Release VVVVVV - official full version


I didn't like the fact that default OS setting is using filtering and that doesn't suit this game well, so uploaded an update to disable it by default and replaced unused opengl option with filter on/off control.
 
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I totally love the existing community homebrew stuff.... I'm trying to say that once people realise they CAN port over their releases and make a little money - it might start a craze :)

The pandora has an amazing community of developers... the more the merrier tho  :)  I love wb's nub game.... but I WAS talking about purely for profit real indie games like Kami and Super Hexagon... things that are multiplatform 

Some indie developers have a huge following... and if they started to advertise the Pandora, they could hopefully sell some units too.
I suppose.  But I never pay for anything I don't get to try for free first, where software is concerned.
 
BTW: In case you played through the game already... the community levels work fine on the Pandora as well :D
 
I love that we have a few good paid / indie titles on Pandora, and I'll buy them all to encourage the devs.

VVVVVV is one of my favourite games, one of the few games I've been keen enough to complete.  Twice, even!

A really innovative, challenging, retro-style adventure.

The awesome music is worth > $20 in itself.  You can legally extract the music using a simple script.  And, buy Souleye's albums!   :)

Playing the VVVVVV demo is sure to be more fun than posting about it in the forums!   :)

I love free software, but I'd like to make a commercial game for Pandora too.  I'll release it for free some time later.

It would be awesome to make a living by creating indie games.

  
 
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Bought me self a copy. Already owned the PC version too. Can't help but support my platform of choice.
 
There's an Android port of Don't Look Back, could that be packaged up with apkenv?


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I totally love the existing community homebrew stuff.... I'm trying to say that once people realise they CAN port over their releases and make a little money - it might start a craze :)

The pandora has an amazing community of developers... the more the merrier tho  :)  I love wb's nub game.... but I WAS talking about purely for profit real indie games like Kami and Super Hexagon... things that are multiplatform 

Some indie developers have a huge following... and if they started to advertise the Pandora, they could hopefully sell some units too.
I suppose.  But I never pay for anything I don't get to try for free first, where software is concerned.
I've donated hundreds of dollours to FOSS software over the year... hitting the donate button on the repo is the same as buying something if the quality is there.
 
Excellent, thanks for sorting this out!

I certainly have nothing against commercial software, I have put paid for software on the repository (KAMI RETRO) which was made by Paw Print Games, my indie company. Profits from selling our games are what allow us to function as a company. I have also spent time putting free titles (Aliens vs Predator) on the repository, doing the porting work in my spare time. In terms of Paw Print Games, since forming two and a half years ago I have worked 6 days per week as standard, 7 days a week during crunch, with long spells of working 12-15 hours per day and fairly little holiday. All of this works goes into trying to run a company that makes enough to pay the bills and continue development of new titles. An ongoing complaint you'll hear from independent software developers is users turn their noses up at spending a dollar for a game, yet will go to a coffee shop and spend five dollars (or a lot more in some cases) for a single coffee made from cheap beans and water. Indie developers generally pour their heart and soul into their work and 99% make *far* less than minimum wage for their efforts.

If you read the link notaz posted above you'll see how VVVVVV almost didn't get made because as an indie developer he was more than broke, he was heavily in debt. Whilst some people work a 'normal' day job and pick up monthly pay, indie's have to risk it by working long and hard, putting something out there, and hoping enough people will buy it. If everyone had the attitude that all software should be free (in price), software like VVVVVV wouldn't exist. We are already fighting against big developers churning out the same old content year in year out, playing it safe, putting profits ahead of everything, surely helping out the 'little guys' with a couple of bucks is a good way to help society!

I would say 'rant over' but this really isn't meant to be a rant, I think there was a genuine question in this thread about why software costs money, and hopefully the above gives some honest answers. :)
 
Well, no, there was not, at least from ME...a question about why software costs money.

My question would be why would indie devs expect me to shell out money for a game that might suck?  That's why I said indie devs who WANT to put "for-pay" stuff out there, should also offer a scaled down demo version, like maybe you get to play the first two screens or something...so you can decide if you might like it enough to put the money out there.

My question was why was "for-pay" stuff being put on the Repo...when it was my understanding (obviously incorrect) that the stuff on the Repo was supposed to be all free.

I was not complaining about it, nor saying it should not be there...I was just confused because my understanding was obviously incorrect.

Now, as for me - I have bought apps for other devices, and I have bought software.  I even paid a person here on the Forums to program two apps that had specific application to my own company - and my company paid him for those apps.

