Hi Damien, While I do understand your concern I feel the best option is to make the game freeware. Yes, a few customers may feel slightly cheated in the end making it freeware works in their favor as well.
For instance, assume one of your former customers has a hard drive failure, looses the setup or product keys, for one of your products. Since you are no longer selling the game or offering it for download they have to try and contact you in the hopes of replacing what they paid for. If it were made freeware all they would have to do is go ahead and redownload it, and since the freeware game is free its not like they have to resort to a crack to get back what they paid for. Besides that a number of commercial developers have gone out of business and gave away their commercial products as freeware without any backlash from the community. Philip Bennefall, author of the BGT Toolkit, use to run a game company called PB Games. He sold a few commercial games such as Tarzan Junior, and as far as I know none of the people who purchased Tarzan Junior have complained about Philip making it freeware. GMA Games, one of the pillars of our community, once sold a game called Trek 2000. Now days it is freeware too. Again I have heard no complaints from customers about David Greenwood making it freeware. Daniel Zingaro wrote a few commercial games such as Super Deekout, and no one has voiced a complaint about him making it freeware either. My point being I realize your concerns, but I think they are not justified. Many people have done what you are doing, and no one is complaining about them taking money for a few years and then just releasing all the games as freeware. You aren't ripping anyone off or cheating them, because times and circumstances change. You deserve to be compensated for your time and work on the games, but if you can no longer continue in that capacity then there is nothing wrong with giving away the product for free in my opinion. Cheers! On 2/5/14, Damien C. S. Pendleton <dam...@dcpendleton.co.uk> wrote: > Hi Chris, > I did consider this, but I feel it would be unfair to the people who > actually bought it. Although a fair few of the customers said they wouldn't > > mind, there are others who would feel slightly cheated that they had to pay > > for it and then found out it was free. There are still others who I don't > know their opinions, but still. It's difficult to know what to do when > there's money involved. > Regards, > Damien. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris H > Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 7:50 PM > To: Gamers Discussion list > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] X-Sight interactive gone? > > Hi > that's a good question, X-Wheel ought to be abandonware. You could make > it like Dan Z did for his games. > > Regards Chris > > On 04/02/2014 17:59, Greg Steel wrote: >> Hi Damian is x wheel now abandonware? I didn't see it on your site. >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Damien C. S. Pendleton" >> <dam...@dcpendleton.co.uk> >> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org> >> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 9:45 AM >> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] X-Sight interactive gone? >> >> >>> Hi Lindsay, >>> Unfortunately I have indeed had to close the doors on X-Sight. >>> I did send a message about this in December, but to recap, the whole >>> project was doomed to failure from the start. My inexperience in >>> audiogame development caused a complete downward chain reaction. I >>> didn't invest half enough money into the project, our first game was >>> marketed badly for US based customers which caused a slight scandal, >>> we didn't have half the materials we needed which meant that a lot of >>> our games were substandard and a lot of my team members left at this >>> point when they realised it was coming to nothing. >>> By 2013 it was all left to me, which meant that I felt under immense >>> pressure to get the ball rolling, and my pride and determination was >>> my undoing. Yet another scandal arose over a non-gaming project, the >>> funds were exhausted, and my marriage was at breaking point. >>> Since the closure, I have had time to sit back and play a lot of newer >>> audiogames such as Entombed, Swamp, and the Bokurano Daibouken series >>> to name a few, most of which are actually free. Based on these >>> experiences, even if I were to begin development again at some point, >>> my ideas for games would probably seem trivial, and I haven't yet the >>> experience of programming bigger games in those styles to be able to >>> promise anything substantial, let alone marketable. Myself, now, I >>> personally feel like I'm part of an older generation of developers >>> struggling to keep up with both current technology and gameplay styles >>> and expectations, so I'm handing the ball to the more confident, >>> younger generation who seem to have a lot going for them. It saddens >>> me, but all things must come to an end, and unfortunately, I feel like >>> my time developing games is done, unless I work on a collaborative >>> effort. >>> Kind regards, >>> Damien. >>> >>> -----Original Message----- From: Lindsay Cowell >>> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 4:52 PM >>> To: gamers@audyssey.org >>> Subject: [Audyssey] X-Sight interactive gone? >>> >>> Has X-sight interactive gone, I can't get on the site? >>> >>> Lindsay Cowell >>> >>> --- >>> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >>> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >>> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >>> list, >>> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. >>> >>> --- >>> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >>> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >>> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >>> list, >>> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. >> >> >> --- >> This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus >> protection is active. >> http://www.avast.com >> >> >> --- >> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >> list, >> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. >> > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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