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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

#131

Post by mips_avatar »

gmueckl wrote: post #125
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.

Yeah but how often do you finish a AAA game and want to cry at how beautiful it is. You get that feeling pretty often with an indie game. Like something really important is being done by indie devs.

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

#132

Post by tempest_ »

yakattak wrote: post #97

Stardew Valley is one of a few indie games that seems to be known outside the usual “gaming” circle. I have a few friends who’ve never engaged with any games but absolutely loved Stardew Valley. It’s the pinnacle of cozy, I suppose. ConcernedApe has done something special with game development to achieve that. I always look to him as an example as I take to game dev as a hobby. This is yet another way I want to take…

I love Stardew and played a bunch when it was first released.

He really had perfect timing with its release. The original developers and the rights holders for harvest moon had so badly fumbled for so long with bad releases or only in Japan releases etc. Someone was bound to show up in that space since there was a clear demand for that type of game. It also helps that he aped (heh) harvest moon from the super nintendo / game boy generation so it basically runs on a potato and no one needs to buy dedicated hardware.

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

#133

Post by Sajarin »

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…

I think this comes off a bit too strong (as well as the replies to this to be fair)

The example isn't quite accurate. If a friend bought you lunch, the social norm of reciprocity would incline you towards buying them lunch in the future (i.e part of your paycheck)

Free open source software is a public good. While there is no obligation to give back, giving back helps that public good become more useful to other people (including your future self). I'm against making contribution an obligation, but I'm not against light social pressure upon philanthropists who have the means (which is what the parent comment was doing).

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

#134

Post by ralusek »

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…

> Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”

You're correct about that. The free software itself doesn't confer any responsibility. But the free software exists inside other contexts. Social/moral context. There're also future contexts for you or humanity. For example, if developing free software proves to be a sustainable model for people to do, you might get other projects LIKE the Blender Foundation to crop up in the future. You might benefit from them directly, or benefit from them by enjoying the things people produce with them. Also, if it's a tool that you like to use, maybe you just want that specific tool to continue to improve.

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

#135

Post by tempest_ »

big_toast wrote: post #56
jasongill wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stardew Valley is in the top 5 selling indie games of all time, with 50 million units sold. It's owned and run entirely by one person (the donor in OP's link) - he ended his relationship with a (small) games publisher a few years ago, and runs everything himself.

Additionally there is a concert series that's quite good and other merchandise.

My girlfriend owns the board game, she enjoys it!

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

#136

Post by kuylar »

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…

In the same page,

> The MonoGame Foundation cannot directly give anyone access to the private console repositories without prior approval from the vendor due to NDA requirements set out by each vendor.

Blame here goes to Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft (though I'm not so sure about Microsoft)

This also applies to Godot, another open source game engine, which doesn't have any code for console support on its upstream repository.

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

#137

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#139

Post by qmmmur »

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…

> My friend bought me lunch. I used that energy at my job. Do I owe them part of my paycheck?

No but you owe him lunch next time. Wait till you find out that you have to share your birthday cake on your birthday.

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

#140

Post by tempest_ »

yunnpp wrote: post #94
tracker1 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30% off the top for most stores (Valve/Steam, Apple/iPhone, Google/Android, etc), then around 50% taxes between state, local... some fixed expenses and overhead. It's probably well under 20% in the bank after all is said and done. That said, it's still a lot of money.

God, that's awful. That 30% cut for the middle man hurts. At least the government tax can be put to good use (emphasis on can ...)

Gabe gotta buy a $500 million dollar yacht.

It pays to be the middle man!

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