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Hummm6 years ago
I've been thinking about game economics... from several different perspectives: 1) long term implications 2) towards the game promoting itself 3) monetisation (Firefly may not be independently wealthy and needs to eat) Obviously, none of these can change overnight, but a good road map will help you get there. 1) long term implications a) there are a finite number of things to spend money on (house height, blocks, claims, items) b) there are an infinite number of creatures to kill (to earn money) The simple math equation: ∞ - N = ∞ (for all finite numbers N) This is a runaway economy... My proposition to resolve this: rent. Every claim you have will cost you rent. This, obviously, introduces other issues, so, if I want to save money, I need to be able to release my claim(s). OR, for instance, because I hate hunting, I can pay real money to buy in-game coins to pay my rent (this also addresses #3) My 2nd proposition to solve this is trade. You should implement a "banker" that facilitates a trade system... of course it's money that we're trading (gifting) and absolutely there is a "transaction fee" (in-game coins) to carry out the deal. Again, this is to balance the above equation. Oh, and if you don't/can't pay the rent, you lose the claim. 2) towards the game promoting itself without a doubt, hands down, the fastest way to earn money is to hunt solo. (after you've discovered everything) When I first started playing I was a Fighter. (because Hummm always played the tank) I spent several hours fighting creatures at health levels less than 20%... healing opportunities were rare and I was constantly asking people for heals or to group. I sometimes got heals, but rarely able to get group. ... then I learned about the Sorceress. She can fly. She can heal. She can multi-kill. SOLD! ... and I never looked back. But why is it so hard to get groups? Everyone has fun on the live stream... in a word: economics. When you're in a group hunt, you're doing it for social reasons, not because it's advantageous economically. When I'm in the live stream, the only reason I earn lots of money is because of the 20 gold per level bonus and high level creatures... but you only get the bonus for the first kill of that level. Eventually, you'll get the level 31 bonus from (almost) every creature and then when you go on the massive live stream hunt, the only money you'll get is the money you're fast enough to grab. My proposition to fix this: Everyone gets gold. When one person picks up the gold, everyone in the group gets the same amount. This idea is not w/out issues of it's own, but I think it solves the issue of lack of grouping and definitely serves to self promote the game. One of things that may be a prerequisite is the formation of groups (who's in and who's not, leech prevention) 3) monetisation Everyone loves free, myself included. But I'm addicted to eating and having a roof over my head, so I have a real job. I suspect Frank likes to eat too. Now if he's independently wealthy, by all means, let's let him work for free, and we'll all just have fun playing his game in our spare time, but if he's not, he's going to have to either stop developing AD and get a job, or figure out a way to make money doing game development. (hopefully one we enjoy playing) My proposition: a way to purchase in-game money with real money. For people who like free: go hunt!
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6 years ago
Response to 3: Monetize: What he could do money wise is start a shop. Make it where there can be in-game purchases, but not only that. He could make it to where there are real life item purchases like clothing, Cups, Key chains, ect. Some ideas I figured I would put in there.
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Kamikaze Justice6 years ago
Monetizing won't work well at all, if there are a lot of people that won't play (or, are quitting), even when the game is free. There needs to be many more upgrades that give the player reasons to play (or purchase) the game, instead of quitting. If and when that time comes, I prefer paying via PayPal. I've quit every on-line game that had an in-game monetary system. My preference is to buy the game, outright, and with every worthy upgrade, there's a fee. I have a feeling, that Firefly probably has a plan to get paid for his game, when that time comes. But for now, let's not scare off the people we still have. There can be a lesson learned from the frog and the boiling pot story. If everyone in a hunting party gets the same amount of gold when a creature dies (whether they fight or not), then why should the lazy socialists fight, while the capitalistic conservative continues fighting for everyone? I believe in the saying... if a man doesn't work, then he doesn't eat. If Firefly is starving, starting a shop and filling it up with AD items, might not be feasible if he needs that money for food and rent. ~~~
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Fierro6 years ago
It's really really hard to pay from my country (Argentina) for many people. It's even harder for kids. Few people can pay with international credit cards from here. Until a two years ago it was even harder because limitations over money exchange with other countries. Now is easier. But what I mean: most kids in my country will be out of play if they need to pay for play. Beware of this kind of limitations. The same happens in many countries of latin america to some extend. Just this month Paypal started working with a third local party, with some limitations. Promotional merchandise (swag) can works. Again... but not from my country. If I buy a single cup... it will cost me a lot in money and time to import even a single cup or t-shirt. Taxes and custom office can turns anyone crazy here. Literally. For the record: I always decline free swag from other countries for this reason (and that if we are so lucky to nobody "miss it" on the way). I don't like games with microtransactions. I had hear Firefly saying the same. I think that some kind of one-time pay can be needed and it can works. Some like Terraria (fantastic game BTW). And some kind of microtransactions can work in the way like DOTA 2 or TF2. Like in games that you can play for free, but you can buy *optional* premium items. For example: stuff to show others, without affecting the dynamics of play. Some exclusive clothes, exclusive blocks, more claims, instant level up N levels, and so on. Things that you can earns playing (many hours) but you can buy if you don't have time. Some premium to help the game but not a P2W. I hate games P2W (like some EA games). P2W doesn't works. Angeldust needs promotion. I second that. It's a great game. And it needs some tweaks to attrack new players and old players. That's true too.
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Hummm6 years ago
I'm not trying to rush Firefly towards monetisation ... keywords: road map For all three of my ideas, I also stated at least one issue that would need to be resolved first ... I'm just tossing some ideas into the pot, and pointing out the current economic model's flaw. If you read it carefully, I fully anticipated a completely free path.
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Fierro6 years ago
Yes, I understand your point. I feels that AD has lost some traction in recent months. Some things may need to change to keep going forward. I will love to see a grow on current user base. AD has really unique and great features to shine out there, but it needs to attract more and more users and keep them.
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Firefly6 years ago
Everyone raises some good points in this thread. It's hard to summarize and reply to everything since there's some nuance involved. My view on a few things is as follows (take this with a grain of salt)… I won't add in-app purchases, gold-purchases or other microtransactions to Angeldust. It's always been my goal to make a fun game that you purchase once and just play. Games should be like that again, just like old times. The economy in Angeldust is currently intentionally limitless and without trading. Trading would necessitate balancing and encourage 'real money markets' and I don't have the desire to deal with those issues at the moment. Also: your resources (blocks) are infinite since I want players to play, not act like beancounters. For now, it's just run-and-gun-and-have-fun. Also, I'm doing my best to keep up the weekly stream and development, but the past few months have been pretty tough for me personally. Angeldust updates and development will pick up in pace soonish again and I'm looking forward to more and more players sticking around. The most recent 'horse update' was a great boost to getting everyone together again and there will be more of those updates coming in the future!
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6 years ago
@FireFly, the type of game your trying to dream. The 1 time purchase then play. Those games from the old days was on CD's as pc games when we didn't have steam xD. If your making something like that. Most people are gonna request highly for it to approach their perspective after you get yours done with.
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