FreeOrion

Hi all, I check in to see how this is going about once or twice a year, I should really join in as I'm a programmer but I'm too lazy to work for free and don't really have the chops with C++ (which FO uses IIRC).

Anywhoo, have you considered getting funding for FreeOrion via Kickstarter or something like that? I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who would throw some money in the pot.

We don't really need money to work on FreeOrion, aside from paying for web hosting for the wiki and forums.

If we had sufficient donations, I suppose we could arrange to hire someone to work on FreeOrion. This could definitely speed up development, though no thought has been given to how to organize such an arrangement (legality, who to hire, how much, etc.). There is no FreeOrion bank account or legally registered organization (as far as I know), and members are spread throughout different countries.

If were were to do something of this sort, it would probably have to be set up as (or at least start with) contracts to implement a particular feature or system, rather than an open-ended "work on FreeOrion" position. Writing up the requirements for such a job would be a lot of work, and something I wouldn't be inclined to do without having funding already arranged.

We did apply for a Google Summer of Code position a few years ago, but weren't accepted.

I agree, contracts to implement specific things are a better way to start. Wesnoth has done a certain number of such contracts, and it seems to work well, especially when the contracted person has already demonstrated his ability and competence doing whatever for Wesnoth.

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We could just start a flattr account and see how willing people are to donate something. Once we reach a sufficient amount we can think about the details of contracts and what to focus on.

Maybe you could put a list of the people that made donations in the credits too? I may be able to donate some money to maybe a paypal account if the admins put a paypal address or banner in their sigs....

Flattr looks cool. Setting up a contract to work on features or new development would be difficult but really useful. Especially if there were a tip jar or something that said, "once we have X we can hire someone out to complete Y feature".

There is a Donations link on the main page of the wiki. Sourceforge takes donations through PayPal, as far as I can tell. The money goes to tzlaine, who pays for FreeOrion web hosting, which costs him significantly more than we've received in donations.

Maybe people need to be reminded, that there is a way to donate? This could be done with every new build, every release or even in dev blog posts (which should probably get mirrored on the front page). There needs to be easier access for people, who don't use the forums, to see what's going on.

Anyway to make the Donations like more noticiable on the main page? Like maybe a donations banner or button?

I like the way Truecrypt has there donation system on there website with a goal...however its a little big: http://www.truecrypt.org/

I'm not keen on making donation requests too prominent. I'd prefer it not to seem like the project is being done just to get the donation, or that continued progress requires donations.

That said, if people who want to donate can't find the link on the main page or on the sourceforge site, and don't think to google "freeorion donation", then that is a problem. Forum members are free to put donation links in their signatures, if they're so inclined...

I agree with this. The donate button isn't hard to find for the people who want to use it, and I don't find that big donation banners ever really inspire me to donate to anything.

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Well if there was enough money, perhaps the ideal option would be to first find out if tzlaine could be rented from where ever he currently works.

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A possible kickstart goal might not just be to hire someone, but perhaps part of it could be to cover the cost of a promotional/publishing company (Think IGN, or something smaller) or social media pages to advertise this project so more people can come and check it out, which may lead to greater things such as more interest in people who can assist in the project beyond donations.

Some interesting bonuses for donating certain amounts could reward the donator with something in-game, as a way to credit them. Think of pre-order bonuses in a way with games you buy from retailers, if you give them small incentives, that helps entice people to help out. I'll just throw some out there, even if they may not be suitable:

-Donators formal/legal name listed in credits
-Star System name generator list includes their formal/legal first name / surname

Via a login system perhaps rewards for donating could be supplied to the donator if they login to an account which 'one off code donator bonuses' are tied to (Login system implemented into the games shell?) -
-If you were to set up a log-in feature for the game, the donators account (if logged in) could recieve small bonuses that aid the player at the start of new single player games (Extra booster resources).
-A custom/deluxe donation package featuring unique game additions for the donators game and no one elses (these would depend on cost of labour/amount donated to suffice the time to create the requests for the donator, and implemented at a later stage before v1.0 ):
+Unique ship design(s)
+Unique race(s)
+Unique research ability(s)
+Unique UI skin(s)
^ I am certain people would donate for things like this^

-Donators could receive newer version releases earlier than sourceforge releases.

There is a few for now.. I'll be finished editing this post within the next 24 hours or less.

I have a hard time imagining kick starters getting behind a project to pay to promote an unfinished game. That's pretty indirect.



This is an open source game. And we intend to make an keep the content as easily editable as possible. Most of the rewards you mention could make sense in a closed-source game, but wouldn't work, or loose a lot of their punch with us. Anybody can edit the text file that contains star-system names for games they host, for instance. Not exactly the same as everybody seeing your name, but close.

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Well, that's understandable, and it explains more to me as to how you are working things, which is fine. I really like how good you guys are at answering questions, it's not common elsewhere on the web, so thanks

I've edited the post, so if theres anything else in there that could give a few ideas, be sure to inspect. I'm 100% more of a game player than a dev so I'm not pro on the dev side, more so speaking from a consumer point of view. But perhaps the 'rewards' could work post release /shrug