Supremacy at Sea - WW1 - cancelled
eddys...@hotmail.com
I know some people in here were looking forward to this, but it's not
going to happen - the game got cancelled so the developer can spend
100% of his time on fixing SAS-WW2
http://forums.navalwarfare.net/showpost.php?p=36377&postcount=9
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Vincenzo Beretta
<eddys...@hotmail.com> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:fc90d98e-89ee-4123...@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com...
Hmmm... I appreciate the extra effort being put in SAS-WWII, since it is a
game with lots of potential. But why *cancel* SAS-WWI instead of postponing
it until SAS-WWII is fixed? I mean, fixing the engine and then not
developing it further looks like a 50% wasted to me.
Antway, can we have a sort of "Thunder at Sea Upgraded" as the operational
engine for WC-NAW, in the meanwhile? :^D
Vincenzo Beretta
> game with lots of potential. But why *cancel* SAS-WWI instead of
> postponing it until SAS-WWII is fixed? I mean, fixing the engine and then
> not developing it further looks like a 50% wasted to me.
>
> Antway, can we have a sort of "Thunder at Sea Upgraded" as the operational
> engine for WC-NAW, in the meanwhile? :^D
Well, here is the scoop:
http://forums.navalwarfare.net/showpost.php?p=36391&postcount=21
Short story: not enough support from the community (I think NWS means $$$)
to justify further development of the engine. However the work on SAS-WWII
will not stop.
eddys...@hotmail.com
The developer quit his daytime job for 2 years in order to work on the
game - so it's quite understandable that now that it's a part-time
thing again the best option is to focus on getting game #1 in a
playable state.
However, what flashed through what's left of my mind after the new
year's festivities is this : "wargames don't get a second chance"
If you blow it on release, word gets around and no matter what you do
to make it right through patches, your window of opportunity has
passed. I've seen this a couple of times already and the reverse is
equally true : "get it right the first time" and word of mouth will
create a momentum and you'll sell a lot, even if it is a niche game
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
eddys...@hotmail.com
wrote:
> "get it right the first time" and word of mouth will
> create a momentum and you'll sell a lot, even if it is a niche game
Did some calculating.
The developer worked 2 years full-time and 6 years part-time on the
game.
By my calculations that's around 8000 hours (minimum). At $7.25/hour,
the US minimum wage, he needed a revenue of $58,000. Developers
normally get around a 50% cut of the sales, in this case maybe
slightly more so we're looking at at least $100,000 in sales to break
even - more or less.
At $50 that's 2000 sales required.
2000 sales is do-able, but that's a hit game. So basically the
developer was going for hit or broke.
You've got to admire the guts, but shake your head at the wisdom of it
all. Clearly this is a case of biting off more than one could chew and
a more focussed approach, a smaller, tighter game, would have made a
lot more sense.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Giftzwerg
@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com>, eddys...@hotmail.com says...
> Did some calculating.
>
> The developer worked 2 years full-time and 6 years part-time on the
> game.
>
> By my calculations that's around 8000 hours (minimum). At $7.25/hour,
> the US minimum wage, he needed a revenue of $58,000. Developers
> normally get around a 50% cut of the sales, in this case maybe
> slightly more so we're looking at at least $100,000 in sales to break
> even - more or less.
>
> At $50 that's 2000 sales required.
>
> 2000 sales is do-able, but that's a hit game. So basically the
> developer was going for hit or broke.
>
> You've got to admire the guts, but shake your head at the wisdom of it
> all. Clearly this is a case of biting off more than one could chew and
> a more focussed approach, a smaller, tighter game, would have made a
> lot more sense.
Plus, the nature of development is that the payoff only comes at the end
of the development cycle, not during the development cycle. It's
exactly like being an aspiring novelist; you have to balance the
potential end-game profit against the difficulty of surviving on zero
funds until the work is complete.
--
Giftzwerg
***
"[W]hat I can't wrap my head around is that it took the President four
days to acknowledge what he termed a 'catastrophic' national security
failure, but Cheney criticizes the administration's handling of the war
on terror and they have a rapid response on the White House blog in a
matter of hours? Priorities!"
- Mark Hemingway
Mike Kreuzer
news:fc90d98e-89ee-4123...@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com...
Bum.
Regards,
Mike Kreuzer
www.mikekreuzer.com