Support 0 AD - Open source real-time strategy game | Hacker News Reader

Support 0 AD - Open source real-time strategy game

indiegogo.com

24 points300bps8 comments

Previous discussion (it got 532 points just a month ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6339917

GitHub mirror of the source: https://github.com/0ad/0ad

The thing I'm having a hard time understanding is with so many fans of Age of Empires out there and so much seeming visibility why people don't seem to be donating?

I've downloaded the Alpha version of the game and when I compare it to some successful IndieGoGo campaigns (http://blog.indiegogo.com/2012/12/top12.html) it just makes me wonder if these guys seem to have a great concept and great game but they're just terrible at publicity?

It's good that they use flexible funding and will get their funds regardless if the goal is reached or not. Very ambitious goal indeed.

For me at least, flex funding is a big warning sign. If the target goal is not met, it's not clear how the funds will be used (AFAICT there's no restriction) -- it could just line the founders' pockets with no progress on the project

It's open source software with clear funding goals. ($40K gives us 2 guys for 6 months, $60K gives us 2 guys for 9 months etc.) Each dollar donated gives us more developer time, and I'm confident they'll linearly interpolate. The game is playable now, so there's no risk of non-delivery, but by donating you can make it better.

Thanks for bringing up the issue. I saw that they have at the bottom of their campaign a, "What are the goals for the campaign?" with listed dollar amounts for each goal. For $40,000 for example they have, "Reduce or Eliminate Lag".

Of course no guarantee they'll do that if they reach that level but I'm not sure if there is a guarantee they'll succeed at anything even if they reach the total goal amount.

I downloaded this after seeing it on HN last time and played for a good 2 hours (something I haven't done in years).. then it crashed on me and I realized I'd been playing for 2 hours when I really should've been doing more productive things. I'll chip in so as not to get reminded of real work next time and I can just keep playing.

There are only 10 days left in the IndieGogo campaign. For anyone that loved to play Age of Empires, this seems a worthy successor and there is a substantial portion of the game built already.

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