stevem@hpvcla.HP.COM (Steve Miller) (02/02/88)
A friend mine and I have been working on a game for the Mac for about a
year. The game is very similar to Robot Wars for the Apple ][ which I
liked very much. It is a programmers game in which you program a robot with
a BASIC like language and pitch your robot(program) against other
people's robots. The best robot wins, and up to five robots can battle it out
at the same time. It is quite fun to watch your "Program" battle it out with
other peoples programs. The game is lacking only the robot test bench (from
the Apple ][ version), but every other feature of the game has been greatly
improved with many new features added.
We are currently planning to sell it as shareware for $10 as apposed to
distributing it through the normal retail channel for several reasons:
1) We are programmers, not businessmen. (OK, I'm actually just a little lazy!)
Also there are the sticky contractua agreements we have with the companies
we work with!! Of course, instead of marketing it ourselves, we could try
to sell it to an established company, but there are other reasons for using
the shareware approach:
2) This game is best when used/owned by several people and a lower per user
cost will make this more likely. At $10 crack, a group could do
this very affordably compared to $30-40 a shot, this will probably make the
game more successful.
(I'm making a naive assumption about shareware honesty here)
3) The game, although polished and quite refined in the eyes of its creator,
may not have all the spiffy graphics, sound effects, and title graphics
that established software companies would require me to add to make
the game more maketable. Also they would require a certain amount
of artistic control over the game. ("Add this!", "Change that!", etc..) I
may not have as much control over what is done to future versions of the
game.
4) And lastly: Although I don't know yet, I expect that there is going to be
a certain amount of satisfaction from hearing from the users of the
game directly. (Getting feedback in the mail etc..) Fan Mail!! :-)
After reading some of the notes on shareware, I feel like there is some
resentment towards people that release shareware. I plan to provide good
"on disk" documentation and have the game fully debugged before releasing it.
How do most people feel about my proposal to releasing "Robot Warriors" as
shareware. I would especailly like to here from people who have released
shareware themselves. Do users respect the shareware policy? Any good
ideas on maximizing the distribution of the initial release? Is $10 too much,
too little, just right!?
Also, for people who are familiar with Robot Wars on the Apple ][:
Do you consider the test-bench feature of the apple ][ version
very important? (the edit,compile,run cycle of my version
is less than 10 seconds, even for large programs)
Any other last minute feature requests?
(actually, not exactly last minute, more like last 2 months.
Jee Wiz, I could even have my own VaporWare!! VaporShare!! :-))
Thanks,
Steven Miller UNIX mail: ihnp4!hpfcla!hpvclsm!stevemstevem@hpvcla.HP.COM (Steve Miller) (02/03/88)
A friend mine and I have been working on a game for the Mac for about a
year. The game is very similar to Robot Wars for the Apple ][ which I
liked very much. It is a programmers game in which you program a robot with
a BASIC like language and pitch your robot(program) against other
people's robots. The best robot wins, and up to five robots can battle it out
at the same time. It is quite fun to watch your "Program" battle it out with
other peoples programs. The game is lacking only the robot test bench (from
the Apple ][ version), but every other feature of the game has been greatly
improved with many new features added.
We are currently planning to sell it as shareware for $10 as apposed to
distributing it through the normal retail channel for several reasons:
1) We are programmers, not businessmen. (OK, I'm actually just a little lazy!)
Also there are the sticky contractua agreements we have with the companies
we work with!! Of course, instead of marketing it ourselves, we could try
to sell it to an established company, but there are other reasons for using
the shareware approach:
2) This game is best when used/owned by several people and a lower per user
cost will make this more likely. At $10 crack, a group could do
this very affordably compared to $30-40 a shot, this will probably make the
game more successful.
(I'm making a naive assumption about shareware honesty here)
3) The game, although polished and quite refined in the eyes of its creator,
may not have all the spiffy graphics, sound effects, and title graphics
that established software companies would require me to add to make
the game more maketable. Also they would require a certain amount
of artistic control over the game. ("Add this!", "Change that!", etc..) I
may not have as much control over what is done to future versions of the
game.
4) And lastly: Although I don't know yet, I expect that there is going to be
a certain amount of satisfaction from hearing from the users of the
game directly. (Getting feedback in the mail etc..) Fan Mail!! :-)
After reading some of the notes on shareware, I feel like there is some
resentment towards people that release shareware. I plan to provide good
"on disk" documentation and have the game fully debugged before releasing it.
How do most people feel about my proposal to releasing "Robot Warriors" as
shareware. I would especailly like to here from people who have released
shareware themselves. Do users respect the shareware policy? Any good
ideas on maximizing the distribution of the initial release? Is $10 too much,
too little, just right!?
Also, for people who are familiar with Robot Wars on the Apple ][:
Do you consider the test-bench feature of the apple ][ version
very important? (the edit,compile,run cycle of my version
is less than 10 seconds, even for large programs)
Any other last minute feature requests?
(actually, not exactly last minute, more like last 2 months.
Jee Wiz, I could even have my own VaporWare!! VaporShare!! :-))
One last note: I'm having trouble mailing to people on the net, so
if you write to me, I may not be able to respond directly back to you.
Thanks,
Steven Miller UNIX mail: ihnp4!hpfcla!hpvclsm!stevem