Topic: S.MG - The Ministry of Games. - page 6. (Read 27185 times)

Much better now! : D
(was very good even before the edit, of course)

Send it to me and you can have a copy of Eufloria

Yes, I do the same sometimes.

I sometimes invest "leftover BTC" after reinvesting divs in some of these companies with an unclear earning model. The amount of money is too little to care about but if only one of them strikes it rich I might hold something of value in the future. The TAT passthrough is cheap enough on Havelock.

Hmm, well I have edited my post somewhat as I was deeply unimpressed with the blog post about the MMO, and the attitude towards people submitting artwork.

One can never know whether something will be a success, but you do learn to work out the odds.

A pity, it could've been quite fun!

Don't worry, I would never have touched anything related to mpoe/mpex even before both you and thestringpuller "clearly pointed out" what was dead wrong with his "plan" and his attitude

I hope the gaming industry will stop luring businessmen such as him, because they really hurt the industry as a whole :/

Haha!

Nah, I've no interest in getting into an argument about this.

I've made my point as a non-investor from the game industry. People will make up their own minds from here and MPOE-PR can run this how he wants. He doesn't need to spend time defending his proposition from me as I'm not investing, and I've seen how those type of threads pan out.

If you are considering investing, i believe I've pointed enough out so you know the right questions and risks.

If I'm an investor in games, I need to know if I'm investing in:

An MMO
An outsourcing business
A f2p iOS/Android developer (original content, cloneville?)
An investment fund for games (what types?)
A particular game (platform, multi-platform, IP ownership)

I need to know the particulars about dividends.
I need to know all relevant experience.
I need to know development strategy, costs, schedule, and key staff.

All of these are completely different, require different skill sets, different levels and kinds of experience, and their own unique business plan.

I've seen mention of middleware but not a lot more. MMOs are ludicrously high risk and very difficult to do. I know people who have actually done it without much experience so I know it is possible, but they went into it extremely knowledgable, well advised, really knew their design stuff, and it's still been (and is) incredibly difficult and expensive (Path of Exile, developer in New Zealand).

The only one I'd even consider investing in if someone didn't have game industry experience is an outsourcing business, but they'd still need a partner who knew the business or they'd need a really good plan and have all the industry stats and figures at their finger tips.

I know this is the wild west but it's still a business and one which is asking for a considerable amount of money. Since this is an area I know well, and I know how high the failure rate is, this pitch is missing... well... almost everything. In the nicest possible way. And I don't want the first big Bitcoin games investment to be like that. Any investment in a game developer is high risk money in the first place, but it should at least be an investment into the right business.

So, back to your question. If it is part of their plan then that should be clear to investors. Moreover, they need make clear the particulars - of which there are many.

EDIT: As a spokesperson, MPOE-PR is doing a spectacularly poor job. You're asking for that much money and you don't think you should need more than a name and the word 'Game'? That's ridiculous. As is saying that there is no particular area planned to concentrate in - you *have* to know, you don't just pull it out of a hat and say 'well the f2p model is going pretty well so we may do that'. The more I re-read this thread, the worse I realise this is.

S.MG should state what their -full- plan is and how they intend to work it within the game sector. Far too much money involved to be allowed to wing it.

Investors - most investors in games lose money. That's not because they are investing in the wrong people necessarily, it's a viciously competitive market place where right place, right time, and talent all need to come together. Investing when you don't even really know what you're investing in multiplies that risk a hundred fold unless that person has a great track record in that precise area.

And if it's mostly to be invested in the MMO linked to in this thread, run away. Run away now. I just don't even know what to say - it's way, way off the mark.

I can't speak for S.MG at all, but isn't it possible for what you suggest to also be a part of their plan?

I've only just spotted this thread so sorry for being late to the party. I've run a game studio for nearly 20 years. I've worked on all sorts of good and crap stuff in that time, mostly in the background so you wouldn't know of us. Lots of licensed work, that sort of thing.

On the indie side I've worked on Alien Hominid (came before Castle Crashers, check it out), Cletus Clay (unfinished, long story! Be awesome when done!) Derrick the Deathfin and Eufloria (Apple's iPad Game of 2012 runner-up, multiple award winner, 500K+ sales). Look them up if you want - they're all interesting in their own ways. 2 of the 3 released ones have sold extremely well. I'm currently working on a Eufloria spin off. I've worked on most platforms and know plenty of people in the industry.

I also set up the Bitcoin Bundle, with the kind support of Ron & Kyle (World of Goo) amongst others.

So that's my background - hence I think I'm qualified to talk about game investments (you may disagree).

I'll say this up front - I'm not an MMO expert and I won't pretend to be, but I do have some knowledge of the area and friends whose very business it is.

• Any game is extremely high risk. Most are never finished, most that are will flop.
• An MMO is extremely difficult to pull off, let alone without serious experience. You have to be hugely talented and be making something that stands out from the crowd with new visuals or game dynamics. Even cloning is not going to work (and is more difficult to do well than people imagine)
• If you are going to do a successful MMO, it's going to cost a lot of money and take a very long time.
• I did see that TAT's fund implied money will be made in various ways but I know this industry very well - details please.

In general, as an experienced game developer who has seen & experienced pretty much everything, good and bad, I wouldn't touch this as an investment. The attitude feels wrong, approach is wrong from what I can see, and the experience isn't there.

That's just my opinion and it doesn't mean I wish them the guys ill will or that they won't succeed. In fact I hope they do succeed and if they ever wanted advice they can always ask, but as an investment I can't recommend it .

If people do want to invest Bitcoin in games, I can come up with a vastly better way to do it. If I could raise thousands of Bitcoins, I'd allocate it to 2 or 3 really good, unique projects which are well beyond the paperwork stage. And it'd still be high risk, just rather less of one.

