AMPU Dev Poll

[vcczar]

@Cal @ConservativeElector2 @DakotaHale @Dobs @Hestia @jvikings1 @MrPotatoTed @Rezi @Rodja @Sean F Kennedy @SilentLiberty @The Blood @themiddlepolitical @Timur @WVProgressive @Zenobiyl

[themiddlepolitical]

My two sense:

Though there is some language barrier proquet is way more motivated and actually listens.

Anthony has already been putting this off for some time, and who knows how long it will take for him to finish it.

[Rezi]

Yes, I think that Proqet is clearly the best option as long as we can keep a strong dialogue going with them so that we don’t misunderstand each other

[vcczar]

Seems like the range to hire someone for 40 hours worth of work is between $640-$2,250. I would assume it would take only 40 hours to make enough screens to show, if we went this route. 

Here's my preferences:

• 270Soft -- I'm slightly more comfortable with him because I know what to expect, although I kind of fear his politics being attached to the game now that he's much more vocal about it. I do trust Anthony to have a workable game once he starts on it. He's more experienced than Poquet.
• Poquet -- The uncertainty scares me a bit. There is a language barrier, however slight. I don't know them. I like their enthusiasm. I hope it isn't the kind of enthusiasm that peaks at the beginning and then loses interest. I tend to get nervous around overly enthusiastic people. Some of the graphics in their previous game seem quite unpolished. While this game doesn't really even need graphics, I do want those that exist to look at least as polished as 270Soft. 
• Self-funded -- If I had the money and time, I'd do it this way without question. I'd just make my own company and crank out games. Unfortunately, I haven't much of either. As such, this would be a huge hassle with a lot of uncertainty. 

Ultimately, the decision could come down to whether or not these people want me to pay anything to help make the game. If it ends up being something like, I'll make the game but you'll have to pay $10k or something, then I won't do it. I'm unsure what the financial terms will be. I'm not looking so much for money, but here is what I do "demand"

• That the game includes, at the least, the 1788 start date to 2020, with updates every two or four years. Ideally it will include the Era of Independence and Era of the Future.
• That the developer communicates with me regularly.
• That the developer does not deviate too much from the plans, although I'll be very tolerant to adjustments that are necessary. 
• That the developer will be quick to fix bugs. 
• That I get at least some % of what the game makes for my time, although I won't really make any financial demands to "get rich" from this. I made it to play it.
• That might be all of my demands. I'll try to think of some others. I'm not asking for too much.

[MrPotatoTed]

My answers largely depend on how their prototype ends up looking (not visually, just “do they get it and can they deliver it”

[Hestia]

Right now, I think the thing that I have to stress the most is, what is our goal here, and how can it be most easily imperiled. 

It seems our goal is to get the game done and hopefully on Steam leading to a successful route of monetary flow back towards vcczar and the people that made the game. But how much control does each get over PR things? What if things go poorly? This is where I don't trust Anthony at all.

We saw what he put on his own website today. Will he do that if AMPU is under his control too? That will look poorly upon the game itself, and give a bit of a hard reputation onto it. What if it gets so bad that it's taken off Steam? Can we sever ties with Anthony and say: that wasn't our agreement, now I go elsewhere, or do we have to count our chickens and say, oh well, we tried. I don't see how we wrestle control back after having him make the game.

If this Proqet studio thing makes the game in the first place - a big if, at that, I think they're the most trusted with the long-term success of the game. If they are communicable and are willing to do it, I say go with them. Anthony is too big of a risk towards what we want to be worth it, in my opinion. 

[ConservativeElector2]

6 hours ago, Hestia said:

We saw what he put on his own website today. Will he do that if AMPU is under his control too? That will look poorly upon the game itself, and give a bit of a hard reputation onto it.

I don't know what you mean. Feel free to PM me on this please. 

However, I agree with you on most parts. I'd say the top priority is to get a standing skeleton soon. If Proqet can deliver a prototype which works fine, I'd say they should be considered very seriously.

I am also with @vcczar in regards to what he has said about too enthusiastic people. I hope Proqet isn't one of them just to lose interest very quickly.

[MrPotatoTed]

4 hours ago, ConservativeElector2 said:

I don't know what you mean. Feel free to PM me on this please. 

However, I agree with you on most parts. I'd say the top priority is to get a standing skeleton soon. If Proqet can deliver a prototype which works fine, I'd say they should be considered very seriously.

I am also with @vcczar in regards to what he has said about too enthusiastic people. I hope Proqet isn't one of them just to lose interest very quickly.

He closed his website/forum yesterday in solidarity with those protesting workplace vaccine mandates.

I have a few concerns with  Anthony -- chief among them would be his presumed desire to have the game's forum be on his own forum, where he is a terrible mod.  I work in public relations, I'd be perfectly happy to serve as the PR person for the game, writing blurbs, responding to feedback on the forums, etc in coordination with Vcczar if he wanted that kind of assistance.  But Anthony's a loose cannon who is not at all receptive to being told that what he's doing is bad PR.  That's maybe my biggest concern to bringing Anthony on to the team -- he's not a team player.

