The only experience I've had with ruby was picking through someone else's code once where they really were not programming in ruby, but instead using a bunch of gems to sort of solve a problem that (from my perspective) was easier to solve by writing a little code in any language. I remember the guy had supposedly spent six months on the project... I wrote my own application for it in six normal working days. Not a slight against ruby programmers, ruby, or anything, but just a random aside.
Sounds to me like this is an open source project that a couple of OS X geniuses could knock out in a season.
The point of the Kickstarter is that they have to take time off from work to do it. Gotta pay the bills somehow.
And the whole Rails situation can be kind of a mess, because there are multiple versions of Ruby and Rails that you have to manage, and I could see dealing with all that BS being enough of a barrier for someone to say "screw it" and use something else for their project.
In other news, Ground Floor has been flirting with the $75k threshold, at which point TMG promised to add in a whole second game (Skyline, a small dice game) at no additional charge. It went from about $63 to the $75 over the course of the day Sunday, after which it blew the fuck up cause the free game was triggered. Then Tycho posted about it and continued to blow it the fuck up.
Psst! You guys should back this cute Kickstarter of The Garlicks.
I mean check out this description: THE GARLICKS is story about a vampire girl, for girls. (But so far, guys have dug it a lot--I call this the My Little Pony Effect: if it's good, it's for everyone!) It's my first all-ages book, and my first creator-owned graphic novel in color.
Based on the Khoo & A (Khoolaid?) they said advertising was ~20% of their revenues IIRC. So it probably is "go big or go home" regarding the dollar amounts.
To paraphrase what Dave Riley said once about us in the early days of baby podcasting.
"They're full of themselves, but they kind of deserve to be."
Penny Arcade is the real life story of two guys who, with nothing more than sheer determination, founded an icon of gaming culture, currently culminating in two of the biggest and best gaming conventions in the world.
Those numbers are not unrealistic, nor are they egotistical. In fact, they're a little under what the market will probably bear.
"We NEED to make millions off of our webcomic property or it's not worth doing."
Meh.
I don't think that's exactly what's going on here. I mean they employ like 20 people, plus hosting costs for the comic and all the PATV video, they pay for the production company that does the realty show, Child's Play, 2 PAXs, etc. And yeah they are asking for a lot, but that is what they earn right now from those ads each year.
And apparently Gabe has said that if they go over the remove all ads goal, any additional money would go towards the next year's goal.
To paraphrase what Dave Riley said once about us in the early days of baby podcasting.
"They're full of themselves, but they kind of deserve to be."
Penny Arcade is the real life story of two guys who, with nothing more than sheer determination, founded an icon of gaming culture, currently culminating in two of the biggest and best gaming conventions in the world.
Those numbers are not unrealistic, nor are they egotistical. In fact, they're a little under what the market will probably bear.
I grant that they accomplished something amazing and have a right to be proud of it.
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And the whole Rails situation can be kind of a mess, because there are multiple versions of Ruby and Rails that you have to manage, and I could see dealing with all that BS being enough of a barrier for someone to say "screw it" and use something else for their project.
In other news, Ground Floor has been flirting with the $75k threshold, at which point TMG promised to add in a whole second game (Skyline, a small dice game) at no additional charge. It went from about $63 to the $75 over the course of the day Sunday, after which it blew the fuck up cause the free game was triggered. Then Tycho posted about it and continued to blow it the fuck up.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang?ref=live
That internet shit storm gave her more backers than causing harm, imo.
If she came to PAX and did a panel, that would be awesome.
I mean check out this description:
THE GARLICKS is story about a vampire girl, for girls. (But so far, guys have dug it a lot--I call this the My Little Pony Effect: if it's good, it's for everyone!) It's my first all-ages book, and my first creator-owned graphic novel in color.
I will probably just pledge $30, make my own cloth play mat so I can easily transport the game anywhere.
Edit: I want that large Yoshi plushy in Robert Khoo's office. OMG.
Kudos to them for trying to make patronage a thing again, though.
Meh.
"They're full of themselves, but they kind of deserve to be."
Penny Arcade is the real life story of two guys who, with nothing more than sheer determination, founded an icon of gaming culture, currently culminating in two of the biggest and best gaming conventions in the world.
Those numbers are not unrealistic, nor are they egotistical. In fact, they're a little under what the market will probably bear.
And apparently Gabe has said that if they go over the remove all ads goal, any additional money would go towards the next year's goal.