I would love to do such a thing so if someone wants to talk to me about it, PM me please.

If it weren't for you goons this forum would read like camwhoretalk.

Where do I play

will it have free rolls ways to earn bitcoins free

Here's the mask: http://trilema.com/2013/statements-regarding-the-mmorpg-under-development-i-v/#comment-93959


Overlap is okay, to a reasonable degree, but yes they are interchangeable. So the reasonable degree can't be that "the curve is in kind with the tail of one beast". Has to be more general than that.

They work it just isn't start that is start

WASD or Up arrow down arrow left right for Leave Me Alone walk the wrong way to see the High Scores Walk the Right way to start the game
That name was convenient
Hover Over the Red Planet in Planetration then Click on it
Two commands one for the turret using the mouse and WASD UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT cursors for drill Backspace to reverse if your path conflicts  
Had a moment where I was like that as well

Browser Used Google chrome

If you're really serious about this statement here are two games the lead designer for my current project made in recent years:
http://www.cosmicadventuresquad.com/projects/planetration/
http://www.cosmicadventuresquad.com/projects/leave-me-alone/

The latter is already pretty successful with 100,000 plays, and is currently sponsored. The former is still in development. Give them a play, leave a comment, etc. (Perhaps he'll create a btc tip jar address). If they gain popularity they'll add features, and push for publication, but for now they're out there waiting for people to play them.

In the future we'll be releasing some more games on multiple platforms. Hopefully my posts have piqued some interest in their development.


[/quote]

Thanks for replying
I gave the two games a try and they are quite fun although I did notice that I couldn't drill through my own holes and got stuck untll I realized I could reverse and then the second part of the game was a fun change of pace as I was not expecting that surprising change with a nice soundtrack and the sonic pick up ring noise its a fun game

Do wish I could retreat faster after making a really detailed perfectly made path to get every single item before the core exploded ^_^
Made me go HURRY UP!!! First time I did that and OH CRAP ha-ha almost want a retreat the drill faster upgrade

The second game darn stalkers kind of like Slenderman only I see that they chase me and don't lurk in the bloody distance till I cover them with a tree in or turn away

If it was on Kongregate a few months ago I would send have sent you something in the tip jar although it was removed and that was disappointing as it promoted indie development.
http://www.kongregate.com/forums/1-kongregate/topics/307728-ending-the-tipping-program

I enjoyed the games and left a comment on both games give me a bit address and I'll send a tip too ^_^
I do enjoy indie development and find these games enjoyable simple but fun
Freedom

I leave you all with the Jabberwocky:

So, I tried to play the linked games, but they don't seem to work? They don't seem to be responding to the keyboard?

EDIT: So, I tried it using Firefox instead of Safari and this time it worked.

Hey, that's nice. Did you draw that?

Over a decade ago I started learning DirectX 8, (my how time flies), the original Xbox had just been released, and flash games started becoming popular on the internet. A perfect storm was brewing for aspiring game developers; a climate not seen for nearly a decade was developing around us. http://www.gamedev.net started hosting incredible articles, and any and all knowledge to create a video game was finally surfacing on the world wide web, instead of being locked away in expensive books. Thus began the era of the indie developer.

In 2006 EA started to become one of the worst companies to work for, and soon defectors started to arise. Of these defectors Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel founded a company 2D Boy on their limited savings, approximately $10,000. Starbucks was their office. Kyle drew pretty pictures, and Ron programmed.

In 2008 they released World of Goo, a critically acclaimed independent game. A few months after the release I emailed them while working on my first game with a good friend of mine. Here is a response from Ron, the programmer:

A simple greeting, and "you got dis here/go for it" encouragement:

There is something profound about the support available in the indie community. Everyone is willing to help each other reach a mutual goal.

You've come into our house, not the other way around. So what can S.MG contribute to this community they are attempting to disrupt?

Um sure? You're going the route of stepping on everyone's heels with stilettos in a foreign community (the gamedev community), and expect to acquisition worthwhile talent. This won't play out well.

I've met with many in the community in an attempt to direct them to MP in relation to working with S.MG, posted their concerns, and have been met with dismal results. This being the case, S.MG has a big hill to climb.

This hill is made even steeper:


Hopefully someone with game industry experience hurries in and performs a Mary Poppins-like miracle for you, in the same way Rockstar saved Team Bondi from themselves. But Rockstar could only do so much, and only saved their flagship title, unfortunately they couldn't save the studio.

In a recent Trilema article it seems even Mr. Popescu has a hint of concern:

I really wish you all the luck and hope everything works out.


If you're really serious about this statement here are two games the lead designer for my current project made in recent years:
http://www.cosmicadventuresquad.com/projects/planetration/
http://www.cosmicadventuresquad.com/projects/leave-me-alone/

The latter is already pretty successful with 100,000 plays, and is currently sponsored. The former is still in development. Give them a play, leave a comment, etc. (Perhaps he'll create a btc tip jar address). If they gain popularity they'll add features, and push for publication, but for now they're out there waiting for people to play them.

In the future we'll be releasing some more games on multiple platforms. Hopefully my posts have piqued some interest in their development.

I leave you all with the Jabberwocky:
https://i.imgur.com/6l5QU03.jpg

Heraldic cocks are actually an interesting topic. Certainly, 500 years ago the cock was viewed in a very different light; more than a few young women must have looked upon such heraldics with dread. I'm sure dissertations have been written on this subject.



Yup. (1024-330)/2=347. Shield will be 17px left of center, following the numbers given. The boars are centered around where the shield should be, but they're not equidistant from the image border.


I'll let the artist know; I'm sure she'll be pleased. What sort of hours does MP keep?

I'm not sure what the problem you see is, but MP said there's going to be a mask made to help people visually understand so let's wait for that.