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Homebrew interest?

Raster - Sep 20, 2007

		Raster		Sep 20, 2007
			Would you consider purchasing smaller homebrew Sega/Mega CD games starting at $10 to $13? At this price, only the CD with professionally printed label would be included. More expensive packages would be available. Assuming you would purchase the games, would you be more likely to buy just the CD or a full package? Again, assuming you would purchase the games, how often would you be willing to purchase a new game, assuming the games were worth purchasing? (There would be a minimum of 3-6 months between games, probably) The games wouldn't be as big as a normal Sega CD game, but would cost a fraction of the normal price. How many people play a standard released game for more than an hour? Does the time spent playing justify the cost? Do you buy a game as a collectable item or to play it? Cartridge versions could be made available but they would probably run $25. A Sega/Mega CD can be picked up pretty cheap these days, and would offer better sound and music quality. Would you be willing to pay $25 for a cartridge release? I'm pondering the future direction of RasterSoft and how to bring some quality games to the Sega/Mega CD. Developing homebrew games on a non-commercially viable system does has some limitations; we do not have the time or resources to produce a full scale commercial style release. To compensate for this we want to keep the price as low as possible, narrow the focus to produce the highest quality game and, spread the cost over several game systems. I am trying to determine if the Mastertronic model, of producing smaller games at a 'smaller' price, would fit in the homebrew market. Thanks for your time in answering these questions.

		Jedi Master Thrash		Sep 20, 2007
			Heck yeah, nothing tickles my pickle more than the thought of new games for my old systems. FYI, if you want my dream combination, it would be new 32X-CD games. The platform was powerful, but never saw anything but a couple of re-released FMV games. Depending on the quality of thegame, I'd be willing to pay upwards of 40$ for a 32x-CD game. When gooddealgames came out with the unreleased Bug Blasters and Star Strike, I picked those up (35$ each?), mostly for the collectors value and the fact that they're "new" sorta for a system that doesn't have anything new. But I also am one of those rare, maybe the only, individual who actually enjoys FMV shooters. Bug Blasters was rather amusing, Star Strike is what you expect. Then I picked up Bloodshot for the CD when it was released (it was released in PAL, but never US before). And that was one of the only few FPSs on the sega system, and the only to offer a 2-player mode, so it was fun to pick up. I didn't pick up marko because I wasn't too interested in mediocre platform games, and citizen X is an adventure game, which I'm not into (nor RPGs), and mighty missle was a copy of chu-chu which I already had, and I already had frogs n flies for the Atari 2600. So, yes I'd definitely buy new games if they interest me, and 10-13$ is extremely reasonable. What would interest me? Well, unreleased games often do, just because you already know about the game, but will never get to play it, so getting to play it is a plus. Copies of other games often don't interest me, because they usually don't live up to the original. And something that makes good use of the system is usually worth more to me (in terms of price). Something that could run on a master system you feel should cost less than something that makes use of scaling and rotation or FMV or higher color palette or processor speed. My favorite types of games are shooters (horizontal, verticle, platform, 1st person, flying, driving, FMV), simulation (flying, driving), puzzle (tetris, puyo puyo, arkanoid/breakout, pinball), and fighting (but can be picky) and platformers (also can be picky). Fighters and platforms have to be solid. Platformers especially can quickly turn into "impossible" or "tedious" if not properly balanced. Shooters sometimes I'm more forgiving, if they make up for it with cool paralax graphics or music or something. A big important piece is the graphics. The don't have to be the highest resolution or anything, but well done. And there's a trend in US games trying to draw anime-style graphics, and it just looks like the results from a sloopy how-to-draw-manga book. Either make the anime right, or go with a unique style. Ugly characters are a big detractor. And what's up with that giant feet, small body trend? Ugly ugly. As for game length/size, here's how it works for me. If a game is long enough, then you can get your money's worth in one play. If a game is reeally long, then you better have some save points or level skip passwords. A short game needs replayability. Either it has to be really fun, or it has to have some different goals you can reach. Or just be old-school and go for the highest score. 2-player competitive is also a great way to create replayability. In fact, I'd recommend 2-player in everything you release. Games are most fun when you play with friends. Well, I hope that helps answer your question. I for one am excited about new games for old systems. If I had time I'd be making them myself. I've made several full games for extra-ciricular clubs and final projects in college. But don't have any dev kits and don't really have any time these days. Here's a few specific games I'd like to see: A sega CD pinball game. Not just like 1 or 2 boring tables. Gotta be something more fun, like the 3-D ultra ones with multiple levels, or what pinball quest could have been if it wasn't so darned hard and boring. A sega CD breakout/arkanoid game (yeah!). Something with different stages and powerups. Also, if you've ever seen Devilish on the genesis, it's an upward scrolling arkanoid type game. More shooters. Even 1st person FMVs, those are fun. Also 1st person shooters, like afterburner/space harrier style. Anything with great graphics. Hey, you could make a game out of my JarJarmageddon. http://members.aol.com/jarjarmageddon/... You can run it on windows XP, but it requires VDMSound and a VESA 1.2 hack. It was written in assembly, but it's hellafun. I had it running at an engineering expo, and people would sit and play it for hours. It uses randomly generated terrain, so you can play forever without repeating. I'll think of some more later.

