Part of the idea behind ProSonic is for me to have something I could possibly use to make profit from if I decide to. It will be available for free to anyone wanting to make a Sonic game with, but I'd like to market it too for other purposes. That's why I will not supply anything that has copyrights attached. That's why it won't support MP3 files and why it uses the Allegro library. This shouldn't be a game engine that is limited to just creating Sonic games. The architecture it is being built on is very dynamic and allows for many different possibilities, so it could very easily be used to create non-Sonic games.
Because of this, I would like to spend most of my time programming the engine rather than the objects. The objects (which include players) give it a very Sonic feel. I want less of a headache, so I'm going to be releasing some documentation sometime on how to script objects. Anyone who wants to port objects from the original Sonic games over to ProSonic can do just that. I already have rings perfected, but anything else would be great. I may even give up my role in writing player code.
Anyone who wants to sell games they create with ProSonic will have to acquire a license from me. I am not sure of fees yet, but I was thinking $200. This would be part of the deal if game designers want to use my engine to make money from. I have never once attempting to make money off of any past projects of mine, but this one I feel has a potential that the others never could have had. Heck, I might even try to see if Sega would want to licence it (I doubt it, but I'd try anyway just to say I did).
10 comments:
You won't get money for being more lazy I'll tell you that.
How is this being lazy? The money-making doesn't come from the Sonic stuff -- that's not profitable. The money comes from the engine itself. I can license this engine for commercial use. It's up to Sonic fans to create Sonic material with the engine -- my job is to simply program the engine and make it all work.
I't quite fair to me, if I want to make it a profit, why not? :D
I am however a little frightened about Sonic player's object not fully finished. As you stated in givin' up your role in writing player code.
Of course any object could be ported with scripting, (it should be way too long to implement all objects in the code) but the Sonic feel, can't. At least the physics, slopes, loops, a perfect Sonic - Tails - Knuckles players should be fully complete.
The player objects will be completed before ProSonic is released. All I'm saying is I might not be the one to finish them. I view them as more part of the game-making aspect of ProSonic rather than engine design. But we'll have to see how things go.
I'm saying that you probably won't get money off it.
#1: It's 2d. And that is slowly fading away.
#2: It's probably overpriced.
#3: Just because.
My point was, if you plan to make a game and then just get bored and stop halfway you won't have people rushing to pay $200, especially if it is going to be a fangame which you cannot make profit on.
That's absurd.
2D still rocks, only low-res is fading away.
New games on NEOWAVE are 2D Hi-res. Like KOF and much of SNK-Playmore products.
And ProSonic supports Hi-Res and 3D objects.
There's still a market out there for 2D games. It's also much cheaper for companies to license an engine for $200 rather than to develop one themselves. If it does everything they need it to do and is flexible, it'll work. Heck, it could be licensed to colleges with courses on game development (because 3D is a bit more advanced).
There's still a need for 2D engines, especially on mobile platforms.
There's nothing wrong with 2D games - it's the gameplay that counts. $200 might be selling yourself short though, collecting royalties would benefit you more.
Well I considered the royalties plan, but figure I wouldn't have much of a profit margin that way. The reason I have favored the $200 plan over the royalty plan is because it's too hard to track people's sales. It's much easier to track a company than an individual. Of course I could do both, I feel most companies would never both paying royalties and would instead see it as a big turn-off.
But I could change my mind. I'm very open to ideas on this, but it seems from what I've found that a flat fee is the way to go.
Sorry I'm replying to an old post, but I'd just like to say I would love more Sonic games, and more games of any character, that ran like the old ones. I also know I'm not alone, so the talk of "fading out" is a load of cr*p. 2D still rules my world, bro.
I'm very curious about this project, since I'm new to the technical side of all this. Have you or anyone else made a game that's playable yet?
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