game was good enough for the extra money, plus my name in a game is a cool thing to have :)

Quote from: akiceabear on September 04, 2015, 09:09:05 AM

QuoteI'd be really curious how many copies of Rimworld have sold to date

There used to be a counter for this on the webpage, last I saw it was around 90k, although now its been taken down. You can take a guess at the costs of a fairly lean dev team versus that revenue...

Yeah, I heard he lives in a rusty old hippy van that smells like weed, week old pizza, and freshly squeezed strippers for like 6 blocks when he opens the doors in the morning. Wait maybe it was the dumb and dumber dog mobile that he spent it all on...... hell I can't remember now. Ither way nobody said gamers where smart about what they spent their money on  ;D

Seeing what Tynan can do, I'd be very likely to chip in a couple more euro's. If the modding scene is still as alive and well as it currently is when the time comes around(since I usually mod the hell out of Rimworld) I'll be very likely to support Tynan with another 30 euro(or perhaps more) for another year, and probably would do so again if after that year a similar situation comes into existence. Like the guys from Terraria proved, there's always room for expansion.

Like the OP though if multiplayer is one of the main additions to the game, I'd find it a lot harder to convince myself to fund further development.

I've just tried getting back into Dwarf Fortress, and whilst it is indeed so much more detailed on many levels, it's also very very primitive in many ways. Big loopholes like animals not needing food, indoor areas not needing lighting, very basic dwarf needs... they all make me appreciate how much more intuitive and "together" Rimworld is. So with greater usability, visuals and much more satisfying and "sensible" gameplay, I'd much rather come and play Rimworld, even if there is much less Fun and much fewer crazy antics like you'll find in DF.

So yes, I'd pay more money for furthering Rimworld. Who knows, maybe it might evolve to the point where it becomes more than a simple "small survivor settlement" game!

My general rule of thumb when it comes to gaming is $1 for every hour of gameplay; really good/sharp/innovative games are worth more. I've played Rimworld for hundreds of hours, possibly more than a thousand, so I've easily gotten my money's worth. I would easily pay for the cost of another game to further significant development on this one.
That said, I am much more interested in seeing what Tynan will do next. I have been impressed with his creative vision, his dedication, his willingness to implement ideas from the fanbase, etc. I would rather put my $30, $50, whatever, towards something new from Tynan than keeping him locked into making incremental improvements (especially if he seems unwilling to hand over the keys to his "baby").
We have a creative mod community that can expand this game in so many amazing ways. Let Tynan go so he can create another world just as cool as this. I'm looking forward to it.

more i think about it, tynan's done so much to prove that he cares about the games he makes and he's also shown the quality of his work in sandbox style building games, i have to say, if he were to proclaim interest in something even just in the same sandbox/management genre would be enough to make me want to jump on board.

don't think it's realistic for a second, but dare to dream, what if tynan's passion project was transport tycoon or theme park, so much gusta, all over the place.

:)

Quote from: Shipwrecked_and_Comatosed on September 04, 2015, 07:14:36 AM
I'd be really curious how many copies of Rimworld have sold to date, and how much profit Ludeon has made from it :) I'm really not sure how many other players there are! The forums have 34,200 members and so I have to assume each one of those have likely bought the game, with probably a decent amount more who have just never bothered to register here...

Many on the forums have exposed themselves as pirates - either outright or accidentally. It's also, technically, considered piracy if your friend allowed you to use one of their downloads.

Adding that, I'd imagine the count to be a little lower.

Anyway, yeah - Steam will skyrocket the sales (and, thankfully, allow for updates without having to re-download every. single. time.), but Tynan decided to hold off until he comes back from his time off. Makes sense, honestly - it'd be taken poorly if he released it on Steam then proceeded to not support it for several months.

Quote from: TheSilencedScream on September 12, 2015, 08:09:43 PM
Many on the forums have exposed themselves as pirates - either outright or accidentally. It's also, technically, considered piracy if your friend allowed you to use one of their downloads.

Adding that, I'd imagine the count to be a little lower.

Tynan used to advertise total sales on the game website - it definitely exceeded 75,000 and may even have been 90,000 before he took the counter down.

Quote from: akiceabear on September 12, 2015, 10:18:13 PM

Quote from: TheSilencedScream on September 12, 2015, 08:09:43 PM
Many on the forums have exposed themselves as pirates - either outright or accidentally. It's also, technically, considered piracy if your friend allowed you to use one of their downloads.

Adding that, I'd imagine the count to be a little lower.

Tynan used to advertise total sales on the game website - it definitely exceeded 75,000 and may even have been 90,000 before he took the counter down.

Wow, now that's some spreading-around money :)

Fund another round of development: Ive gotten more fun from Rimworld than most other games so id contribute $50+
Must have feature to fund: aside from a lot of little things id like, id have to say...  More story generation features like politics, relationships, and some form of reproduction. 
Feature I wouldn't fund: multiplayer (the game doesnt need it.)

Why Not multiplayer, and no, I don't mean multiple people playing on the same map. I mean multiple people playing in the same world, with a trading and alliance system between people, the ability to eventually get strong enough to ally with friends and attack other people/ai factions, maybe use the mining system for mechanical defense, so that you dont run out of materials, but maybe limit its speed more, or limit how many you can have, and i think this owuld make rimworld amazing.

If you're talking like an expansion pack, I'd probably pay for a bit more.

Timing would be very important, and the game at that point would need to be "finished" by a reasonable definition.

Well this is a tricky one, I'm going to abstain.
But I'll explain why.
Part of me is in the Ayn rand camp, sweat of a mans brow and all that.

