thenew8bitheroes

[thenew8bitheroes]

NESmaker Publishing

In this post, I want to discuss all of the ins and outs and considerations in publishing games created using NESmaker.  This includes making physical copies to sell, crowdfunding, and general distribution.  Let’s break it down into legal concerns, ethical concerns, and best practices.

LEGAL: Let’s start with the legal ramifications, as that is the first question many people ask.     1) By purchasing a license for NESmaker, you are granted permission to use and edit the code base to create your own NES games for both personal and commercial projects.  You have the license to use the code base provided by us, as well as the code provided by other contributors that is packaged with the download.  2) You may not re-sell raw code or assets that are packaged with NESmaker, or edits of that code or those assets.

3) You may not use graphic or sound assets that are packaged with NESmaker tutorial assets for commercial purposes.  They are for learning and personal use only.  Unless otherwise explicitly specified, make sure that you are creating your own creative property with your own graphics and sound assets. 4) You may not use NESmaker to create games for IPs that you do not explicitly own the legal rights to, in writing.  That includes fan games for personal or educational use.  The simple rule of thumb - did you create it?  No?  Do you have in writing the permissions to use it?  No?  Is it public domain?  No?  Then please find a different idea.

ETHICAL CONCERNS: This is a much bigger gray area, and truly what I think most people are asking about.  For instance... 1) you are under no legal obligation to announce that your product was created with NESmaker, however we hope you are proud of that fact, and it would be unethical to explicitly claim otherwise.  By crediting NESmaker, you are implicitly crediting the programmers and developers that worked on the product as having helped with programming for your game, and by proxy, those who have licensed the NESmaker team and all users moving forward to utilize their hard work in the underlying engine.  We never require a watermark or any branding on any work or promotional material you create using NESmaker.  However, we do appreciate credit being given where applicable.

2) You are under no legal obligation to share your code updates, bug fixes, alterations, methods, modules, cores, or scripts with the community, however we hope you realize that by sharing these you help the community grow and drive the capability of what can be done with NESmaker.  In the end, helping others create better games just yields better games, it doesn’t detract from your own.  And, for what it’s worth, much of the foundation you’re likely using was created by us and shared with you, preventing you from having to do years of R&D.  We hope you pay it forward, and do the same for the community when you figure out how to do something cool. 3) You are under no legal obligation to pay any royalties to the NESmaker team for projects you create with NESmaker if you are acting as your own distributor (if we have not been involved in any way with your method of distribution).  At this point, that is everyone, because we are not distributing or publishing games.  However, I selfishly feel it would be ethical for you to buy me a frosty libation with the spoils of your victory if we’re ever in the same town!  In all seriousness, you are under no legal obligation, but we hope that with the money you save by not having to pay us royalties of this kind, you support other developers, and that you support future components of this project.  If the point is more awesome NES games, your help as part of this community is invaluable in this way.  

BEST PRACTICES: Here is where some of you are now, in terms of your interest in making commercial products or monetizing your NESmaker projects.  I’m humbled that we are there already - your collective effort, quality of work, and amazing evolution of what this software can do is inspiring!  So lets talk for a moment about this part of things, and I’m sorry if some of this is vague.

1) Lets first talk about crowdfunding.  We are advocates of crowdfunding.  It is a great way to raise awareness about a creative project and help projects that would never get off the ground find financial footing.  We also know the depths of complications that arise from doing crowdfunding campaigns of this type, and we also are very well versed in project failure rate and audience fatigue.  This is a niche interest, and while there is strong support for it, burdening the retro game lovers in the crowdfunding universe with too many projects of this type will result in everyone losing and no projects being green lit, leading to waning interest or less confidence in the amazing work that you’re all doing.  So for those with commercial ambitions for their projects, this requires a much longer conversation.

Now, you can listen to me on this, or choose to ignore me.  You have no legal obligation to adhere to this.  Your games are your intellectual property, to do with as you see fit.  You neither need our consent nor our enthusiasm to do a crowdfunding campaign.  However, if you interest is aligned with ours, to build a stronger community where everyone benefits and new NES games thrive, here is my proposal on general guidelines for how we as a company will give our blessing and throw support behind crowdfunding campaigns moving forward.

Inform us of your intention to do a crowdfunding campaign prior to launching and even prior to making a firm timetable.  We’d like to help if it makes sense.  And we also want to try make sure NES projects are strategically spaced out...and that’s not only for NESmaker games, but any new NES homebrews that might be in development.

Demonstrate that you can complete a game.  Before we advocate for or support your project, we need to have confidence that you can create something of scope and quality.  If you can not demonstrate that you can fully complete a NES project, you’re not yet ready to try to Kickstart a NES project.

Have a proof of concept of the current game that you plan to Kickstart.  On top of a completed project, have a working demo of the game you ultimately want to create.  Not only will it give us as a community confidence in what you’re creating, but it will give your backers confidence as well.

