Imagine@Box : Can you Imagine a Box...

...

 

So you're asking if a platform where it is literally impossible for any developer to ever make money is viable?

...Gonna have to go with a big fat "no " on that one, boss.

edit: the more I try and figure this out, the more confused I am. Lemme try and break this down to see if I'm understanding right.

1. The "console" will cost $200 - $250
2. It can only play games made in Unity
3. You can not sell a product on it
4. This is somehow supposed to function as a "portfolio" for developers even though a PC already does this
5. People are just expected to work for free

This idea is not just poorly thought out, oh no, not at all. No, this might be one of the worst ideas anyone has ever had since saying "we should make it so players can hurt each other in Battletoads."

 

"Donations" are not a viable way of making money.

Why does this even need to be a console? This is something a WEBSITE can do. You are putting a website in a $250 box.

 

MY EYESSS.

May I kindly ask you to change the colour of the green text? ^_^ thanks

 

why? why ever?

 

hmm! Eh! hmm! eh! hmm! Eh! hmm!.....*Fade To Black*

 

[QUOTE*this fonctionnality should not obstruct the player and should not be mandatory. ][/QUOTE]

Really? You can't even spell "functionality".

 

Donations are not a reliable source of income. It's likely that a developer will not even make enough to recuperate the money spent on the box. Would monetization through advertising be allowed? If so, the idea would be slightly better, but the lack of a real market and purchases makes this an overall bad idea.

 

This isn't a very good idea.

 

What makes you think people would work for free? Make games and make little to no money. It's not logical, and quite frankly very stupid.

 

What does this offer that a website on a PC does not?

 

Basically what you're saying is you'll sell a computer where devs put their games for free in return for donations(not very profitable). Not a very good idea. Sure you disagree but I'm sure everyone else knows it's not a good idea. Devs need money to survive. I wouldn't keep commenting the way you do, you literally just called all devs that disagree stupid. Thanks for that. You just have to realize it's not a good idea and take our advice. Don't get all defensive and take everything up the ass.

I suggest you revise your idea. Again, how do you expect some people to survive when they're making pennies from donations and a few hundred viewers because of your innovative and fantastic new platform.

WHOA. Apparently google isn't a company who pays their 50 thousand employees, and they work for free.

Cheers
Khelton

 

Isn't that why there is home consoles? Playstation consoles, microsoft, nintendo, ouya and so on. You creating a computer that plays unity only games(not many are released) and make no money.

 

So you want people to make games for free with the express purpose of moving hardware units that you sell.

 

Theres no point to that then. Thats not logical.

 

Now I'm even more confused. You want people to build their own Linux consoles at home?

 

Of course I could, but I wouldn't because that wouldn't put food on the table.

 

...So why the hell wouldn't they just use a PC instead of doing this? Your idea makes less and less sense the more you explain it.

 

Are you saying I'm not an indie?

 

What are you trying to say?

 

Thats not even close to being true. Consoles don't define the line between indie and mainstream. I develop for OUYA. Thats a console. A co-worker of mine worked on several indie games that were on consoles. Just depends if you have the money or the right connections. You're seriously not making sense which was pointed out before.

PSM allows indies to develop for Vita. Nintendo recently changed their agreements to allow indies to develop for them. Look at warioworld, nintendos dev portal. Look up PSM.

 

Are you seriously saying your idea is more logical than the OUYA? HAHA. You're very special.

 

My opinion is that this is clearly a niche market and that market would be tech savy folk these people most likely own a console, and will just get an Ouya.
Not many people like putting there own PC together.

Developers won't just make games for free, you would need ether an add system, IAP or letting games sell. Games for free simply does not happen everyone is here for money.

 

Salut azert,
explique en français si tu veux, j'essaierai de traduire
(si jamais ça peut aider)

 

Creating games isn't an easy job, do you have experience? Your idea is just a waste of time for developers and quite frankly useless. I can't understad you..

 

J'avoue ils sont un peu rude sans raison ... Internet quoi, n'en tiens pas trop rigueur ;-)
Sinon n'hésite pas à le décrire ici, il y a d'autres personnes parlant français qui parcourent ce forum (et j'avoue je manque de temps ^^).

Bon courage

 

n0mad, the reason I'm being rude is he several times called me and others stupid because we don't like his idea. He has to realize it's not logical for developers who need to make money. Popularity and fame aren't a big deal if you aren't making money simultaneously.

