Funding Godzone scenery in X-plane and/or Aerofly FS2
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:32 pmOk, time to make some decisions about the new simulators. The main limitation is the same as it's been for FSX/Prepar3d development over the last five years, a combination of changes in the market for New Zealand simmers, plus my own issues, which began with my health almost 8 years ago, and included divorce and earthquakes.
Now we are poised on the brink of a whole new choice of sims, and I'd hate to see New Zealanders miss out just because we're such a tiny market. Ideally, I'd like to create new scenery for every main simulator which New Zealanders use, but there's a lot we just don't know about how some sims will work, and whether it is possible to produce and market addon scenery to the 'Real NZ' quality. And frankly, I just don't earn enough at the moment to spend the time and money on the work required to figure some of this out. When there are changes in the market, which we have in spades at the moment, people just stop buying addon scenery until they have time to evaluate the choices. So a few orders a week have become a trickle.
I am hoping to undertake some fundraising using Kickstarter. This is not a common thing for flightsim addons, and I can understand why, with the current system people are able to spend their money on finished products, so they can have a clear idea of what they are getting for their money.
However there are many reasons why I think this would work well for this particular project. Plenty of people know me, and what I've done in the past for FSX and Prepar3d (and FS2004 before that), and know that I can delivery what I promise, even if I've been far too slow and inconsistent lately. There are two ways to work as a scenery developer (well, a lot more that that, but bear with me:), either you can follow the market, and go where the money is, or you can do it for one particular little country, with heaps of appeal but not many simmers. I've made no bones about doing this, I produce New Zealand scenery, because there's a lack of it, the fact that the lack is mostly to do with poor returns is just another issue to overcome.
Just a quick intro to Kickstarter.com. Here people can put together a plan for a particular product, and seek pledges to raise the funds to fulfil these pledges. The funding part of Kickstarter normally run for a short time, one or two months being common, with a set financial goal. If this goal is met, the project is funded, if not then no money changes hands. There can be a number of pledge levels, giving different rewards.
So a rough idea of how my project would work -- the goal is to fund a project to produce some New Zealand scenery for X-plane and Aerofly FS2, in the hope of finding a suitable market to continue with these two sims, in addition to FSX and Prepar3d. Initially, this will be aimed at new versions of existing Real NZ and Godzone scenery -- in particular, Real NZ Dunedin, Nelson, and the existing photoscenery subscription areas, plus a couple of photoscenery areas currently in development.
Pledges tiers have yet to be decided, but I would imagine that there might be a NZ$25 tier, giving a single scenery release for at least one of these simulators. (Note that a normal Real NZ scenery costs NZ$35.)
Another tier might cover multiple releases, similar to the subscription, which has been renamed to a photoscenery compilation. This could be NZ$80.
And finally there's a top tier for those who want to support me, based on their experience with my scenery over the years, and are keen to show their support in a big way. I'm not sure what this would cost, but I would think that it could cover a few years of releases, and could cover all simulators, not just the new ones.
Note that projects normally have an expected time frame, but this is a guide only. If the project is funded, but fails, there is a chance that backers will not get the results they expected. This is an important consideration, which even those who know me well will have to decide -- I won't be doing this forever, but hopefully I have a good decade left in me yet. Would you put money on that?
To make this work, I would call on those who are confident I can deliver to help me promote it. I have a reach of 400+ on Facebook, and a few more here on NZFF, but really I need to reach double that to reach my target.
This thread is open to any ideas and discussions on the idea, please don't hold back if you have any thoughts you'd like to share.
Note that the inspiration for this was a couple of simmer's donations recently, one which I used to purchase X-plane, and the other the gifting of Aerofly FS2. It's this sort of support which encourages me to ask local simmers for this level of commitment -- ideally I'd love to support myself purely on sales of existing products, but this isn't currently working.
Why not Flight Simulator World? Well, this could happen, but at the moment there is no real way to produce scenery, and no idea of when a SDK will arrive. I'm less concerned about the 'early access' label, but I really need know whether making great New Zealand scenery is a possibility. Aerofly is in a similar position, but at least there is a SDK, and the promise of a new photoscenery tool. But with X-plane, I've already made a start, and things are looking promising.
