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Steam: Greenlight


PPoe

Greenlight  

93 members have voted

  1. 1. when we shall start presenting TDM on Steam Greenlight?

    • Imediately, classified as the "concept". We will change that on "playable" after going standalone. We need to take advantage of the attention drawn to the greenlight.
    • After going standalone. We dont want to present something that cant be playable at the moment (via Steam).
    • Never. The competition is just too strong.
    • Imediately, classified as the "playable" (DOOM 3 Steam version required). We need to take advantage of the attention drawn to the greenlight.


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I will say this much... If we do this sooner rather than later (my vote is to still wait for standalone, but if there's a decision to do it sooner anyway), then I think we need to at least get the Doom3 material out of our release package (what Springheel is posting about in the Can You Help threads, IIRC just a few AI) before we have outside people scrutinizing what's in our game and asking questions. It's just ... then we don't even have to explain ourselves about anything. I think we're still okay releasing 1.08 on our own and everything, but getting Steam involved could give them an excuse to question it anyway... And after that point we're D3 free as birds and no one can even second-guess it. Note, this is not waiting for full on standalone, only gutting the few D3 things left from our download, a much closer goal.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After years of reading and watching the progress of this mod, i finally decided to share my thoughts. First of all u did an amazing job with this "mod" (mod is quite insulting for this masterpiece ;) ) and i really hope a standalone release will finally give this the attention it really deserves. But there are some concerns i still have about this. Greenlight is a big chance, cause a free to play release of such high quality will attract many people, even those who might have never played the old games. The problem with this is, that the first release will already make the people judge about it for the future, and if it doesnt fit their expectations, they might never touch it again no matter what is going to be improved ( a bad thing for a progressing project like this). In my opinion, a campaign of good quality, which should be included in the main files and not be a separate download (reason for this is that most people wont accept fanmade stuff until they are convinced of the game as a whole), will set the popularity of this game. If the "official" campaign is not finished any time soon and you guys plan on a standalone release before, you should atleast make a list (maybe a vote?) of the 10 most popular/best designed/most enjoyable FMs and include them in the release package as "official" stuff so new player won´t have any concerns

about their quality (commercial purposes B) ). I hope you understand my concerns, cause i think we all share the goal of giving TDM its well deserved attention.

Edited by Cookie
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the first release will already make the people judge about it for the future, and if it doesnt fit their expectations, they might never touch it again no matter what is going to be improved

^This.

 

I think this is likely the source of the TTLG problem as well, since most of them likely tried it many years ago, and they are still today quoting old problems in their complaints that have long since been fixed.

 

So basically, the real question is when will the mod be truly ready for public consumption. Or perhaps, at what stage of TDM development will the public be ready to consume it?

Edited by ungoliant
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TDM is not an operating system. There is no large commitment, lurning curve or time-requirement necessary to try a new version. If people were unhappy with the initial release and yet unwilling to download a free, automatically installed update that addresses 98% of the issues, it really is their loss.

 

There was a poll a wile ago to find out what peoples' top five missions were. Not sure if the winners are going to be included in the mod.

Edited by lost_soul

--- War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.

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  • 10 months later...

Just to bring this topic back to mind, are there still plans for a Greenlight release with 2.0?

 

Although I already wrote my concerns here, I still think a Steam release might be

an overall good idea, if the release package is well planned and full of polished content

(a thing I won´t doubt^^)

Edited by Cookie
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Just to bring this topic back to mind, are there still plans for a Greenlight release with 2.0?

 

Not that I'm aware of.

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I suggest considering trying to get TDM 2.0 on multiple services and not just Steam.

 

I know Desura has several free games available on their site, so getting it on there might alert a lot of there users to TDM's existence. (how many I don't know)

 

GamersGate also has a few free games, but not very many. They did test a portion of their service specifically for free games a while back and expressed interest of bringing it back and/or expanding on it, but that's a bit of an unknown.

 

In any case, I notice a lot of indie titles seem to have an easier time getting on Desura or GamersGate than they do trying to get on Steam.

 

GOG.com also has a few free games, though not as many so that'll probably be a more of a longshot. However, seeing as The Dark Mod is heavily inspired by Thief there's a slight chance that they might feel it fits might, they have Tyrian 2000 there after all.

Edited by Professor Paul1290
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  1. I know Desura has several free games available on their site
  2. GamersGate also has a few free games, as well as GOG.com also has a few free games,

  1. As the mod has a moddb account already, Desura is a very logical choice.
  2. Good to know, I will get nbohr on the case! as he is our online PR guy!

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If we were to go that far, why not turn TDM into a commercial game? I've been reading a lot about the buisness side of games, and a book that inspired me recently was Masters of Doom. It's a non-fiction narrative about iD software and talks about how John Carmack and John Romero, a couple of college dropouts, created Wolfenstein 3D in their free time on computers they "borrowed" from their employer. They bypassed the regular retail channels by using the shareware model of giving away the first episode of a 6 episode game, and having people pay them directly for the remaining 6. They were making 90 cents to the dollar, and pulling in $100,000 a month. Doom made them millionaires.