 

People didn't go very smooth on him from the start though
But I agree with you about the money fame part, for sure. It's already a pain to price years of work more than the cost of a cookie, so I understand how proposing "working for free" can be not so well received, especially in here.

 

(ok, continuons en anglais plutôt histoire que tout le monde comprenne ^^)

So basically the only purpose would be to create a public portfolio for indies ? Just like Newgrounds site, or even the appstore (free apps), but on a console ? I understand how can it be interesting for someone who needs some recognition he didn't earn yet, but let's be realistic : fame never paid the bills.
It would be interesting for students, or people who are trying to insert into the game industry without prior titles, but like Marigold said, there is already the interweb for that kind of portfolio showcasing ;-)
Plus, there would be a risk to only attract small projects, without real investment (because it's free). Basically have tons of unfinished / learning projects crawling your store. So I'm not sure there would be a lot of game studio CEOs who would go "hey, let's buy an Imagine@Box to pick the best gamemaker around !". Once again, there's already internet site for that purpose, or even better for serious studios : the real game market

And most of all : the Ouya already fills that place

That's only my (pragmatical) opinion, though.

 

Wasn't the Ouya supposed to be upgradeable over time ?

Although, I read some articles about the Ouya's reception lately, and 90% of user comments were mentionning using pirated games (emulations and recent games aswell). It wasn't that hard to predict to be honest :s

The relevancy to this debate is : That's where "giving games for free" leads in the end. Just look at Google Play vs Appstore. Google Play users are far, far less enclined to pay for stuff, because they were already used not to pay for their games as everything is free. Meanwhile, the appstore average user will be totally ok to give a few bucks for a game he likes, thanks to Apple having used people to pay the price when they desire something.

So in our economical context, where life costs more and more, as well as production times are skyrocketting even for small indies, any console proposing to "give games for free" will not be well received by devs, undoubtedly.

 

It's completely open, so you can mod and modify performance.

Azert you're not a very professional person, everything you say seems to come out of your ass. It doesn't make sense at all, why create another version of another service? Or another website and so on. As for me, I've worked on Cubey as a project to get familiar with Desura. I'm currently doing 2 paid jobs for some Australian and some English folks. I'm not only speaking for myself when I say working for free won't pay the bills. I'm sure there are tons of devs who will agree with that. Also, I never once said I was an Adult, don't assume I'm one.

I don't even understand your reasoning.

 

Let's keep it clean here guys shall we? Azert2K please don't call anyone any names here. This is my first and last warning to all

 

Here he comes to save the day! (music)

 

@Azert2k - Seriously last warning. Cool your engines mate. He didn't call YOU stupid but he called the idea stupid. I think you misunderstood him and I also think you are a bit too defensive here. Relax. Take a deep breath.

 

I give my app away for free, and ask users to pay, only if they want to. It's a donation based system, and ... I don't recommend it at all. My new products are much better thought out. After all, even Wikipedia struggles to keep afloat and they're the 2nd most popular website IN THE F'ING WORLD!

Gigi.

 

Firstly, I am not a game developer, so I don't have the same perspective as others on this thread. My personal view is that the ImagineBox proposal does have some value. Having a standard specification device that consumers can build for themselves, so it's performance and capabilities are predictable may work for developers. Having a mechanism to get new games into the public, or reviewed and tested by a community of gamers could be valuable.

Pros
* Known hardware
* Console-style, TV gaming platform
* Platform for indy devs

Cons
* May only appeal to restricted audience. (My Mum is not going to build her own ImagineBox, but she does play iPad games
* Asking developers to pay cash towards building their own system may not prove popular
* Currently no business model that appeals to developers. (How will ImagineBox help developers make money?)
* How's this different from Steam/web portals for Unity content???

(My) Proposals
* Sign up some existing developers who commit to publishing to ImagineBox. Developers maybe more inclined to get with the program if they are not the first.
* Consider the value of cross-promotion. ("You played game X, so you may like to play game Y." "85% of people who played game Z also played games A, B and C".)
* Work on some ImagineBox SDKs that handle the devices, login, matchmaking, lobbies, ratings, community interaction. (I think the value of the the proposition is more around the services that a device would offer, and less about the actual hardware.)
* Do a KickStarter. Work out how much money you'd need to get this off the ground. I know you are not planning on selling any devices, but you may want to make, say, 100 devices, and provide them free of charge to developers who sign up and commit to seeding the game list. The wisdom (and spending power) of crowds can help you get this initiative off the ground.

