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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

#151

Post by MildlySerious »

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…

There really is no prize for being technically correct on this one.

Someone built this and is letting you have it. For free. There is no legal obligation or law of the universe here, sure, but if you're in the top 1% of benefactors of this pro bono work, you have the opportunity to do some good and make sure that others, like you, get the chance to benefit from this free work in the future.

There is a pretty straightforward argument to be made that this falls under the "with great power comes great opportunity" umbrella of moral reasoning, since this work empowered CA to create the game that earned him a lot of money.

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

#152

Post by tracker1 »

vunderba wrote: post #73
tracker1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And out of the 800 new indie games a month, how many are breakout successes and sell even 10k copies? That's what is rare, not that indie games are rare, but having a success (like winning the lottery) is relatively rare. At 10k new indie games a year, maybe a dozen gross over a million. A larger studio can't afford those kind of odds. That said, they should be able to make more games with a better focus on gameplay…

This. And honestly, 10k sales is the bare minimum. Even if you’re a solo dev with no team and you handle everything yourself (programming, sound, music, art, marketing) to keep costs down, you’re still looking at around 6–12 months of work. Most indie games don’t sell for more than $10 USD, but let’s be generous and say you manage to convince your audience to pay $20. Total: 200,000 USD After Steam Cut: 140,000 USD A…

I was thinking 10K copies as a metric for even modest "success" for a game, but you're right about the expenses and income... That said, depending on where you live, that's a pretty good income.

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

#153

Post by tmtvl »

mips_avatar wrote: post #131
gmueckl wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You get that feeling pretty often with an indie game.

Poppycock. What, you wanna cry at how beautiful *checks notes* Hatred is? What about Unity Asset Swap Shovelware #375438? And for those who fall on the 'violence' side in the 'violence' vs 'sex' debate, how about we take a gander at the corruption genre?

Sure, there are some amazing indie games (think of Unrest, for example), but there's also a ton of low effort garbage, and far too many projects which suffer from a lack of time, lack of resources, lack of ambition, or, sadly, lack of care. And, of course, the occasional 'I can't believe anyone at any point during the project thought this was a good idea'.

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

#154

Post by _vertigo »

rvnx wrote: post #142
sneak wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charitable donations that are self-serving aren’t non-genuine. The money still spends the same.

Look, it's really nice that you maintained WooCommerce for so many years. I know you might be tempted to move on to do something else, but I really need my shop to keep working. So, here is the deal: I am going to send you a 'donation' of 500 USD now, and then a monthly recurring 'gift.' Contractually? You have no obligation to work, and I have no obligation to pay. But if you stop working on WooCommerce, I will obvi…

Every action is self-interested if you squint enough

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

#155

Post by not_a_bot_4sho »

bevr1337 wrote: post #120
sneak wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Gifts do not confer obligation. Remind me, which Ferengi Rule of Acquisition is this? There's not much argument to be had. You've created a logical justification for a myopic, misanthropic world view. > My friend bought me lunch. I used that energy at my job. Do I owe them part of my paycheck? Many find reciprocation important in a relationship.

> Remind me, which Ferengi Rule of Acquisition is this?

You made my morning with this quip.

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

#156

Post by [deleted] »

_vertigo wrote: post #154
rvnx wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, it's really nice that you maintained WooCommerce for so many years. I know you might be tempted to move on to do something else, but I really need my shop to keep working. So, here is the deal: I am going to send you a 'donation' of 500 USD now, and then a monthly recurring 'gift.' Contractually? You have no obligation to work, and I have no obligation to pay. But if you stop working on WooCommerce, I will obvi…

Every action is self-interested if you squint enough

[deleted]

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

#157

Post by mostlysimilar »

tracker1 wrote: post #47
benoau wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH the profit margin on this game is probably closer to 100% than 10%, it was a solo-dev game so never much overhead, I think one guy was hired to work on it.

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.

> around 50% taxes between state, local.

Truly? I believe he lives in Washington State. It's really HALF of his income?

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

#158

Post by wsc981 »

mpeg wrote: post #6
juujian wrote: post #2

I don't want to assume, but I don't recollect any contributions of that magnitude from large studios (spare Valve). This indy developer (is that label fair?) is putting AAA studios to shame.

Stardew is probably one of the most (if not the most) popular game ever made with MonoGame AAA studios don't really use MonoGame.

Another one would be Bastion - code is even open source [0].

---

[0]: https://www.supergiantgames.com/blog/bastions-open-source-br...

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

#159

Post by MegaDeKay »

cheschire wrote: post #92
kiba wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also put an insane amount of effort, far more than most of us mortals.

See: Blood, Sweat and Pixels; Chapter 2 https://a.co/d/4OIUtsN

Came here to recommend this book. It is fantastic. There are nine other games covered besides Stardew Valley. Some are great, some not so great, but the stories behind each one are excellent.

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

#160

Post by bombcar »

tempest_ wrote: post #132
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 nintend…

“Harvest Moon but for every platform ever created” was such an obvious need it was surprising it took that long to arrive.

Just like it’s somewhat amazing to realize it took until 2009 for “digital Lego” to catch on with Minecraft.

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