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« on: June 05, 2006, 03:08:32 PM »
Hi JustLuke
I posted the same question, and so have others in the past. He always gives the same answer, 'email him.'
He just does not seem to understand that few people are going to commit themselves to years of work on a game without some sort of contract laying out the terms of price for the game engine. And that is hard to do when you have not even started work on the project yet.
I would like to add that Dream Fall was just released, and it uses a 3D engine. In the future all professional adventure games will being using the 3D engine, not the 2D 1/2 engine. It is the standard now whether we like it or not. The 2D game engine is only for Indie game developers now. I doubt than any professional game maker is going to use a 2D or 2D 1/2 engine.
I have done a little looking into units sold for the average Indie game, and it comes out to about 300 units if the game is poor and about 1000 units if the game is good. Of course your game could always be a sleeper, but you can't plan your game profits on a lucky sleeper. I do not have figures to back this up. It is mostly from questions on forums and a few email questions.
I am getting a little off topic here. I guess what I am saying is, the 2D or 2D 1/2 WME game engine is being marketed to Indie developers (not professionals) on the base of 1000 units sold. (under normal conditions) I think he would be better off charging a fixed price based on this information, or on whatever he thinks it should be.
How can a Indie game maker know how many units his game will sell before he even starts? What would be the point in emailing him? What am I going to say, "I would like to make a game with your game engine, and I have no idea how many units it will sell because I have not even started yet."
Or let me approach this in another direction. I do not think any professional is going to make a Syberia or The Longest Journey using a 2D ½ engine in the future. If MYST V and Dream Fall give us any indication of market direction, it means professional adventure games are going to made with 3D engines. The only people who are going to use the 2D ½ engine are amateurs game makers, like myself.
Now if you go to a professional game engine site, they WILL ask you to email them for a price, but most of us are not professionals. And I doubt than any professionals will use a 2D ½ game engine. Most, if not all, game makers interested in the WME engine will be amateurs. And most of them will not email for a price because most of us have not made a game and have no idea what we are doing, and have no idea if we will finish our game or know how many units it will sell if we did.
I am guessing that most amateurs, when they see this
