Effects

[David]

I wonder if there's any market for totally random engine features, which are my specialty :)

Like fire, water, lightning, glass, decals, sparks, blood, shadows, motion blur, ragdoll physics, rigid body dynamics, octtrees, alpha fog, dynamic textures, etc.

I was thinking it might be fun to make a list of all these things with a demo of each and charge people to implement any of them in their games.

[Josh]

It would be really cool if you would make a few open source demos of those things. ;)

[codemattic]

Originally posted by jabber
It would be really cool if you would make a few open source demos of those things. ;)

well how does he make some return on his investment then?

Maybe create a bare-bones free engine. That way users could get a feel for how it works. Of course when their maps grow to any useable size - they will need to upgrade to the 'pro' version which has octree support and added special effects and skeletal animations and ragdoll physics etc... $40-$80 for pro sounds about right. I would suggest one pro version with everything added rather than charging a smaller fee for each added feature.

I hope you write this! But are there enough mac game devs to make it profitable for you?

cheers

[Carlos Camacho]

Bare-bone engine sounds good.l :)

[skyhawk]

Bare Bones Software might sue.

[Josh]

Originally posted by codemattic
well how does he make some return on his investment then?I have seen the offers he is getting to make games, he doesn't need anymore money! :p

But seriously, yeah a game engine/demo collection would be sweet. Even more sweet if they were free...

[GoodDoug]

Given your talent level (very high) I think it would be best for you to concentrate on "consulting" on other projects, ie "I'll add a some great kinematics to your game for a buzzuttload of money" as well as writing your own games. I think it would be very difficult to create "general purpose" effects and sell those for any sort of money.

Or, release some effects with source as a digital resume to get yourself picked up by a bigger development house.

Just my 0b00000010 cents

[igame3d]

Of course as soon as you start selling your work, we will start charging you for beta tests.

$30 an hour, get your checkbook out.

[OneSadCookie]

Man, I'm already rich on back-pay for hours wasted on Lugaru :D