Mmm shiny.

Last week I proposed a premium subscription for Captain Forever (working title), and the response was overwhelming… ly negative. Which is great. Without feedback I’d have followed my plan to untimely financial demise, so thanks for saving me folks. Let’s see if we can fix this thing.

Captain Forever will be a free, self contained game. That’s the dream. But I think it has the potential to be much bigger, and I want to get it there. I’m going to need support in this endeavour. I thought subscriptions could be the answer, but I don’t want to trap people in recurring payments, I don’t want to trap myself supporting an unsustainably small player base, and I don’t want to upset people by changing what they’ve purchased. I want, y’know, good things. So let’s try something else.

How would you feel about a series of games? Each would be a new universe, a new challenge, a new experience. I’m thinking ~$2 each, monthly release, gradually building on the core game as I go. People can buy whichever installments they like. No subscriptions, no forced updates, just cheap awesome fun.

What do you think? Is this a better model? Sounding board GO!

<3 Farbs

Steve Swink’s spaceship is better than Kyle’s

The Farbs Cave is abuzz with excitement. I’m playtesting my current game, which means it’s nearly finished. Every day I post a new version to nice people who play it and send me feedback. I sort this into tasks, future tasks, and obscenities, and set to work implementing everything in the first pile. By the end of the day the game is ~10% better. The next day I wake up, turn on my computer, and run the whole cycle again. At this stage in the process every change has a huge impact, and seeing my game improve this quickly is incredibly motivating. It’s easily the most exciting part of game development. My only sadness come from knowing it must end. I must cut the apron strings, steel my gaze, send this puppy off to market and plant a new cucumber. Or must I? Perhaps I could CAPTAIN this feedback loop… FOREVER.

You see, the underpant-gnome chart for game development usually looks like this:

1) Make game
2) Sell game
3) Profit

But what if I tried this?

1) Make game indefinitely
2) Sell subscriptions to indefinitely developed game
3) ???

If I charged a subscription to play my complete but constantly improving game, my game would improve constantly and I would earn money through subscriptions. What’s more, I’d stay in the fast paced go-getting world of the feedback loop. I’m not yet sure about this plan, but it’s very tempting. Should I try it?

<3 Farbs