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Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

monogame.net

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Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#121

Post by rvnx »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

It's nice to give back to people, no matter the amount.

https://framerusercontent.com/images/9GsFxfDtmRFpfgGlNH61QsX...

He also needs that tool to stay alive for the future, even if not considering the past.

It's a bit better position for everyone.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#122

Post by mips_avatar »

As someone who has been solo developing an app for months concerned ape is such an inspiration. He literally spent 5 years on stardew valley with zero income. It's such a beautiful game and reminds me what you can do when you follow what feels right.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#123

Post by vasco »

rvnx wrote: post #88
vasco wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate that vision of the world with a passion. For people with such opinion nothing is ever enough or pure enough, but if you ask directly such people donate almost nothing themselves. The fact people with this opinion exist also discourages donations from others because "nothing is ever enough" for you. Also pro-tip, if you do more than a handful donations you'll realize that you as the giver is always the o…

> The fact people with this opinion exist also discourages donations from others because "nothing is ever enough" for you. (this sounds like an attack btw, as you can't know what I do) "Sponsoring", "Supporting", "Paying", "Hiring", "Contracting", etc, this is all ok. but calling it charitable donation is a bit too much; calling "donation" money that you give that directly benefits your own interest is something I do…

[flagged]

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#124

Post by thrownawaysz »

>MonoGame is free to use on all platforms from the public repository, but the code for supporting console platforms is only accessible to authorized console developers.

>These platforms are provided as private code repositories that add integrations with the console vendor's APIs and platform-specific documentation.

https://docs.monogame.net/articles/console_access.html

How can something be open source and closed at the same time? Is this basically MIT license? (Project page says Microsoft Public license)

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#125

Post by gmueckl »

mips_avatar wrote: post #122

As someone who has been solo developing an app for months concerned ape is such an inspiration. He literally spent 5 years on stardew valley with zero income. It's such a beautiful game and reminds me what you can do when you follow what feels right.

The sad truth js that for every solo devs that becomes successful, there are an untold number of solo devs that don't find an audience and fail. The reality is pretty brutal in games.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#126

Post by squigz »

mjg2 wrote: post #102
madeofpalk wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this is self-serving, even from the Stardew Valley dev. It’s win-win.

I disagree. I think ConcernedApe is actually genuine with his charity and we should see this as a standard for corporations to follow.

I'm confused. What exactly makes his charity genuine vs Epic's charity "disingenuous"?

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#127

Post by alexissantos »

closingreunion wrote: post #74
mjg2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call anything Epic Games does charity: it's all empire expansion for them.

How does the Godot donation expand their empire? Other than get more people into game development?

I suspect they also hope developer choice gets reframed from "Unity or Unreal" to "Godot or Unreal." In other words: Unity gets bumped out of the picture since Godot can do what it does and is open source, while Unreal stays comfortably in the hyperrealism/high-end perch.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#128

Post by jmalicki »

thrownawaysz wrote: post #124

>MonoGame is free to use on all platforms from the public repository, but the code for supporting console platforms is only accessible to authorized console developers. >These platforms are provided as private code repositories that add integrations with the console vendor's APIs and platform-specific documentation. https://docs.monogame.net/articles/console_access.html How can something be open source and closed at…

It's a common business model - have an open source core, but have separate closed source extensions to support enterprise features.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#129

Post by benoau »

margalabargala wrote: post #83
chamomeal wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn I didn’t realize. 30% is pretty hefty

The service Steam provides to game developers is substantial.

Not really, what they actually do for most games is basically what Google and Apple do: a token review, then nothing apart from some niceties for players. Then they pocket an immense profit, it came out in one of Epic's cases that Valve net $50 million/year profit per employee.

The only thing for developers they still do better than Google and Apple really is a few promotions throughout the year that target specific genres for released games developers can register for (whereas Google and Apple select the games they promote), and the "Next Fest" 3x a year for unreleased games.

They used to do stuff like "visibility rounds" that would reach 100,000s of people who didn't know about your game - the same feature today targets people who already wishlisted your game, so these days most developers have to put significant effort and money into promoting their Steam page on other channels like tiktok/youtube/reddit.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#130

Post by thrownawaysz »

jmalicki wrote: post #128
thrownawaysz wrote: post #124

>MonoGame is free to use on all platforms from the public repository, but the code for supporting console platforms is only accessible to authorized console developers. >These platforms are provided as private code repositories that add integrations with the console vendor's APIs and platform-specific documentation. https://docs.monogame.net/articles/console_access.html How can something be open source and closed at…

It's a common business model - have an open source core, but have separate closed source extensions to support enterprise features.

>It's a common business model

But no one is paying MonoGame in this case? Maybe I'm just thick but X developer pays for MS/Sony/Nintendo to become authorized > and then they ask permission to use MonoGame per the page.

1. Apply to the vendor developer program (required for publishing).

2. Through the program, request access to the MonoGame console repositories

MonoGame gets nothing in the end.

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