		Raster		Sep 21, 2007
			Here's one additional question to add to the list: Would you purchase a $6 CD image, that you could burn for yourself, over a $10 (+ shipping) CD?

		Raster		Sep 21, 2007
			Jedi Master Thrash said: A sega CD breakout/arkanoid game (yeah!). Something with different stages and powerups. Also, if you've ever seen Devilish on the genesis, it's an upward scrolling arkanoid type game. Have you ever played Krakout on the C64 (it was also available for other systems)? Maybe something like this would be fun. Jedi Master Thrash said: Hey, you could make a game out of my JarJarmageddon. http://members.aol.com/jarjarmageddon/... You can run it on windows XP, but it requires VDMSound and a VESA 1.2 hack. It was written in assembly, but it's hellafun. I had it running at an engineering expo, and people would sit and play it for hours. It uses randomly generated terrain, so you can play forever without repeating. It looks pretty cool. I'm not sure about copyright issues though.

		Jedi Master Thrash		Sep 21, 2007
			If it was only a burned CD, I'd buy the image. However, I'd prefer to get a "full package" if available, with some cover and backing art, a pressed cd graphic, and maybe even some instructions (of course I'd pay more for the full package". Depending on the quality of the package, I'd be willing to spend 2 to 4 times as much as just an image. I know it's absurd, since the game development is most of the cost, and that's the same regardless of packaging, but it's just something about the whole package. Higher values would be attributed to being able to get the original honking segaCD cases and matching the art look, and maybe bonus items, kind of like how they do with saturn games in japan. Considering how easy it is to distribute CD images, it would probably be worth adding a splash screen to the start of every game mentioning who you are, and requesting donations to continue the development of retro games for the benefit of the gamers, or something like that. So if someone does download it, at least they might still send you money if they like the effort. If porting some games from older systems, putting say 4 or more on a disc would definitely make it more worthwhile. Also, I know I mentioned before I'm not as much into ports/copies. But that's more just if it's a system I already have, like SMS, game gear, NES, or Atari. But I've never had an MSX, and I always read about how all these great shooters started out on the japanese MSX/MSX2. I'd love to get some of those ported to the Genesis. Same with the TG16/PC engine. At least we had that here, but I never got one. What else, Atari ST, Commodor 64, and of course the arcades. I never played the arcades until it was too late and fun games were on the way out. Tons of arcade games were never ported to a console.

		Jedi Master Thrash		Sep 21, 2007
			Krakout sounds interesting. As I just mentioned, C64 games I never got to play would be fun. I also happened to see this arcade game at the midwest gaming classes called Avalanche, and that was an arkanoid style too. I don't think it was ever ported to a console. Also, I think there's a dearth of fun 2D beat'em'ups (like TMNT, SOR, DD style). I know there's been a bunch more fun ones of the older systems and arcades, but the aformentioned is all we have on sega and nintendo.

		ExCyber		Sep 22, 2007
			Raster said: Would you consider purchasing smaller homebrew Sega/Mega CD games starting at $10 to $13? Yes. Raster said: Assuming you would purchase the games, would you be more likely to buy just the CD or a full package? That depends on what is meant by a "full package", as well as the price difference. Raster said: Again, assuming you would purchase the games, how often would you be willing to purchase a new game, assuming the games were worth purchasing? More than two a year would probably be pushing it for me. I just don't have as much time to spend on games as I used to, and I currently have a backlog of RPGs and SRPGs to play through. Raster said: Do you buy a game as a collectable item or to play it? Almost always to play it, never as a collectible (the other option being "the cart had interesting hardware" ). Raster said: Would you be willing to pay $25 for a cartridge release? Probably not, unless the game was really good and/or used interesting hardware.

		Raster		Sep 22, 2007
			ExCyber said: That depends on what is meant by a "full package", as well as the price difference. For $10, you would get a CD with label in a paper sleeve. For $4 more you would get a standard jewel case with 4 sided booklet and tray card. Here's an example of the quality of their CDs: http://www.cafepress.com/buy//-/pv_...54518/pNo_15..._ Click on View Larger Product to see an example of each part.

		Mask of Destiny		Sep 22, 2007
			Raster said: Here's one additional question to add to the list: Would you purchase a $6 CD image, that you could burn for yourself, over a $10 (+ shipping) CD? I would purchase a $6 CD image over a $10 + shipping real disc. At $6 dollars its an impulse purchase and downloads provide the instant gratification factor.

		vbt		Nov 28, 2008
			Any news from Raster Soft ?