05-20-2011, 12:23 AM
I've seen several posts by people who seem to think that Buildism is just going to get better all by itself. Although it would be nice if that were the case, it doesn't usually work that way. First, I'll explain how commercial games are made (these are popular games made by large companies, like Team Fortress 2 and The Elder Scrolls.)
A team of a few dozen developers works on the game. The company also employs testers, who play the game and look for bugs, then report back to the developers so they can fix any problems. This process can take anywhere from a few months to several years.
While this is happening, other employees of the company are paying lots of money to get the game publicity--billboards, online advertising, store signage, and so on. This ensures that by the day the game is released, lots of people already know about it and are ready to play it.
Once the game is released, millions of people buy it, and the company makes a lot of money, which they use to buy more advertising so a few million more people find out about the game and get it. After they stop updating the game, a fan community keeps it alive for years by making mods and other content.
On the other hand, Buildism is an independent (indie) game, meaning that it is made by a small group of people (in this case, me.) I don't have a QA (testing) team, so instead I open the game to the public during testing and let everyone be testers, and this should also get some good user-created content out by release day. However, if you guys find a bug and don't report it, then that doesn't help at all because I probably don't even know about it! Today the game was broke for 2 hours and nobody told me about it. Don't feel like your bug isn't important, or it's been reported before--take a few minutes to post in the bug reports section.
The other problem that all indie games face is advertising. Most indie developers just like to make games, and they'd rather not deal with a lot of marketing/financial stuff. Also, a game is one of the hardest things to advertise, so you have to pay a lot of money just to get a few new players. So, this is where the users come in. Minecraft, probably the most successful indie game, gained millions of players just from players telling their friends about the game and posting about it online.
To conclude, as a Buildism member, you're not just having fun or helping me make money--you're an important part of the game creation process. Keep it up!
A team of a few dozen developers works on the game. The company also employs testers, who play the game and look for bugs, then report back to the developers so they can fix any problems. This process can take anywhere from a few months to several years.
While this is happening, other employees of the company are paying lots of money to get the game publicity--billboards, online advertising, store signage, and so on. This ensures that by the day the game is released, lots of people already know about it and are ready to play it.
Once the game is released, millions of people buy it, and the company makes a lot of money, which they use to buy more advertising so a few million more people find out about the game and get it. After they stop updating the game, a fan community keeps it alive for years by making mods and other content.
On the other hand, Buildism is an independent (indie) game, meaning that it is made by a small group of people (in this case, me.) I don't have a QA (testing) team, so instead I open the game to the public during testing and let everyone be testers, and this should also get some good user-created content out by release day. However, if you guys find a bug and don't report it, then that doesn't help at all because I probably don't even know about it! Today the game was broke for 2 hours and nobody told me about it. Don't feel like your bug isn't important, or it's been reported before--take a few minutes to post in the bug reports section.
The other problem that all indie games face is advertising. Most indie developers just like to make games, and they'd rather not deal with a lot of marketing/financial stuff. Also, a game is one of the hardest things to advertise, so you have to pay a lot of money just to get a few new players. So, this is where the users come in. Minecraft, probably the most successful indie game, gained millions of players just from players telling their friends about the game and posting about it online.
To conclude, as a Buildism member, you're not just having fun or helping me make money--you're an important part of the game creation process. Keep it up!