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Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

kotaku.com

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Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#171

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

_bernd wrote: post #170
ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifetime royalty fee on any related worldwide gross revenue is a happy problem?

To be able to use this tech in the first place? I have no glue about business problems but this sounds far better then the 30% rip off by apple and Google app stores....

> 30% rip off by apple and Google app stores

Sounds like a happy problem to me;)

By the way you don't only have to file a report for Epic whenever you release a game using UE, you also have to report them your yearly sales and calculate what income is "directly attributable to UE" for that game. For an ordinary small person, for whom you imply lifetime 5% off gross worldwide revenue is a "happy problem", this is way more involved (and prone to legal liability) compared to app stores. You will probably have to hire people well before the million mark to make sure numbers are OK and you don't accidentally owe Epic $$$$$.

I know which model I would choose. Probably the one where I raise prices by 30% and don't have to deal with anything else.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#172

Post by tomodachi94 »

pjmlp wrote: post #149
ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome ... and paying Epic 5% of all lifetime profit is a blessing too (if he makes money appropriate for "the best train sim ever made")

Unreal devs have bills to pay as well. We already know what happens in Nebraska.

To those asking about the reference to Nebraska, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to XKCD 2347 "Dependency": https://xkcd.com/2347/

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#173

Post by pjmlp »

ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #168
pjmlp wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unreal devs have bills to pay as well. We already know what happens in Nebraska.

I doubt Epic struggles for money. By the way what happens in Nebraska?

It is also not a charity, it is a business.

xkcd has the answer.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#175

Post by pjmlp »

tomodachi94 wrote: post #172
pjmlp wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unreal devs have bills to pay as well. We already know what happens in Nebraska.

To those asking about the reference to Nebraska, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to XKCD 2347 "Dependency": https://xkcd.com/2347/

Yep, and then we always get those regular posts "project XYZ is no longer", yeah people not paying.

Unreal is free to the extent it contributes to bringing even more people into the ecosystem, eventually becoming paying customers, Epic doesn't make it available out of their kindness, rather also taking into account there are other competing alternatives.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#176

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

pjmlp wrote: post #173
ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Epic struggles for money. By the way what happens in Nebraska?

It is also not a charity, it is a business. xkcd has the answer.

Well then exactly what I was saying. This is a business & it's a commercial product, not a freebie. This is why I see many people look at UE but go with Godot. It's nice when you don't have to notify a megacorp about every game you release & then follow up with yearly revenue reports.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#177

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

pjmlp wrote: post #175
tomodachi94 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To those asking about the reference to Nebraska, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to XKCD 2347 "Dependency": https://xkcd.com/2347/

Yep, and then we always get those regular posts "project XYZ is no longer", yeah people not paying. Unreal is free to the extent it contributes to bringing even more people into the ecosystem, eventually becoming paying customers, Epic doesn't make it available out of their kindness, rather also taking into account there are other competing alternatives.

It's important to keep development going but commercial projects is not the only way. Godot Foundation exists and there are plenty of others in open-source space.

A nonprofit means actual reports about how money is used, and it's not as if commercial projects are somehow better because they don't fold or get sold or canceled.

And even between commercial ways, charging royalties is one of the worst. It doesn't cost Epic extra if my game starts making more money. Just make the engine a one-time purchase (per version, so you get to keep sales going) and everyone will be much happier. Sell additional services which actually do cost you money to keep up (multiplayer hosting).

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#179

Post by smusamashah »

rcoveson wrote: post #64
smusamashah wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to dismiss the effort by dev, but all Unreal engine games look photoreal these days. My point is that photorealism does not show effort these days.

Most of the review is about the art assets, and I doubt the big ones (e.g. the trains themselves) are off-the-rack Unreal assets. An engine like Unreal 5 will cast your assets in harsh relief. Which is to say, if your game's assets look custom and look good in Unreal 5, it does indeed demonstrate effort and skill.

It's the lighting etc that provide photo realism with Unreal. Even the demo that comes with Unreal where a robot is running around cubes on a small plain looks photoreal.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#180

Post by AdamN »

dmix wrote: post #90
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #74

Game looks amazing from a solo dev but this article is terrible, like the journo didn't even play the game they just watched the game.

All journalism is terrible these days. They just want a catchy headline for the ad view and nothing else matters, including whether the headline is true or not.

Paid journalism is still often good (Bloomberg, FT). But yeah if you're just going to free sites it's the same as the free newspapers they used to give out for free in the subway - a few salacious articles, one or two ostensibly 'real news' pieces, and a bunch of ads.
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