

Bootstrapping an MMO with its MVPs - Partyboat
http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/Bootstrapping_an_MMO_with_its_by-products

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nihilocrat
I'm a bit confused by the tone of this article. It sounds like the writer
doesn't really understand the gaming industry, indie games, or the flash
gaming market.

 _plus sponsors are salivating with anticipation for his upcoming "games"
which are actually nothing more than gameplay prototypes and/or funding
infusions._

What? Steambirds isn't really a game? All its polish and carefully refined
gameplay doesn't get it past prototype status? Even a seemingly simple game
like that takes months to create for just one person. There is nothing about
the game that feels unfinished. To me this sounds like if you told people you
work as a senior programmer at a (funded) web startup and they ask "Oh, cool!
So, what do you do for money?"

 _One of my favourite tidbits is that he did no direct sales -- he just
uploaded to a game licensing site and gave them 10%._

This makes it pretty obvious he is ignorant of the flash market. This is par
for the course in Flash games; you almost never see people do direct sales
(Captain Forever being a notable exception) and 99% of the games you see are
sold to sponsors and then put on the sponsor portals. I find it pretty weird
that he thought it was some dangerous and ingenious business model that Andy
thought of himself.

Sorry to have one of those "but someone is WRONG on the INTERNET" moments, but
I would have liked the article if it just weren't so ignorant of what its
writing about.

~~~
robfitz
The first question comes down to perspective. I totally agree that from the
player/portal's perspective it's a full, polished game. But from his
perspective, and given his ongoing business intent, it's acting as more of an
internal prototype that he had the good sense to polish and sell.

On the second, my reaction is less about its novelty compared to the rest of
the flash game biz, and based more on how it compares to web startups in
general. Even a market as commoditized as display advertising still relies on
a lot of personal contacts and haggling. It's a nice surprise to see a B2B
market that can run so efficiently.

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revoltingx
Very interesting stuff, specially for those of us building our dream mmos
(<http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/>)

I wouldn't have gone the route he did though, I probably would have invested
the original million dollars in something a bit safer than a software company
that yields less profit.

After working on my game for a year now and don't ever see myself selling it
if/when I release it. I'd much rather live off a little bit of money and make
the game I want.

