JEMC said:
vivster said:
I think scaling the prices up is completely beside the point. What it should do is scaling down. While there are publishers who put out a huge amount of games at once, most of them are just one timers who are looking for a quick buck. So the very first game should be the highest fee. My proposition is 1000$.
If you're serious about making games and want to earn a living with them, then 1000$ is tiny. Not to mention, Steam will refund this sum if your game sells a certain threshold. If you make a good game and it still fails to sell, there was probably another issue with it and you can either try again or hang up your dream or try to use other outlets. For example creating a free game and publicize it on itch.io to gain some fame beforehand. Making games is a business and it's absolutely fine to undergo huge risks when trying to create a business. Everyone else does that too and it weeds out people who shouldn't run a business in the first place.
I don't even think you would need a fee for more games if your first game was a verifiable success. But if your first game bombs it seems fair to demand the same amount of capital for the second.
I do not believe any developer who is passionate and serious about starting a business will be deterred by a small entry fee. And those that are not deterred are the ones that will in the end make the good games.
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I think $1,000 is too much, specially for small indie games developed more because of passion rather than business. I doubt we would have had games like Stardew Valley, Banished, Axiom Verge, Cave Story, etc. if such a fee were in place.
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The fuck? The creators of the games you mentioned could put up easily that fee. Again, ever heard of loans? We're not talking about a million dollars here. We're talking about money that's above teenage pranksters and way way below what actual developers spend to create a game.
In the context of building a game and selling it on the biggest storefront there is $1000 is nothing. It's only a barrier when you don't care to actually make a game, which is where all the trash comes from.
It would be fine if there was a program for developers to let Valve review their game beforehand and lower if not scratch the fee for them. But we're talking about Valve actually proactively doing something and that's just not physically possible. So "money barrier of entry" it is.