So how many of you would like to do this full time? As I said in another post and as Dunedain said above me, The Dark Mod is a very polished game platform. FM's in this genre are unique because they can be self contained missions or full blown campaigns. Microtransactions are all around us now...we have cell phone apps selling for $3 to $20. Games like Lord of the Rings Online are free to play, but allow players to buy extra content. Movies are available on demand for $5. Most console games have DLC now. If a mission provides high entertainment value, why shouldn't we charge a small fee so we can develop those missions full time?

We have the technology to create a virtual video game studio, and it could be run as a worker's cooperative. So instead of working for the studio, everyone who contributes would be a co-owner and be paid a precentage based on asset usage. So the modellers, texture artists, sound engeneers, and voice actors would be paid a percentage for every mission that uses their work. The programmers would also get a share, as would those in charge of designing the promotional materials (trailers, GoogleAds, sending press releases about upcoming missions to media websites)

We've seen what this community is capable of creating in their free time for no pay...imagine what we could create if we were getting paid to work on it full time. And also imagine the kind of press we would get (and designers we would attract) if we also marketed the game as a complete entry point for new game designers to learn on and build a portfolio while getting paid a residual income?

I think the mod is ready the spotlight and you all deserve a reward for all this hard work. I don't think it would be too hard to get some venture capital from a publisher to help ease the transition to full time development of a game based entirely around DLC. It all comes down to how many people would be interested in creating some form of buisness structure. As for myself, I think I'm going to start writing the tutorials to cover every menu and feature of DR while you all talk amongst yourselves.

I have liked the idea of TDM going commercial for a while now. I haven't really dared to voice it because I thought that there would be many people who would be angry over such a suggestion, because they want TDM for free. I personally would like those who work so hard on TDM to be compensated for their efforts. I would gladly pay for TDM even though I've already gotten it for free. Like AngelWolf said, Imagine what could be created if you guys were getting paid to work on it full time. Unfortunately it seems like the "red tape" might be too much to overcome.

 

Can anyone tell me how I can donate money for TDM please? (Can I use Paypal?)

Edited by SirGen
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If you read the posts directly after that, you'll see that the devs have no desire to have money involved with TDM. It's the most damaging thing that could possibly happen to a project like this.

 

The only way I'd support money changing hands is people chipping in to offset the cost of hosting the website and domain names (currently handled by greebo), or some other TDM related cost.

 

People who want to show their appreciation can do so with positive feedback here, or word of mouth advertising around the web.

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This has been discussed before. Everyone wanting to honour the personal effort from all he creators and mappers who built the game and gave it flesh, should a- play it, enjoy it, let the team know and also tell their friends about it, b- get your hands on the material, and use your free time to make your own mission/contribution to the mods community, c- someone gave this suggestion before, any money you would like to spend you could use to buy professional assets and give them to the community, maybe to help the mod get full standalone quicker. Im not part of the team, but thats what I have done/would do if I wanted to contribute.

 

Ps: Springheel beat me to it.

Edited by RPGista
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@Springheel and RPGista

 

Thanks for the feedback. If the those responsible for TDM are happy doing this great work for free, than I'm happy about it too. So how exactly would I go about sending funds to help pay for hosting the website, domain names, buying professional assets, and other TDM related costs?

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At the moment, greebo is hosting the website, and usually posts when the rent is nearly due (though he's going to be passing that job to someone else after 2.0 goes out). The others would be on an "as needed" basis, I guess. Thus far we've never attempted to raise money for professional assets, though I've toyed with the idea of getting professional voice actors before.

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Is there a forum where I can stay posted on things like who to send the money to, and when it is needed?

 

Anything like that would probably be posted here.

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At the moment, greebo is hosting the website, and usually posts when the rent is nearly due (though he's going to be passing that job to someone else after 2.0 goes out). The others would be on an "as needed" basis, I guess. Thus far we've never attempted to raise money for professional assets, though I've toyed with the idea of getting professional voice actors before.

I'm sure it varys, but on average, how much does it cost to hire a pro voice actor? Hell, if the Thief 4 devs don't want Stephen Russell, why not hire him? ;) Edited by SirGen
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Im still willing to take care abouth greenlight, Ive posted the prewiews here before. If you are willing me to do that, Ill be glad to help. It is one from a few things i can do to help the mod. I do not push for that, but if team decides that greenlight is a good promotion, you can send me a message and Ill take care of it.

He was sneeking silently in the night, moonlight was his enemy.

(Im not a native speaker, sorry for all miscleanous caused by my english..)

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  • 2 weeks later...

TDM isn't a money-making / -collecting type of game, but how about $10 worth of work for FMs? ;)

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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