A number of people now have asked me why I don’t sell the game and I was told they’d be perfectly willing to pay money for it. After all, a lot of time and work goes into this project and it would be nice to be rewarded. And as I’m working on this in the spare time that’s left after my demanding day job, I often find myself working until 3 or 4 in the morning (much to the disapproval of my girlfriend, understandably).
So why don’t I charge money for the game?
First of all, it’s a fun undertaking, one that I’ve always wanted to do. Which means I’m not in it for the profit. More importantly though I hope that this game will be a very nice reference in the portfolio of everyone involved. Everyone who’s working on this project is doing their very best to make this a quality experience: The music composer, all of the voice actors, and finally me. I’d really like this game to be a forum for their talent and give them as much publicity as possible.
However, that will only work if the game reaches as many people as possible. If I were to charge money for it, I wouldn’t be able to release and advertise it in the same ways as if it were free. People wouldn’t be able to copy it freely (except illegally), and the audience would be drastically reduced to paying customers. However many those would be, they would be significantly less than with a freeware game.
Another reason for a free distribution is that I want to contribute to the adventure gaming world which has endured quite a drought in the last decade. There are many high quality adventure games these days and the genre as a whole is on the rise again, although it may never again achieve the kind of popularity it enjoyed in the early 1990s. I’d just like to do my little part in that. Who knows, maybe Dirty Split will reach a few people who usually wouldn’t touch adventure games, and maybe it helps some newcomers to the genre to see the beauty in it.
Anyway, I hope everyone will enjoy the game.
As for the reward and appreciation thing: I’ve set up a Donation button in the sidebar to the right. Maybe this will help cover the costs of development and hosting a bit. It will also show me if people appreciate all this work and encourage me to continue with future projects a lot more ambitious than Dirty Split. If there won’t be any support at all then that will also be a very definitive sign for me.
So if you like this project, please consider making a little donation. :o)