So, how much does torn city and other browser games make?

[Jackolantern]

I think you may be underestimating how much time goes in to running even a moderately sized community in a game. You will have to support the game, which will often involve patching it (or, for PHP, updating scripts), settling player disputes that go to GM level, watching and analyzing log files to catch cheaters, backing up the SQL files in case of a crash or data corruption, etc. It can really take up a lot of time.

[jpoisson]

Ain't that the truth, really I suggest unless you have a lot of spare time get a few buddies to help you maintain the game.

[hallsofvallhalla]

i can account for that. During FS's first 2 weeks of beta I was was constantly working on it. Dealing with bugs, reading pms from players, watching the forums. Oh it was some work.

In my personal opinion if I only average $15 a hour then I will make the game for free instead. If I was a student though I could see the value in it but in my normal career I easily make twice or three times that so it would be no thrill to me. It would be easier to make the game free and not have to update it as much.

It is interesting to see the difference in people's outcome goal and how it can affect a game though.

[Callan S.]

I think you may be underestimating how much time goes in to running even a moderately sized community in a game. You will have to support the game, which will often involve patching it (or, for PHP, updating scripts), settling player disputes that go to GM level, watching and analyzing log files to catch cheaters, backing up the SQL files in case of a crash or data corruption, etc. It can really take up a lot of time.

I think alot of coders I see here have more of a priority on making a living world or some sort of quality like that, than having the optimisation of the development time/pay ratio as first priority. Indeed I'd almost think it doesn't come to mind for most people at all.

So it that how much time goes into it? Or is it just a cultural trend that it's that way, and most people just don't look into optimising the dev time/pay ratio?

For example, the script they fight crime I imagine doesn't get much dev effort and it just runs along by itself. Yeah, sure, it's just random - but I think it delivers a certain amount of content with very little handling time. That's the key - content delivered without much dev effort at all.

Perhaps it's not a great example because their is no user interaction, but I think it is an example of how content can be delivered without much dev time invested at all.

And heck, in terms of user interaction I've seen more than a few browser games which involve clicking the same button over and over again.

Anyway, I see potential there. And I'm not sure I'm trying to make money for thrills - I'm trying to be more my own independent self rather than relying solely on a brittle fiscal societal infrastructure and saying yes to bent philosophies to make sure I eat (it doesn't matter if you just pretend to agree with your boss - eventually pretend agreeing will become real agreeing). I'm trying to find ways of hooking out of that 'matrix' to some degree. Even a small degree.

[Jackolantern]

If you have a 100% free-to-play game, it is ok to just let the game go along on its own. However, if you are opening up some kind of purchases or other subscription-type game, that is just not possible, nor wise. When people pay anything, they will expect that product or service to be delivered correctly, and as they envisioned it (even if how they envisioned it is not how it is in reality). These all mean more issues that you as the dev will have to deal with.

Believe me, almost every commercial dev has looked at their projects on a time:pay ratio. It is just that it requires a lot of time to manage. Those other devs are not just wasting time on things that don't really need to be done, or not trying to optimize their operations

[Callan S.]

Well one stage of monetization is google adsense or project wonderful (admittedly they will probably show adverts for other games, so you have to decide if your okay with being an 'in between' game. Which heck, your gunna be to some degree anyway). I've heard on another forum of a browser game which got the cash out amount from adsense per month. And that's a passive, low dev time design.

But in terms of taking money (and apart from manually processing paypal payments then toggling over a bit in the database) I think I'd look at evidence as to why in practical, physical terms it takes alot of time.

[Jackolantern]

Well one stage of monetization is google adsense or project wonderful (admittedly they will probably show adverts for other games, so you have to decide if your okay with being an 'in between' game. Which heck, your gunna be to some degree anyway). I've heard on another forum of a browser game which got the cash out amount from adsense per month. And that's a passive, low dev time design.

But in terms of taking money (and apart from manually processing paypal payments then toggling over a bit in the database) I think I'd look at evidence as to why in practical, physical terms it takes alot of time.

Just try running a game for a couple of months and you will see It could be a MUD, a NWN PW, etc. Talk to someone who has run one. I think most will tell you that it is a huge time commitment.

I can understand just having Google ads and other such banners. Passive things like that do generate some money, while still seeming completely free to the user. In that case, players will likely be ok with only getting admin responses once every couple of days. But if you actively take money from players and only put in a couple of hours a week, you will get a bad name very quickly, and could even be opening yourself up to legal trouble (someone buys something, a system glitch causes them to not get it, and your low amounts of time dealing with the game lets it slip through the cracks). You will just have to take everyone's word for how much time maintaining a happy, commercially-viable community takes. Many commercial ventures turn just that one task in to several full-time employees (community managers).

[Callan S.]

Heh, if I just took peoples word for things, I wouldn't be here to begin with

[ConceptDestiny]

The key to this is advertising. Create a few banners, write an attractive blerb about your RPG then get out there and advertise everywhere you can. There are countless forums and ranked listing game sites, and even google, that you can get your RPG advertised.

Remember to adopt a very proactive advertising routine and (providing your game is good enough), you'll end up with dozens of players visiting, and hopefully staying.

[Jackolantern]

This conversation is 5 months old