Demonstrate that you have completed a successful crowdfunding campaign in the past.  Whether it was for a game or something completely different, show that you understand the ins and outs of crowdfunding by having done it before.  Now, maybe you haven’t, and that’s ok.  Work with someone who has to help you get yours off the ground.  Make them part of your team and release your project through their account which has a proven track record.  Or alternatively, try a small project related to your game first to help raise excitement and learn the ropes.  Crowdfunding is a full time obligation, and often requires months, if not years, of prep work to be successful.  There are many pitfalls you won’t know until you’re in those trenches.  Having been in those trenches before will go a long way towards our confidence to officially support a project.

Demonstrate your support for other NES homebrews, whether they’re NESmaker games or otherwise.  Demonstrating you’re not a lone wolf trying to cash in on nostalgia, but rather someone who is interested in fostering this community, will go a long way towards us supporting your ambition in crowdfunding your project.

Know that there are a lot of moving parts to all of this.  Understand that the timetable that may be convenient for you may not align with what may be best for the community or our efforts with NESmaker, which may result in us being unable to participate or support as much as we’d like.  For instance, with the contest currently running, we obviously can’t actively support any particular project over the others.  At the time of launch for a major NESmaker update, our efforts may be spent on that.  Etc.  Just because we’re not in a position to actively support your project doesn’t mean you can’t do it or that it’s not worthwhile.  But chances are the more you work with us, the more we’ll be able to help.

Keep it classy.  While we 100% advocate for people to use NESmaker to create any type of game experience they are compelled and able to create, and we’re generally big kids and personally enjoy plenty of content that may be deemed ‘inappropriate’, if you’re hoping for any official support from us as a company in a crowdfunding campaign, remember that we have 6 year old kids using the software.  Use your head on this.

If you think the above bullet points are too much expectation, trust us...you’re not ready for a crowdfunding campaign yet.

2) Lets talk about other distribution methods besides crowdfunding.  We are currently very hard at work on other potential publishing and distribution avenues for qualified, finished games.  Unfortunately, there is nothing concrete that we’re comfortable talking about yet, but some of the things are pretty cool.  One of the problems of being in a rush to get your game out now is that you might miss out on some really cool supports from these things.  Please keep that in mind!

3) Quality control.  This is a big issue on a conceptual level.  For front-facing games, there obviously needs to be a metric for evaluating quality of content.  However, we don’t ever want to discourage beginners or hobbyist whose passion may dramatically overshadow their skill level.  We don’t want to act as quality control...we would much prefer the opposite.  We want to be the bridge that get complete newcomers involved.  However, lack of quality control will leave new players disenchanted with games created with NESmaker, which is a circumstance in which everyone loses.  A bigger problem is we simply don’t have the infrastructure to act as quality control.  Our team is incredibly small, and that would take up far too much of our time and resources to manage.  Just like with publishing and distribution, we do have some concepts in mind for that, but we’re not quite there yet. 

I hope this answers a lot of questions that you may have about all of this.  Our community is awesome, and we are extremely happy that you’re a part of it.  The more we rally behind each other and move this thing forward as a cohesive passion, the more exciting things seem to get!  So let’s keep pushing it together!

[thenew8bitheroes]

Had a great time showing off The New 8-bit Heroes and the Mystic Searches *beta quest*, Mystic Origins, at the Fort Myers Film Festival!  Got to see some old friends and meet some new ones, and got to wax poetic a bit about this crazy venture.  It was great to see how many people were excited to find out new NES games are still being created by passionate artists!

[thenew8bitheroes]

The Beta and Steam...

Our goal was to get the *prequel beta* up today, on MAR10 day (March 10th / Mario) and just in time for the Fort Myers Film Festival, where The New 8-bit Heroes shows tomorrow at 4pm.  What makes this difficult is that it's not only a matter of the game functioning, but it's also working out the distribution method.  We want and really *need* a central point where people can chime in on their thoughts, report bugs, hopefully share their enthusiasm, etc.  We want to be able to track where the game is going and gauge everyone's experience with it.  We want it in a format that is generally pretty universal, so when we start making updates, we're updating one central file, not something for every possible deliverable format.

This is why we've spent a lot of time working with Derek Andrews of Gradual Games (Owlia, Nomolos) who has a great virtual machine, allowing us to essentially deploy once from our tool and have a version of the game that is playable on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, emulator, AND real hardware!

But not only that, we have also launched our Steam campaign as of today.  For those of you on Steam, we really want to bring Mystic Searches to that platform for a lot of reasons.  Help us get greenlit and please express your excitement or anticipation in the comments to help rally others to check it out! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=880758073 The first thing you guys will notice there is the trailer.  Now, we were going to do a really cheesy 80's style trailer, and still plan to, but circumstances prevented it from being possible in time for today.  But this one still gives a great look at some gameplay footage

Yes, it is a busy time.  I'm looking forward to your feedback on the beta!

For anyone who may have forgotten the website, it is www.TheNew8bitHeroes.com.  Again, the beta may not be up there at the time of my posting, but if you don't see it now, check back again in a little while and it'll be there for you to enjoy this weekend.

So to recap....

Go upvote Mystic Searches on Steam

Go check out the beta on the site

Enjoy the weekend in all of its impending pixelated bliss

[thenew8bitheroes]

Well, the beta is just about ready to rock, and pretty ubiquitously!  Cart, emulator, mac, PC, Linux, and mobil with just a few more tweaks.  Exciting times!