Would you fund another round of RimWorld development?

Started by akiceabear, August 29, 2015, 01:56:04 AM

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How much would you contribute for 1 more year of full time development after RimWorld 1.0?

$0
18 (7.8%)
$1-10
43 (18.6%)
$11-20
57 (24.7%)
$21-30
56 (24.2%)
$31-50
28 (12.1%)
$50+
29 (12.6%)

Total Members Voted: 231

strata8

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.

postm00v

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.

TheSilencedScream

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: Topper on August 31, 2015, 03:33:25 AM
is the sledgehammer compatible with the romance mod?
Only in Rimworld.

akiceabear

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.

isistoy

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
<Stay on the scene like a State machine>

strata8

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.

Too-DAMN-Much

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.

Lady Wolf

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.

Silvador

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

LouisTBR

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!
Only in RimWorld is the phrase "31 Heavily-Armed Siegers are currently bombing your base" preferable to "50 manhunting squirrels are attacking your colony"

Murdo

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).



akiceabear

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.

Selgald

Deutsches RimWorld Let's Play: YouTube Selgald

Kookas

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

Bohb Daishi

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