Donation model for specific features?

Hey guys,

As some of you might know, I've been using Construct for a couple of months now to create a game - things are coming along really nicely, still, there are quite a few things left that I'd love to see in Construct and it seems like the devs are already really busy polishing Construct for 1.0.

A lot of times here features are being suggested that'd be way sweet to have in Construct, features that'd be ideal for an experienced programmer to design and create in his free time - so that the devs wouldn't have to worry about every single, little detail by themselves. The problem is that there's probably a lack of motivation amongst experienced programmers to do stuff like that in their free time.

So my idea is... wouldn't it be cool if we could put up donation threads for specific features? Say, you're working on a game and there's this single, awesome idea that you have, you already designed it on paper and it could be really cool to see this in a game - but the devs won't have time to implement that certain feature that'd allow you do implement your idea. So, as an artist, you're sorta screwed when this happens.

Now, in a case like this, we could put up a donation thread and everyone could join in - everyone would put up a donation, all the money would add up and the programmer that delivers gets the money.

That way, the community could propose features that should be developed and programmers would have an extra motivation to go out and create something - win / win.

The amount of money being donated could be set by each and every user, based on how complicated it'd be to implement it - so if you _really_ need a feature to get your game done, you could contribute and hope that a programmer takes care of it.

We could set up pricing like 10- 20 bucks for simple stuff like pixel shaders or a higher amount of cash for more complex features.

For example, I'd be willing to donate 500 bucks to the person/group that makes Construct Xbox360/Live compatible. And another 500 bucks for PSN.

Of course every plugin / feature should remain open source in the end.

This is definitely a delicate thing to discuss since it could harm the open source mentality of the project, but I'd be all up for paying programmers for the time they spend to implement features or create plugins. It'd serve as a motivational help to developers out there that may have the skillset, but have a hard time finding the motivation to work outside of work

Anyones cool with that idea?

PS: I was serious about the Xbox360 compatibility thing. I'd donate 500 bucks for that.

Been some time since I talked to the devs about that, if anyone would care to help the cause...

I think this has been discussed before - and one of the main problems I see is a donation is not really a donation if you're expecting something in return. It's more a commercial contract - if feature X is completed, then payments from N people totalling Y are paid. But even as a commercial system where people lodge payments it sounds like it'd be extremely complicated to organise. If people donate money in to a holding account for a feature, what if nobody got round to implementing the feature? Would everyone get their money back? After how long? Would everyone be happy if that happened, eg. if somebody assumed they were definitely paying for a feature to happen? If people don't pay upfront and merely promise to pledge donations, what happens if the feature is done and some people don't follow through? I can't think of any good solutions to the problems of this style of payment model.

It's very kind of you to offer money for various features, but I see too many difficulties and would prefer donations to go the usual route of nothing-expected-in-return (but are still greatly appreciated and very motivating of course!). Also, something like an export-to-XBOX would be a huge project, lasting many months - probably best left to Construct 2 in the first place, but it's also difficult to imagine how donations could offset the time for that kind of project length as well.

Ahh.. I want to be a time traveler just to use Construct 2.0

Lol, only 500 bucks for something that complicated. You'd have to practically rewrite Construct.

It would more likely cost around..

You can always hire a third party to do programming. Keep in mind its licensed GPL so any changes made have to be attributed back to the source.

Lol, only 500 bucks for something that complicated. You'd have to practically rewrite Construct.

It would more likely cost around..

Way to go posting another useful comment.

The idea is that everyone donates for a feature that would benefit all of us - The more people donate, the higher the amount of money the person that delivers will get.

[quote:nagimyh4]The idea is that everyone donates for a feature that would benefit all of us - The more people donate, the higher the amount of money the person that delivers will get.

There's nothing keeping you from doing that with plugins. You could even set it up so that those that contribute get the plug free, and if it was sold get their money back. If it was a good behavior or something there's a chance to get back even more.

Of course your limited on changes to Construct itself.

The idea is that everyone donates for a feature that would benefit all of us - The more people donate, the higher the amount of money the person that delivers will get.

I completely understand your idea, and it would be beneficial to have a system like this, but as Ash pointed out, when money is involved, things could/do get ugly. Also, the export to live/psn "feature" is more like a rewrite of construct, I was just pointing that out. You'd be better off just opening a Programmer for hire thread and individually asking for a certain feature at a fixed or variable price, but even with a 1on1 payment scheme, it could be hard to organize. Also, I have no idea how this commercial aspect would play into the mmf2 ordeal. IMO construct is best left completely commercial free, aside from plugin sales if there be any. Also, paid modifications to construct itself might split the versioning into two or more seperate branches if say, a new group of money-oriented devs enters the mix and makes you that live/psn version of construct. Ash/Rich/Davids real version will continue follow their path while your version will stay non-updated. If an unforseen bug arises in your version, who's to say that your paid team is required to fix it for free?

Ahh.. I want to be a time traveler just to use Construct 2.0

Every new build = 1 month or so, the way from 0.99.5 up to 1.00 may cost almost half a year. Then...from 1.00 to 2.00 may cost the whole life...

Consider the following.

The sooner Construct is fleshed out and released, the sooner it will attract a large number of users from the whole spectrum, from enthusiasts to skilled programmers. Among those skilled programmers, there will be a few who will begin developing plugins on their own.

All it takes is for Construct to reach the production release. So, we need to find and report bugs, help Construct become stable, see it get 1.0 version. After that, its popularity will skyrocket and see many plugin developers.