Making money from the Dark Mod

[Macsen]

This site got me thinking. Since you guys have slaved away at this mod for quite some years now, I was wondering how you could go about making money from the Dark Mod.

 

Obviously you couldn't sell the game, because you don't have the rights to the engine. But is there anything stopping you selling all the 3D models, textures and whatnot you've created? Presumably these would work with any game and engine, and are all of very high quality.

 

Don't know how you'd split the money between you though.

[Springheel]

Charging people for the assets would kind of defeat the purpose of creating a toolkit, which is to encourage as many people as possible to make as many high quality missions as possible.

 

Playing good missions is reward enough for all the work, at least for me.

[New Horizon]

Agreed Spring. I wouldn't feel right charging for the toolkit, I think it would discourage people from even using it.

[Macsen]

Of course I don't mean charging for the toolkit, but charging companies who need a bunch of textures and models for their games/images but don't have the time or the staff to create them. You could make your content free to use in the Dark Mod but charge companies to use them for commercial purposes.

[Baddcog]

Well, theoretically YES. There are sites that you can sell/buy models so as a modeler there's a chance to make money freelance like that.

 

However, the issues there are:

 

1st, I've created most of my stuff for Darkmod (a few exceptions were T2 or Morrowind which I ported over). Most companies wouldn't want to buy stuff that's gonna be freely distributed anyway.

 

2nd, if they did you run into other issues. The main reason most companies don't go this route. Consistancy. Say they buy my chest model. Another artist somewhere makes a bed, someone else makes a closet. Most likely none of them would look good together unless they were all textured the same at least.

 

Then you get into formats. Alot of them can be converted but something weird usually happens.

 

3ds to bin for T2. all intersecting polies get split, increasing polycount. Some games can have 'floating' [intersecting] polys and it's no big deal. Not many other games can use bin though, it was an LGS thing. It can be turned back to 3ds but is always messy afterwards.

 

ase, 3ds max's format. Can be used in Doom3, but not any other games I know. Need certian versions of max to reopen (if someone has made importer 'cause discreet doesn't).

 

lwo, lightwave. Doom3 can use. We use both, unfortunately I can do stuff with ase but not lwo. Springheel can work with lwo but not ase...

 

.mesh, Ogre. vmt, Hammer. nif, Morrowind, Oblivion...

 

Then each format requires certian material files/formats/compilers/exporters... While most new games use shaders similar to Doom3's they all are written differently.

 

Some games allow kf anims, some allow IK anims, some allow both, some allow vertex anims. T2 had it's own very specific ways to animate.

 

It's getting coomplicated to make models for one game engine, trying to make them universal would be a major pain and probably kill any profit that could be made anyway.

[Crispy]

Some companies (including myself) do use stock art quite a bit. Even large game companies will do it for minor objects; it saves them time and money, which is very important for them as they're usually under a lot of pressure. And as long as you provide it in a reasonably common format you should be OK - e.g. 3ds. You could also provide the original source file (e.g. .max if you use 3DS max, .mb if you use Maya, .lwo if you use Lightwave); if you use something reasonably common then some people will be able to use it. There's also the possibility of additionally targeting a common game engine, like Torque. Generally these stock art places tend to just provide some common formats and from then on it's the buyer's responsibility to make sure they can make use of them.

 

The freely distributed thing might be an issue for some people, but I bet you would get some takers.

 

Having said all that, you wouldn't make a lot of money. If you want to make a profit based on your TDM work, you might consider just using it as a portfolio item and applying for a job at a workplace that uses your skills. That includes but is not limited to game companies.

[New Horizon]

There is also the question of who would get the money? I'm sure there are a few modelers who are no longer with us that would have issue with us making a profit from their work. Their agreement with us is that we can share their work freely in the mod, not sell it.

 

Money...it's just bloody evil anyway...so lets forget this came up.