He's also doing one for me personally, which I won't speak about here now, because it is as yet not finished.  But many people with certain medical conditions, like me, will find it useful.  I offered to pay him for that one, even though he is also going to put it on the Repo when it's done.  I want people who need this app to be able to have it.  And as I said, I offered to pay for that one, but the programmer refused.  So, likely enough, I'll make a donation, at some point, to Pandy in his name.

I also have the original developer of PanDafe working on expanding it's capabilities, once he gets some time...and I would gladly shoot him a few bucks if he can make it do what I'm looking for.

My point in all this is:

If I, myself, commission the software, and am also, therefore, stating the specs for the software, I expect to pay and do pay.

On the other hand...an indie dev (and there are thousands of them out there) who wants me to cough up cash for whatever he programmed (with no input from me) needs to give me a taste of what it is before I decide to lay out money on it.  That's all I'm saying.

All THAT said, I see a demo of VVVVVV has been put up, and, if I get a chance in time, I will probably try it and see what I think.

This won;t happen for a couple weeks at least, because I have to catch up on all my work by Monday, because I am then going out of town to a convention for a week.  So the next two weeks are very busy and mobile for me, I'm not going to have a lot of time to try out much of anything!
 
Did anyone else finish VVVVVV and collect all the trinkets on their Pandora yet?   :p

Can we have compo4all support for the super Gravitron?   :)

success.jpg
 
@Kumaki: Cool; it's great you are helping Pandora development by teaming up with people to get software made (regardless if it is software that is of special interest to you)! Don't take my post above as being directed at you, just see it as some reasons why it is nice to support indie developers.

With regards to making demo versions, sure this is an option, but it takes some amount of time (both in terms of a little coding, perhaps a couple of graphics 'If you liked this try the full version', some time spent on the packaging (stripping out data not used for the demo), in the case of VVVVVV this would have need to be cleared with the original author. Sometimes the first few screens work fine as a demo, sometimes they aren't as fun as later screens, so the demo needs more work done to get it 'right'. This isn't necessarily huge amounts of time, but is typically uninteresting work. Luckily in the case of VVVVVV a demo is actually available so you are in luck.

From a end users point of view, their decision to download some software typically boils down to something along the lines of:

  1. Scan software list, typically this will be either 'featured' titles on the store, or the top 10/25/50/100 application/games or perhaps the top games in a specific genre, for Pandora the forums come into play too
  2. Based on software name, icon, average rating and price decide if the software sounds interesting to you
  3. If interested, go to details page, immediately look at screenshots
  4. If screenshots are interesting enough then read first line of description to see if is the sort of game you think it is
  5. Read a couple of reviews to make sure there aren't any major problems
  6. Make decisions whether to download game, potentially reading full description and comments if the title costs money
The above applies to both free and paid titles. However at step 6, if it is a paid title, and a free demo is available, some number of people will grab the demo. So there are a lot of steps to get someone to download your game, a demo is certainly an option, although getting people to the point of even wanting a demo is hard work (this is obvious by the fact there is *loads* of free software on the Pandora, which only gets downloaded by a relatively small % of people, so it isn't the price point that typically gets in the way, it's convincing the end user to at least carefully consider your title).

I'm sure some people on this forum will be able to say the above isn't how they 'shop' for stuff to download on their Pandora, but I believe it is a rough break down for the 'average' user (what ever an 'average' user is).

Anyway, I feel I have derailed this thread enough! Lets enjoy some VVVVVV.
 
Did anyone else finish VVVVVV and collect all the trinkets on their Pandora yet?   :p
The only Trinket I'm missing is that evil one where you have to move all the way up and then down again (with all these spikes).

I managed to almost get back down, but decided to do it sometimes later.
 
Kumaki: The repo was never meant to be Free - only open. So there are no restrictions, as such, for what you are allowed to offer on the repo and you may sell/distribute for free or donationware or support the Pandora preorderware. This is very different to how the Android Play store and the Apple Store works... you have to tick their boxes and have your app verified before it gets listed.
 
Did anyone else finish VVVVVV and collect all the trinkets on their Pandora yet?   :p
I did (with the engine-only version and the data from the applicable hundlebumble). I never managed on the PC, but the Pandora version runs slow enough to give an old man a chance.

And yes, veni vidi vici vidi veni did still take a few attempts ...
 
I kind of want to buy this to show support for the Pandora as a viable sales platform of indie games, but at the same time I've already purchased VVVVVV 3 times, can I really justify buying it a fourth?
 
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