Kickstarter for ex-spectrum programmers?

[Wall_Axe]

Just wondering if anyone would contribute to Kickstarters that were created by Jim Bagley,Ian Oliver (3d starstrike),the Oliver twins to create new spectrum games?
Or is there a reason none have been made?

[Morkin]

Good question, has nobody done it yet?

Without being overly pessimistic, I'm wondering whether there'd be much traction for a game Kickstarter? Even one by an 80s Speccy programming legend.

I can understand hardware Kickstarters because of production/design costs.

Just wondered why they couldn't just write a game (which wouldn't really cost anything except their time) and then sell it, like modern Speccy developers do, to cover printing, tape dupe costs etc. Would be interesting to see how many units it would shift.

[Wall_Axe]

I think they would have to put a lot of effort in , even the programming legends. So if they are not certain of any decent reward they might not have the motivation.

In his recent interview the programmer of starstrike said he wasn't interested in making any more spectrum games.

If a Kickstarter was done, they'd be able to focus on the game as they were able back in the day as it was their job.

[Ralf]

Sorry to say that but there would be probably too little interest to gain any real money from that.

Retrofans are spoilt by getting stuff for free

Here you have some failed attempt:
https://www.eurogamer.net/oliver-twins- ... ickstarter

It's exactly the same Oliver Twins that you mention. And they were aiming for a game for modern PC so their potential
target were not only Speccy users but practically anyone who lived in the 80s and owned a home computer.
And it wasn't enough.

[Wall_Axe]

Oh didn't know about that.
Still, the reasons might be:
-we have loads of dizzy games already
-it was not for the spectrum

I could be wrong of course.

The spectrum next got people to pay large sums of money,they are doing well on Kickstarter. So I can believe that a lot of people would contribute a tenner or so to a programming legend.

[PeteProdge]

In essence, you are asking people to do the same job they were doing about four decades ago, but without the support of a publisher's professional marketing department, to a potential audience that's a tiny fraction of what it was in the mid-1980s.

I can see why the idea isn't popular with commercial-era programmers.

[Morkin]

As Ralf indicated a few seem to be hobby-writing games on modern platforms (Steve Turner, Andrew Braybrook, Kevin Toms spring to mind).

Maybe we need to badger them a bit more to write for the Speccy...

[clebin]

The new Marsmare game (delayed as a knock on to the international situation) raised over £12k on Kickstarter so the appetite is there for the right game I think, but it’s not enough to give up the day job.

I was surprised Dizzy didn’t do better to be honest but maybe potential backers doubted its ability to reach the high amount they were asking for. There’s a lot of competition on modern platforms too. A more modest Dizzy game for 8 and/or 16 bits on physical media might have raised more.

[AndyC]

There's really not enough money in the 8-bit retro scene to actually pay the kind of salaries a developer/artist/musician etc would expect for this kind of work. And if you aren't earning a real salary, then it's a hobby. And when it's a hobby, the pressure of people's expectations because they've put money in a pot starts to make the whole thing feel more like work...

[Ralf]

And when it's a hobby, the pressure of people's expectations because they've put money in a pot starts to make the whole thing feel more like work...

Exactly. And when you fail to deliver what they expect, they can become really toxic.

Remember the Vega saga? The guys who promised Vega to the backers were greedy and stupid and lost all the cash for lawyers and fighting against each other. But the backers with their hatred and trolling were even worse.

[8BitAG]

There have been some successful Kickstarters by ex-Spectrum programmers; for games on modern platforms, though.

For example Julian Gollop did a Chaos-related game for the PC.

[AndyC]

There have been some successful Kickstarters by ex-Spectrum programmers; for games on modern platforms, though.

For example Julian Gollop did a Chaos-related game for the PC.

There's a much bigger market for retro style PC games and, with engines like Unity, a much lower barrier to entry because development is just a lot easier.