So, what do you think?
Now we are poised on the brink of a whole new choice of sims, and I'd hate to see New Zealanders miss out just because we're such a tiny market. Ideally, I'd like to create new scenery for every main simulator which New Zealanders use, but there's a lot we just don't know about how some sims will work, and whether it is possible to produce and market addon scenery to the 'Real NZ' quality. And frankly, I just don't earn enough at the moment to spend the time and money on the work required to figure some of this out. When there are changes in the market, which we have in spades at the moment, people just stop buying addon scenery until they have time to evaluate the choices. So a few orders a week have become a trickle.
I am hoping to undertake some fundraising using Kickstarter. This is not a common thing for flightsim addons, and I can understand why, with the current system people are able to spend their money on finished products, so they can have a clear idea of what they are getting for their money.
However there are many reasons why I think this would work well for this particular project. Plenty of people know me, and what I've done in the past for FSX and Prepar3d (and FS2004 before that), and know that I can delivery what I promise, even if I've been far too slow and inconsistent lately. There are two ways to work as a scenery developer (well, a lot more that that, but bear with me:), either you can follow the market, and go where the money is, or you can do it for one particular little country, with heaps of appeal but not many simmers. I've made no bones about doing this, I produce New Zealand scenery, because there's a lack of it, the fact that the lack is mostly to do with poor returns is just another issue to overcome.
Just a quick intro to Kickstarter.com. Here people can put together a plan for a particular product, and seek pledges to raise the funds to fulfil these pledges. The funding part of Kickstarter normally run for a short time, one or two months being common, with a set financial goal. If this goal is met, the project is funded, if not then no money changes hands. There can be a number of pledge levels, giving different rewards.
So a rough idea of how my project would work -- the goal is to fund a project to produce some New Zealand scenery for X-plane and Aerofly FS2, in the hope of finding a suitable market to continue with these two sims, in addition to FSX and Prepar3d. Initially, this will be aimed at new versions of existing Real NZ and Godzone scenery -- in particular, Real NZ Dunedin, Nelson, and the existing photoscenery subscription areas, plus a couple of photoscenery areas currently in development.
Pledges tiers have yet to be decided, but I would imagine that there might be a NZ$25 tier, giving a single scenery release for at least one of these simulators. (Note that a normal Real NZ scenery costs NZ$35.)
Another tier might cover multiple releases, similar to the subscription, which has been renamed to a photoscenery compilation. This could be NZ$80.
And finally there's a top tier for those who want to support me, based on their experience with my scenery over the years, and are keen to show their support in a big way. I'm not sure what this would cost, but I would think that it could cover a few years of releases, and could cover all simulators, not just the new ones.
Note that projects normally have an expected time frame, but this is a guide only. If the project is funded, but fails, there is a chance that backers will not get the results they expected. This is an important consideration, which even those who know me well will have to decide -- I won't be doing this forever, but hopefully I have a good decade left in me yet. Would you put money on that?
To make this work, I would call on those who are confident I can deliver to help me promote it. I have a reach of 400+ on Facebook, and a few more here on NZFF, but really I need to reach double that to reach my target.
This thread is open to any ideas and discussions on the idea, please don't hold back if you have any thoughts you'd like to share.
Note that the inspiration for this was a couple of simmer's donations recently, one which I used to purchase X-plane, and the other the gifting of Aerofly FS2. It's this sort of support which encourages me to ask local simmers for this level of commitment -- ideally I'd love to support myself purely on sales of existing products, but this isn't currently working.
Why not Flight Simulator World? Well, this could happen, but at the moment there is no real way to produce scenery, and no idea of when a SDK will arrive. I'm less concerned about the 'early access' label, but I really need know whether making great New Zealand scenery is a possibility. Aerofly is in a similar position, but at least there is a SDK, and the promise of a new photoscenery tool. But with X-plane, I've already made a start, and things are looking promising.
So, what do you think?
