Who wants isometric?

All right, so I have a decent 0z(meaning only one height) isometric projection engine, and a few things have I become painfully aware of, a: I'll probably never never really do anything with it, and b: I'm pretty close to destitute(can't work, blah, blah, sob story).

So I've decided to offer a well documented capx, for a small price...I have no idea what to ask for.

With that in mind I would ask a few questions, like:

1:What would you give for that?

Keeping in mind I would offer a bit of support here on the forum, and the engine would be tailored to a specific type of movement.

2: What kind of movement would be preferred, Pathfinding with vehicles, tilebased, or a Diablo type movement?

But only one type.

3: Would bitcoin be a viable form of payment?

So if you have any interest, or suggestions please reply here.

Right now this is just an experiment, nothing is set in stone.

I have interest yes, but not at this time. I will however keep this thread in mind when I do need one. So for now these are more suggestions than committing.

1. hmm. a 0z Isometric capx. I'm a cheap skate. So you can assume others would pay more. $50.

2. Diablo style of movement or x-com either really.

3. I use paypal. I'm not so sure about bitcoin yet. Since it seems to be it's based on it's own currency value. I am hesitent to do purchasing through bitcoin. but maybe I just need to read more.

I also have the an idea where your coming from on the financial aspect :|

Ok, thanks.

I was thinking a lot less than that. More like no more than you would expect for a simple game. There's nothing you can't figure out on your own, I've just organized it in a way that its fairly easy to set up.

I figured Diablo would be the main type, plus the Pathfinder behavior works fairly well with it. I already have a working example I'll probably upload to the arcade.

Bitcoin would be nice, especially since there's no third party fees, but yeah I'll work with Paypal.

Anyone else, any other suggestions/ possibly interested?

I'd never do any payments based on bitcoins. Paypal is ok.

Don't think too small. If you offer a complete engine, you should calculate the manpower used to do it. Also, don't forget, one could make a whole series of games based on such an engine. So be careful with your calculation and don't make it too cheap.

i think this will come more and more a normal thing to sell capx as construct matures and has a bigger userbase,

the best thing to do is make a good demo to generate interest, prefereble with some semi-good/good graphics and interaction, and even post improvements/finetuning to the engine to keep interest

make a forum page and an arcade post

i would calculate the time spended on it, * your hourly rate / estimated buyers

lowering price should generate more buyers + better demo = more buyers

this does raise some questions, legally, if you capx should get posted

but i guess the same thing can be said for art, if you have no permission to use it, your stealing..

these where just some thoughts to consider, i would definatly go for it

I think selling capx files for some sort of revenue is fair, as it takes time and dedication to get it started. Also it would be the same as selling scripts on the Unity Asset store. It's kind of a shame that Scirra doesn't have one as I'd imagine artists and developers would like to sell some of there templates (capx files) or game artwork, and there could be a ton of others that would like to buy them.

I guess it would be expensive to get a service like that started. But to answer your question I'd prefer paypal since it's commonly used in other sites such as ebay and amazon so I find it practical. And as for the price 30-50$ sounds reasonable but it could be much much more depending on the quality of the file. As in, is it optimized to run on multiple machines? Stuff such as that.

The working demo I have right now is all touch based, which works well with mouse. In fact the biggest issue would be fullscreen, or windowed for multiple platforms.

The other issues I have now are game specific, such as artwork,(using plain cubes, or finding decent free art, such as the assets from Flare) that includes animations for multiple angles, and just how many angles are needed. A great many games use at least 16 different angles, which would be a stretch if you want multiple characters, and low download size, etc.

And then there's actual gameplay. If its Diablo-esk will it use collisions, or a percent to hit ratio, or should that even be included?

As far as sharing the capx,...yeah that's a bit iffy. I would have no way to make sure that nobody passed it around. It could either be the good Samaritan system, or perhaps a Kickstarter could be done, where if the target is reached, I release the capx to all for free, and if said target goes beyond what is set, I could add extra game elements.

Don't forget the allure of a more affordable engine (I don't like saying cheaper. Sounds bad, eh?). If it's something that you plan to market to multiple people, lower prices usually draws in more people.

It's a tricky thing, balancing between affordable for you and your clients, but it's a dance we all have to go through at one point or another.

I wish ya all the luck, mate!

Well to follow up. As you have the only iso engine being offered. You are allowed to set the starting price. Though Randomfellow has a point.

Yes "anybody" can make an iso engine. But then compare time spent on the engine. vtrix is right on figuring price. The more niche the closer to your expected pay wage you should charge.

As an example

C2 is a windows tool. Thus makes sense that on a cost ration it's cheaper than your iso engine.

Your iso engine can only work inside C2 and no other game tool.

Then your iso engine is only for people who want iso games.

So it makes sense that your Iso engine on a scale cost ratio costs more per hour of effort than C2. Same with a tool like Spriter that is meant to target EVERYONE who makes 2D games.

I find Unity asset store ranges from $5 to $100. With unique on the higher side.

so someone could either spend 16 hours at $40/hr($640) or they can spend 30m to purchase and integrate for $50. Ok. I don't get paid $40/hr. but that is apparently the going rate for experienced programmers in my city. And I don't know about other, but I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people who CAN'T make new things.

Also if I may offer a few more pieces of advice.

* CLEAN. Remove all disabled code or leave a comment why it's in.

* DOCUMENT. To make code usefull make sure people have comments to read as to what it does and how it goes about it.

* POLISH. try to reduce fluff code

* SEPERATE. if you have sample code. Make sure it's not integrated into the main engine code.

* MINIMIZE. when I integrate(ie copy/paste) make sure it's as little as possible.

and demo it. Good graphics are only for people who don't understand the code they are buying. People who understand the code they are buying don't need good graphics.

edit:

oh I also forgot to mention. No matter what you need to run on the honour system. There will always be people who will infringe or distribution. However you can at least get a License agreement in your code and upon agreement of purchase.

That way if the code is distributed you have threatening recourse. Although there is no way to enforce such. but it's at least it is in there.

The Kickstarter thing is sounding better all the time.

Also I wanted to mention there is an alternative to using multiple animations I could do.

You guessed it Spriter, all though the style would just about have to be cartoony, and would only show a right, and left side, like a platformer.

The small file size really would work nicely though.

Added a demo to the Arcade:

Z3

I took a look at it, and it looks like:

isometric example

though that one is black and white.

Also ... using pathfinding on such a simple level may look ok ... but just use it when you have tons of images moving about .... eventually you can see the units think when their planning their way.

Actually, I think that's a derivative of an example I did before we had families.

Also, I'm not sure what you're getting at on the second part.

Edit:

OK, after looking over my dropbox, Im not sure if that was part of something I did.

In any case the z3 example is much more advanced.

I would suggest increasing the pathfinder turn rate closer to 1000 or more. Right now it just feels off and none responsive.

I'm wondering about your iso system. Looking at Era. Era's looks to be a 2D game using an ISO looking objects. Does your manage to do the ISO math for objects?

In my experience pathfinding is great for smaller projects, but when you have large level with active objects, and you apply it as in your exmple (click to move there) that a delay happens after the initial click (making the obect perform a "find path"). Which increases with bigger leves/more objects.

I did some development tests where I used 1 player and a handfull of enemies, worked like a charm .... till i used it in a large level, and my player didnt run away in time ^_^