Things moved too slowly, we had too many false promises made to us. The ones of us that did stay and develop the large projects all lost money, big money - but we were in the position to lose it. Dryeyece and I had to walk away 3 years ago, we both have families to support and we both lost nearly everything developing for this platform.
The dream of working at Blizzard is always in our hearts, but that dream doesn't put food on the table, or pay the rent or mortgage.
At the end of the day, it always comes down to money. The fact that we were promised a marketplace for all those years and it was never delivered, in hindsight yea, the industry was changing, no one was going to repeat the success of Dota in the early 2000s - as at that time the only way to make an Indi game was through 3rd party editors (Staredit/Wc3Editor), in 2010 we had to compete against Steam and App Stores. And we must not forget all those industry people watching these forums like hawks, "borrowing" every good idea and quickly flipping it on another platform that was monetised or incorporating it into triple-A titles.
There are real people behind those ideas, real developers with real families to support. We were all starving artists, just wanting to make the world a more fun place one game at a time. But when you have young ones you have to look after, that is not fair, it's not fair at all.
My heart still breaks thinking about what happened and what could have been. All we wanted to do was make games.
That is all.
I am no longer in the position where I can sacrifice time helping people here with development issues. Like with Ryan Winzen and SCU, I am thinking about releasing the source code and assets to all our work so others can learn, not with commercial licences obviously, but I have to discuss this with the numerous other people involved.
I will keep an eye on this thread if you want to ask questions or discuss anything.
Yea... it's best to have a clear monetization plan, rather than hope one will come along or be developed for you prior to starting such work...
Sorry if I sound blunt, but being an accountant, it seems sort of obvious to me... at the same time were also known for being overly conservative, so it's not like I'll ever be a billionaire either :P
Well, in the least, I hope you enjoyed the time you spent!
I hope they will launch an: Game editor, with all models that are used in all Blizzard games.
Seperated from Starcraft II, in the Blizzard launch app. With own News sections, from well supported Maps / own Campaigns, by the community.
-time to time a update on the same date as SC II recieve a new patch.
-Add objective's in Heroes and Overwatch so they will play Editor maps.
For example: play 5 campaign missions.
Allow an extra tool, you can give critics after you finished game (that will be send to mail of Maker).
Soon they allow Destiny 2 in the launch app (A non Blizzard Game). For Bungie only to increase their numbers on their PC users.
Lets hope a SC2mapster person will win the Co-up map contest. And can tell Blizzard how much survering is going on to keep mapping interesting and the problems you guys encounter with the editor (to their faces when you can manage to travel there).
Stuff like this is scary. Seems like this person had many dreams and passions that were shattered due to false promises and lack of simply basic real life resources. Although that being said. Working for Blizzard might not be as pleasant as it seems. They are likely to be very demanding of their workers. For me it would likely feel just like what it is: A job.
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We got left behind.
Things moved too slowly, we had too many false promises made to us. The ones of us that did stay and develop the large projects all lost money, big money - but we were in the position to lose it. Dryeyece and I had to walk away 3 years ago, we both have families to support and we both lost nearly everything developing for this platform.
The dream of working at Blizzard is always in our hearts, but that dream doesn't put food on the table, or pay the rent or mortgage.
At the end of the day, it always comes down to money. The fact that we were promised a marketplace for all those years and it was never delivered, in hindsight yea, the industry was changing, no one was going to repeat the success of Dota in the early 2000s - as at that time the only way to make an Indi game was through 3rd party editors (Staredit/Wc3Editor), in 2010 we had to compete against Steam and App Stores. And we must not forget all those industry people watching these forums like hawks, "borrowing" every good idea and quickly flipping it on another platform that was monetised or incorporating it into triple-A titles.
There are real people behind those ideas, real developers with real families to support. We were all starving artists, just wanting to make the world a more fun place one game at a time. But when you have young ones you have to look after, that is not fair, it's not fair at all.
My heart still breaks thinking about what happened and what could have been. All we wanted to do was make games.
That is all.
I am no longer in the position where I can sacrifice time helping people here with development issues. Like with Ryan Winzen and SCU, I am thinking about releasing the source code and assets to all our work so others can learn, not with commercial licences obviously, but I have to discuss this with the numerous other people involved.
I will keep an eye on this thread if you want to ask questions or discuss anything.
- Dogmai
It is sad that you are retiring from SC2. You will be missed.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
Yea... it's best to have a clear monetization plan, rather than hope one will come along or be developed for you prior to starting such work...
Sorry if I sound blunt, but being an accountant, it seems sort of obvious to me... at the same time were also known for being overly conservative, so it's not like I'll ever be a billionaire either :P
Well, in the least, I hope you enjoyed the time you spent!
I hope they will launch an: Game editor, with all models that are used in all Blizzard games.
Seperated from Starcraft II, in the Blizzard launch app. With own News sections, from well supported Maps / own Campaigns, by the community.
-time to time a update on the same date as SC II recieve a new patch.
-Add objective's in Heroes and Overwatch so they will play Editor maps.
For example: play 5 campaign missions.
Allow an extra tool, you can give critics after you finished game (that will be send to mail of Maker).
Soon they allow Destiny 2 in the launch app (A non Blizzard Game). For Bungie only to increase their numbers on their PC users.
Lets hope a SC2mapster person will win the Co-up map contest. And can tell Blizzard how much survering is going on to keep mapping interesting and the problems you guys encounter with the editor (to their faces when you can manage to travel there).
Well a lack of decent documentation for large chunks of the editor is enough to put a lot of beginners off. Then there are the bugs.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
Stuff like this is scary. Seems like this person had many dreams and passions that were shattered due to false promises and lack of simply basic real life resources. Although that being said. Working for Blizzard might not be as pleasant as it seems. They are likely to be very demanding of their workers. For me it would likely feel just like what it is: A job.