[Crispy]

Well, I was speaking more to the POV of a modeller or texturer who wanted to sell stuff they'd made for TDM. I'm not necessarily saying that it'd be a good idea, just pointing out that it would be possible.

 

It would of course be illegal and unethical to sell something that someone else had made without their explicit permission (copyright infringement much?).

[Domarius]

Well I'm only doing this to play awesome thief missions - this is a very special voluntary project because it's simply allowing people to make better versions of the FMs I already love to play.

[HappyCheeze]

Commercial games are the canvas,

 

Mods are the artwork

 

:-)

 

The whole modder mind set is what keeps these projects alive.

 

Its like having one damn good hobby

[SneaksieDave]

I've no personal interest in making money off this (even if it would only be about $40 ). It's not true to modding spirit, anyway. It would damage perception of it.

[Macsen]

There is also the question of who would get the money?

You could reinvest the profits back into the mod, so that you can host more missions and content for fans to download. I presume hosting hunderds of giga bytes of dark mod stuff oce this mod is released is going to cost something.

[Komag]

That "website value" site is weird, I don't know how they really can figure their values, just seems to be based on traffic hits and a guestimate of ad revenue I guess. My Keep sites are apparantly worth about $1500 each (as if anyone would want to buy them - in realistic marketability aspect they are worth nothing). TTLG.com is worth nearly $30k. Google.com is "only" worth some hundreds of millions. Going with a rough standard of 10% capitalization market return demand, that $30k value implies an annual return of $3,000 profit (presumably in ad revenue), so if Dan isn't clearing $250/mo then the TTLG value is WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

 

As far as making money with the Dark Mod, I don't see how it could really be done anyway, other than a few pittance $40 here, $60 there, over time maybe a couple hundred bucks, and for what? To divy up we each get $15? To invest in someone's new hard drive? Nah.

 

Even though I personally don't see anything wrong with it (I don't think money is evil at all!), I know that tons of people, especially typical modding community folks, would feel that the mod would become "tainted" with the filthy lucre and this would only hurt and not be anywhere close to worth it for the tiny amount gained.

[Tels]

You could reinvest the profits back into the mod, so that you can host more missions and content for fans to download. I presume hosting hunderds of giga bytes of dark mod stuff oce this mod is released is going to cost something.

 

Not anymore with bittorrent. I can move 200 Gbyte traffic a month for about 25 US$ - that is enough for a big website and the tracker traffic and a few hundred downloads, too.

[Crispy]

That "website value" site is weird

I think it's basically a publicity stunt. Obviously it's based on heavily flawed data.

 

Even though I personally don't see anything wrong with it (I don't think money is evil at all!), I know that tons of people, especially typical modding community folks, would feel that the mod would become "tainted" with the filthy lucre and this would only hurt and not be anywhere close to worth it for the tiny amount gained.

Agreed. Money is not evil, but neither is it appropriate for this arena.

[kohan69]

why not just put some simple ads on this site/forum?

[Komag]

probably because ads ARE evil (and don't bring in much $ anyway)

[The Anti-Valentine]

Ads are considered a little dodgy by some people, but you have to ask yourself this question: are you comfortable with making money from your site? If the answer is 'no' over and over again, then keep it free of ads and whatnot.

 

I have a blog on a network of sorts, http://hubpages.com/_3tzb0unem02ru/profile/Anti-Valentine and I call it my life survival advice blog. I also have plans to start my own site sometime. I have ads from Google, Amazon and Kontera on there. With the amazon ads I try to get products that are actually relevant to what I'm writing about.

 

I don't just have that blog to make money, I also like to write. I also write fan-fiction and submit it to this forum and the circle as well.

 

Ads on Dark mod could work out, the circle has ads by Google. Contextual ads by Google aren't always the best though, sometimes they aren't even relevant at all.

 

If you could get ads that are relevant to thief,games or medieval stuff that people are actually interested in, though...

 

I've read numerous stories of people trying to get a hold of thief, or their disk broke, or they've never even played it, and they want to buy it.