What is the business model of this game?

atticat · 2018-07-31 18:35:24

Question is simple:

How long does Jason plan on putting his time and labor into this game before he starts to lose money? I want to see this game succeed, but at some point Jason will need to feed his family.

Chard · 2018-07-31 18:49:56

You pay a $20 to play on the official servers. That money goes to Jason.

Anshin · 2018-07-31 18:50:20

Don't you worry about him, he's making plenty. He said he'd put two years into this game, which is fair and long enough.

Christoffer · 2018-07-31 21:32:57

Anshin wrote:

Don't you worry about him, he's making plenty. He said he'd put two years into this game, which is fair and long enough.

... on top of the three years he put in before its release, one might add. So it’s really five in total.

TheRedBug · 2018-07-31 22:37:46

Buisness model is pretty simple

Make game > people make stew > ??? > profit

Turnipseed · 2018-08-01 00:02:39

Hey ive gotten like 300~ hours out of it for 20 bucks. If he stops updating right now ive gotten my moneys worth

mikekchar · 2018-08-01 15:16:17

I think the better question is, "How long will Jason work on this game before he decides that he wants to work on a new game".

I'm not sure why I always jump in to these kinds of threads (mainly because I'm a fanboi, I think...), but basically Jason has been making games for a long time. He's managed on a lot less money than this game has brought in. I may be wrong, but I think this game is probably far and away his most financially successful (possibly even by almost an order of magnitude).

I kind of like the question as asked, though, because it's one of the things I find fascinating. What is the business model? The source code is in the public domain! How is he making money? The answer: He made a web page that links to a payment processor and put a price tag on the game. If you look at one of his earlier blog posts, he even explains why he didn't go on steam (short answer: he was wisely afraid that he might not be able to handle the support if it got widely popular).

I think it's amazing, though, that you can set up a server and give the clients to your friends and play the game for free, but there is enough value in playing on the "official server" (and having everything set up for you) that people would *prefer* to pay $20 to play the game. I also think that the idea of "The game costs $20, but I can't stop you from not paying me -- I won't even try" is both courageous and inspired. Just the act of putting a price tag on it is enough for most people to understand the reality: Jason would like to get paid for his work.

On the other hand, the question that atticat probably would like to be answered is, "How do I know this isn't going to stop tomorrow". The answer is, "Because Jason wants to work on this game". There is no guarantee that this will continue forever (and it almost certainly won't). There is not guarantee that he won't be run over by a combine harvester tomorrow. I feel confident that he is OK with money (but I'm sure he would accept more) because he's been writing games for a *long* time, but there is no guarantee that he won't wake up tomorrow and think of some absolutely amazing new game that he *has* to do.

If that happens, though, you're still covered. You've got the code. You've got a community that wants to play the game. You've got talented programmers who are already tinkering with the code. This game is not going to disappear, no matter what happens to Jason. He's built that in to the $20 you paid. Incredible deal, really. It takes a lot of wisdom, foresight *and* experience to build what Jason has built here. We're pretty lucky.

jasonrohrer · 2018-08-02 15:35:04

Part of the reason I had to stop working on certain games in the past was that the sales fell off enough that it was no longer worth it to keep working on them. I mean, the games were "done" as far as I was concerned, but they could potentially be tweaked and improved forever. But I am supporting myself and my family through making games. If a game only makes so much money, I can only work on it for so long before I must switch gears to a new project that has the potential to bring in more money. That's what happened with The Castle Doctrine, for example.

Now, there's another factor here, and that's that this game will take a long time to get actually "finished." The Castle Doctrine was "finished" when I released it to the public, but it saw more revisions after that that involved little fixes, improvements, rebalances, etc. After watching people play for a while, I needed to improve the game.

OHOL shipped with only 8% of the end-goal content in place, so it's far from finished. I suppose that, even after the sales die down---which they won't---I'd still keep working on it until I at least thought it was done.

But all that new content is also part of the business model, and is what keeps sales from dying down, etc... so it's all connected. The Castle Doctrine just wasn't that kind of game. It also had mechanics in place that caused the userbase to decline naturally over time, where OHOL was designed on purpose to not do that.

elpargo · 2018-08-03 05:11:07

8% ! that's definitely going to keep me around for a while.

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#1 2018-07-31 18:35:24

What is the business model of this game?

#2 2018-07-31 18:49:56

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#3 2018-07-31 18:50:20

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#4 2018-07-31 21:32:57

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#5 2018-07-31 22:37:46

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#6 2018-08-01 00:02:39

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#7 2018-08-01 15:16:17

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#8 2018-08-02 15:35:04

Re: What is the business model of this game?

#9 2018-08-03 05:11:07

Re: What is the business model of this game?

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