PASTY'S PROFILE

The information that comprises the pages I skipped (the postmortem) can be found here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/2219/blog/9795/

Thanks for watching!

Edit: I'd also like to note that the calculation for programming expenses does not include donated labor; applicable programming expenses are tools and licenses only. I've estimated my personal labor donation to Alcarys Complex at $90,000, working an average of 20 hours per week, at competitive rates of $30/hr. So for you programmers who think that you can bootstrap an RPG for $5,000, know that you're going to be donating your labor, possibly to a massive degree.

author=alterego
Regarding the kickstarter thing, the demo is a nice idea, but a game can still flop and the developer can run away with the money even after that, so there's really no warranty. I don't know, maybe some other factors need to be taken into account, like a full disclosure of the project's budget, or procuring a project does not use copyrighted material, etc...

Kickstarter promotion on this site should have to go through the submission queue, honestly. Going through the submission queue would kill a few birds with one stone:

• If a user wants to promote their campaign here, they could attach it to a gamepage
• This means the project would have to have a gamepage, so that means it should already be approved once (this means - crucially - that the game has to exist)
• A project that's approved to have a Kickstarter campaign attached to it could have a Kickstarter link on the sidebar where all the game info is
• A project that's denied will have to add a download, appeal in some other way, or advertise elsewhere. If they're a fraudster, RMN had no part in it and hey, the system works!
• This also means that Kickstarter discussion could be centralized to a game's gamepage. It also means that since it's gamepage discussion, forum topics about the campaign should be locked and that Kickstarter discussion of independent projects on the forums should only be approved on a case-by-case basis instead of approved until in violation of the forum rules.

Discussion of certain matters like budget, risks/challenges could take place in those contexts. I don't think there should be hard and fast rules like furnishing an entire budget beforehand (depending on how detailed you want to get, this can be impractical as inevitable costs come up during development), but the project creator should be able to back up their words with facts and figures. If the community doesn't feel like the facts provided are up to snuff, the gamepage can be a centralized location to voice those concerns. It would get buzz much like anything else would get buzz on the site and would act as a signal booster in the event that someone's trying to pull a fast one.

In summation, the stakes are higher for all parties if Kickstarter discussion takes place on a game's gamepage.

This is just my input as someone who's had a Kickstarter campaign funded and successfully delivered on the promises I made to my backers.

P.S: I strongly support the inclusion of a strict anti-harassment policy, so it's nice that y'all got around to that. Many other sites don't.

author=UPRC
This is why I get irritated when the little guys like us take to kickstarter.

i don't think it's that. some of us know how to manage a project and some of us don't. unfortunately separating the two is sort of difficult, especially on a semi-closed site like kickstarter where negative criticism is blocked out via a paywall. a good manager offers facts, statistics, and an overall project plan. most importantly, a good manager keeps their backers UPDATED.

i think a big problem is that it looks like the thing is being coded from scratch??? psy_wombats is still working on stuff, but man, if that's the case, it's going to be sloooow, and slow periods are the truest test of whether a kickstarter results in delivery success or delivery failure. you NEED to keep your backers updated, especially during slow periods.

as it is, i'll see if i can get in touch somehow.

The offer to get Game Maker Studio Standard for Free has officially expired as of today.

Hope you got while the getting was good!

it's really slash-and-burn up at YoYo headquarters lately. wish they'd take the same kind of attitude with Master Collection sometimes.