That said, his games look more professional than the other guys.  Looks aren't everything, and I've been playing this game for two years with nothing but an excel spreadsheet, so the game doesn't "need" looks.  But I'm sure they'd help with sales.

Personally, I've always liked the crowdfunding idea.  That might be my backup plan if the prototype either doesn't impress vcczar or never gets made in the first place.  I can't pay for it all myself out of pocket, of course, but I'd certainly contribute to it.  

But at the end of the day, it's vcczar's game, and if he goes with Anthony despite my reservations, I'll support it.


 

[vcczar]

1 hour ago, MrPotatoTed said:

He closed his website/forum yesterday in solidarity with those protesting workplace vaccine mandates.

I have a few concerns with  Anthony -- chief among them would be his presumed desire to have the game's forum be on his own forum, where he is a terrible mod.  I work in public relations, I'd be perfectly happy to serve as the PR person for the game, writing blurbs, responding to feedback on the forums, etc in coordination with Vcczar if he wanted that kind of assistance.  But Anthony's a loose cannon who is not at all receptive to being told that what he's doing is bad PR.  That's maybe my biggest concern to bringing Anthony on to the team -- he's not a team player.

That said, his games look more professional than the other guys.  Looks aren't everything, and I've been playing this game for two years with nothing but an excel spreadsheet, so the game doesn't "need" looks.  But I'm sure they'd help with sales.

Personally, I've always liked the crowdfunding idea.  That might be my backup plan if the prototype either doesn't impress vcczar or never gets made in the first place.  I can't pay for it all myself out of pocket, of course, but I'd certainly contribute to it.  

But at the end of the day, it's vcczar's game, and if he goes with Anthony despite my reservations, I'll support it.


 

Yeah I’m concerned about that too. He used to be politically neutral until Trump. Covid has made him too vocal. I’ll try to talk to him about it but I don’t it does any good. Wish I could dev this myself. 

[Cal]

8 minutes ago, vcczar said:

Yeah I’m concerned about that too. He used to be politically neutral until Trump. Covid has made him too vocal. I’ll try to talk to him about it but I don’t it does any good. Wish I could dev this myself. 

Your new project: Learning to code! 😉

[MrPotatoTed]

1 minute ago, Cal said:

Your new project: Learning to code! 😉

I actually tried to learn how to turn this game into just a text-based game, zero graphics.  I gave up five minutes into it.  Haha.

[vcczar]

31 minutes ago, Cal said:

Your new project: Learning to code! 😉

I tried to do this with Code Academy. I completely lost interest after three lessons because it stopped making sense to me. It was almost like they baby-stepped me and then immediately threw me into an advanced class. I'd rather take a math class. I just don't have the patience or innate interest in coding to do anything but surface level coding. I'm not an IT, Math, Science guy at all. My only strength is in the creative and theoretical sphere. I have weaknesses almost everywhere else. Making AMPU has really required me to work in ways that don't come natural to me and has also required me to do the best with weaknesses that I have. For instance, I'm more of a big picture person than an attention to detail person. I'm not patient, especially with tedious things. I'm someone that likes to skip around various projects, take a break, go back to another one, start a new one, go back to another one, etc., instead of focusing on one thing. I'm driven completely by the desire to play this game, but I have to admit that making the game has only been enjoyable half the time. I could have done without making thousands of spreadsheet entries, and often redoing them, and redoing them again. I think if no one had volunteered to help a bit and take some of the load off, I probably would have given up two years ago. I do know this game will be a huge success. I repeat that to myself every day. It also helps to know we're almost done. 

If I were forced to learn to code, the game would probably be about 10 years away in development. I think you probably have more of a coding/IT mindset than I do. I just know the basics of things. I'm pretty decent with Google Sheets, which has light coding involved. I can handle that. 

[Timur]

I picked 270soft, because I'm not sure I'll be able to buy if it's made in Finland. I don't know Finnish, etc.

[Timur]

Just now, Timur said:

I picked 270soft, because I'm not sure I'll be able to buy if it's made in Finland. I don't know Finnish, etc.

To be fair HOI4 was made in Sweden, so...

[vcczar]

7 hours ago, Timur said:

I picked 270soft, because I'm not sure I'll be able to buy if it's made in Finland. I don't know Finnish, etc.

I wouldn’t give the game to developer that didn’t develop games in the English language. 

[themiddlepolitical]

14 hours ago, vcczar said:

I wouldn’t give the game to developer that didn’t develop games in the English language. 

The Finnish company's only game, a political one, was made in complete English

[themiddlepolitical]

14 hours ago, vcczar said:

I wouldn’t give the game to developer that didn’t develop games in the English language. 

The Finnish company's only game, a political one, was made in complete English

[Mark_W]

On 9/26/2021 at 5:27 AM, themiddlepolitical said:

The Finnish company's only game, a political one, was made in complete English

Is it any good?

[Timur]

https://www.proqet.com/mobocratic-game/