Very true. You'd certainly want to have a primary income to fall back on
while you're working on your games.
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Ward
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2014 9:56 AM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] About pc games
Hi Michael,
I'm not sure about actual figures on how many blind people there are
in the USA that are interested in games since that kind of information
often gets excluded from surveys. Plus since a lot of blind computer
users in the US often get their computers through government sponsored
state agencies many of them are afraid to install games and other
recreational software on their PC. I've met my fair share of blind
computer users who were specifically told by their counselor that
their computer was a tool for work, school, etc and not to install
games and other software on it. Since they are afraid of getting in
trouble even though they might want games they won't risk it. So one
thing we face as game developers is the paradigm that computers are
only to be used for work and they can happily be used for both
regardless of what some state agency says.
As for making money of accessible games the issue isn't that one can
not make money off it. Obviously, ESP, Draconis, GMA, BSC Games, and
others all made money off of making accessible games for the blind.
The issue is one can't making a living wage off of developing games
for the blind full time. They have to find some other way to make
money to supplement the income from the games, because making and
selling accessible games aren't enough in of itself.
You mentioned ESP. At the time all the ESP games were originally
created they were developed by a man named James North. Unlike most
audio game developers James North was sighted and had a regular 9 to 5
job. He wrote games like Alien Outback, Monkey Business, DynaMan, and
ESP Pinball in his spare time and made money off of them. While I'm
sure James made a few thousand off those games it wasn't enough to
quit his daytime job and make games full time.
So to get to the point yes a lot of the more successful game
developers like ESP had lots of money to start with. Although, they
did make some money off of the games the funding for the games didn't
all come through sales. Like any other business it took a fair amount
of personal startup capital to get going.
Cheers!
On 12/18/14, Michael Gauler <michael.gau...@gmx.de> wrote:
That's actually sad in so many levels.
First is of course the problems with the high unemployment rates you
mentioned.
But what I'd like to know is if there is an actual estimation on how many
blind or visually impaired people are actually in the USA and how many of
them are interested in games and not how many of them could afford them.
On the other hand, ESP Soft and later Draconis made more than one paid
title.
Either the people behind said games had lots of money or they earned lots
of
it through their sales.
If their games were not a success on the small market, we wouldn't have
seen
more games from them and I think that Monkey Business was their most
complex
game so far.
It seems that however small the market might be, that you still can make
money through it, if not, all paid games wouldn't be here anymore.
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