The other side of of me thinks this game is great mechanically, but lacks real polish and could do with more content. And in my mind it should be free, as charging for those extra's that would otherwise leave the game feeling incomplete. And make the difference between a great game and a cult classic.

But I feel a poll like this is divisive.
It could encourage a dev to cease adding content that would have been added regardless. But now will charge for it because X% of board members who would represent X% of the community would pay for it.
It would in essence mean that 25%> of the overall revenue would come from the addon, which would be hard to turn down.
But Id say that's a snide thing to do given that thanks to people joining dev on his journey he is now a multi millionaire, for the low low price of 3 years blood sweat and tears.
I say why not make it 4-5 years, make it a cult classic and become a legend?
I don't feel entitled, I just think some tact and perspective needs to be put on this.

Tynan's been pretty open about his design approach and philosophies. He's a developer because he enjoys it and because he's good at it.

Let's be super clear about money grabbing. If Tynan wanted to pursue this strategy, he's doing everything wrong. In fact, his first step should have been to go on Steam. But due to quality concerns and because he wants to develop in-game content above all else, Tynan didn't. This is a huge exception to lots of games like Towns and DF-9 that got thrown on Steam and abandoned. If you follow development closely you'll also see there's content Tynan's held back on because he's wanted to stabilize builds, and content he's removed because it turns out it simply wasn't up to his standards.

Tynan's in the industry for the long haul. We don't need to keep quiet for fear of disturbing his dev style or moral compass. Dangling some future DLC dollar over his head isn't going to change what Tynan does. So let's not worry about holding his feet to some obligatory fire because that won't do anything good.

Quote from: TynanI do wish I could provide a precise roadmap of what will go into the game and when it'll be done. That would be amazing. I just can't because I don't know! So I'm sort of stuck with a game where I know I want to add more stuff, but I really have no idea how much or how long it'll take. I'm not willing to take the huge risk of guessing what'll go in and promising it to everyone; I've been wrong in my predictions way, way too often. So that leaves us here, with people assuming all sorts of future paths, and me constantly trying to manage those unjustified expectations towards something more realistic. I guess this is pretty much the steady state of it; I don't really see a strategic pivot that would solve these problems without creating worse ones.

I'm seeing this with other games too. e.g the No Man's Sky guys seem to already know that they're going to get boned by people's self-assumed expectations of their game. It must be brutal. It's like what happened in this thread times a hundred.

i would be more than happy to fund an expansion to RW. However, i want to see RW finished first. i have seen and heard worrying things bandied about by members of the community in regards to Tynans view of completion and i wish to dispell my doubts towards that end first.

Obviously, its hard to make a judgement about that when i havent met the poor fellow, but RW's design is still lacking what i would consider intrinsic mechanics, from z levels to actual pawn relations and the capacity to actually explore the game rather than have all its pieces handed to me. Atm i just consider those things to be on the to do list, but the way ive seen some members of this community natter on without a clue what they are or arent talking about, i find it worrying to throw money out before version 1's release. Dont get me wrong, RW is a great game at the moment for what i paid for it and it was well worth it, but if it becomes what i hope it will ill be more than happy to throw the australian cost at the game, which is a not so normally easy to justify 100$, and then id pay for the expansion too. The game has massive potential, i want to see that paid off and im more than happy to pay for it when i see it.

If i dont see it. Well, ill make it my mission to some day develop that game :)

Quote from: REMworlder on October 01, 2015, 06:04:42 PM
Tynan's been pretty open about his design approach and philosophies. He's a developer because he enjoys it and because he's good at it.

Let's be super clear about money grabbing. If Tynan wanted to pursue this strategy, he's doing everything wrong. In fact, his first step should have been to go on Steam. But due to quality concerns and because he wants to develop in-game content above all else, Tynan didn't. This is a huge exception to lots of games like Towns and DF-9 that got thrown on Steam and abandoned. If you follow development closely you'll also see there's content Tynan's held back on because he's wanted to stabilize builds, and content he's removed because it turns out it simply wasn't up to his standards.

Tynan's in the industry for the long haul. We don't need to keep quiet for fear of disturbing his dev style or moral compass. Dangling some future DLC dollar over his head isn't going to change what Tynan does. So let's not worry about holding his feet to some obligatory fire because that won't do anything good.

I dig what your saying and yea Tynan is very open about his motivations. And yes he is a very responsible dev with regards to not using steam EA and prizing stability over releases for the hordes.

The point I was making was, 3 years working on a single project will batter your head. Given what is potentially an early get out clause and a sound financial decision offered by a percentage of the community. It will be tempting, It will take some soul searching as the direction in which the game moves from this point will never please everyone.
I never said anything about money grabbing or even insinuated as much. Taking an additional 25%> profit for less work is a sound financial decision, especially as it would add to what ludeon could do next. I look forward to see what Tynan will come out with next and regardless of what happens I would just like to see rimworld go down in history as a cult classic

QuoteThe point I was making was, 3 years working on a single project will batter your head. Given what is potentially an early get out clause and a sound financial decision offered by a percentage of the community. It will be tempting, It will take some soul searching as the direction in which the game moves from this point will never please everyone.

That is a fair point. Earlier in this thread (or another?) we discuss Tynan perhaps focusing more on management of another coder and design of game elements, which he said would free up his time considerably for other creative endeavors. No confirmation that will happen, just saying its been acknowledged.

I believe the majority of the future ground work will be by modders with Tynan/Iso being the ones to implement it fully in a future update.

If this development money went to Tynan, and a core group of top modders I think that start a new wave of development with everyone having a good time.

Maybe in a few years Rimworld will have 200 Z-Levels xD! With inter steller exploration and combat.