I personally would not embark on this project without a clear statement of how it is different from other devices, why it will appeal to gamers, and why it will appeal to developers.

 

Ideas are like children. Once you give birth to them, you have to let them evolve and grow on their own. People are giving you feedback and you can chose to feel 'crushed by the internet' or instead, listen to other folks ideas and learn. Obscurity is the real enemy, not disagreement.

Gigi.

 

Ask yourself: what's the point? What does this offer over an improved Unity controller/input handler and a website? Why the hell would anyone build one of these things when PCs already exist? The value of a hardware target comes from being able to specifically optimise for that target, but all this is is a rough hardware guideline.

There's no point.

 

I agree that there doesn't seem to be much of a practical point to this idea.

I'm trying to understand the spirit of the idea. Imagine back when you were younger, maybe in the days Sega or SNES, if you had access to a game console that was full of games made by you and your friends. Of course it's an impracticable pipe dream, not taking into account finance and work load. I think the reason having a console is so appealing is that it would make that pipe dream more real, something you can touch, not just another random website in an endless sea of websites.

Practical? No. Aesthetically appealing? I think it can be. I think he has a dream, but he hasn't found a way to manifest it yet and the language barrier hasn't been helping.

So there is actually a point, at least to him.

 

Except you aren't proposing a console. You're proposing a part list that people would have to buy, assemble themselves, and load a linux distro onto. That is ridiculously overcomplicated when your target audience would be far more likely to just buy an Ouya or hook their existing computer up to a TV instead. The difference between this and an Ouya is simple: the Ouya is $100. The Ouya comes with a controller. The Ouya has its own dedicated storefront already built in. The Ouya allows you to actually sell things. The Ouya exists.

This isn't a well thought out idea. This isn't even a briefly thought out idea. If you considered any of this for even a moment, you'd realise how ridiculous this entire thing is.

 

How is this not locked yet?

 

You're seriously out of your mind. Because I'm not an adult makes my opinion invalid? I make over 1k a month doing freelance jobs, can't tell me I'm not experienced. You don't understand that everything is money. Without money you don't survive. You need to seriously stop being so rude and defensive because people posted there opinions. It's a public forum, you can't tell people to leave because you don't want to hear what they have to say.

 

I don't understand in what way this is a console. It is an ordinary PC (albeit with a limited range of hardware to pick from), plugged into a TV (a standard technique owing to the outputs on today's video cards) with a gamepad (another standardly available component). How is this any more of a console than my laptop that I'm typing on right now, if I were just to plug it into a gamepad and TV?

 

How is it any less?


And more importantly and forward thinking is: why make the distinction? a phone is a console for many now. We've moved on from worrying about categorisation to worrying about monetization. So finish your games.

 

How does the idea of a console that people have to build themselves and use a specific linux distro help anyone? If people want to get professional people to see their stuff, they can put it on a website. Even if they never told anyone about that site, it'd still get more exposure than this thing and the ridiculous amount of steps required to build it.

 

I'm not technically limited and I appreciate where you're coming from but it's not Viable.

 

Except building a model plane is nothing like sticking a total of 10 things into sockets in ways that only fit one way. I already built my own PC and I can play games on that. Why would I build a specific, $250 PC out of specific limited parts so that I could play absolutely NO games? Nobody would develop for this because there's no point. You can get free Unity games on PC already. You can also get free Twine games and free GameMaker games and free RPG Maker games and free games that were made in an engine that somebody made on their own. You can also get a wealth of good, paid games.

The ONLY people who would ever build something like this would be the people who are ALREADY playing games on their PC. People who ALREADY have a source of games that exist. This entire thing exists to solve a problem that you appear to have made up specifically so you can justify this thing.

 

And? Why the hell would anyone build something themselves when there's already a $100 platform for that sort of thing?

 

And so basically you think that this platform that nobody will ever use because of the numerous flaws that EVERYONE has pointed out to you will have fantastic exposure because..? There are millions of better forms of self-promotion than "just build this special PC and download this special linux distro and put it on there."

But please, continue to call everyone who disagrees with you a "kid." That totally reflects well on you.

 

So, unable to actually come up with any real counterargument, you choose to dismiss my opinion. Riiiiiiiiiiiight.