March 15 Update & Blog Post - Supporting Custom Game Developers

Noya

http://blog.dota2.com/2016/03/supporting-custom-game-developers/

The Lua API is PlayerResource:HasCustomGameTicketForPlayerID( playerID )

DrTeaSpoon

Go go pay to win!

cowsforyou

Wow... congrats @chalkybrush

And well done Valve for this new angle!

ChalkyBrush

Hey guys now the dust has settled a bit I think I need to say something here. There are so many people I can thank for helping me learn how to Mod, but definitely the top 2 are Noya and BMD. So thanks so much to those 2 and everyone else who I've talked to in the chat.

I've gotten a lot of messages from jealous haters, but guys if you think about it this just helps everyone. A lot of effort went into communicating with Valve to get this off the ground, and now it should be easier for other games to get their pass. I recommend coming up with a clear idea of what Value you want to provide with your pass and send it in an E-mail to Valve.

Despite being 'competitors' I think we are more so allies in this even if we work on different games. If there are more high quality games there will be more people in the Dota 2 Arcade in general, and I doubt 1 game's pass would heavily cannibalize the sales of another game's. We are talking about just $1 here.

The best part is now that there is some money coming in, I can actually afford to pay people for their work. I already have some ideas but I don't have a very good concept ATM of how much will actually available. Right now I can tell you it's not that much. I've been a part of enough poor business deals in my life to know that we'd need solid contracts, so that we can make good things happen and keep everyone happy. I don't know when exactly I'll be commissioning help but I'll probably post about it here. An alternative is just making your own game and getting it pass-ready, which is great!

Anyway thanks again everyone. Most people are positive about the whole thing. I have been MIA from this site for over a month because I wasn't supposed to talk about any of this until it was ready. I'll be a more active presence moving forward.

FrenchDeath

Nice to see you alive. First of all, congratulation, and don't worry, most of us are happy for you , and for what happen for modder. Don't listen to salty people, either are stupid or ignorant :)

Arhowk

Hey guys now the dust has settled a bit I wouldn't say that. The top post on reddit is a flame post about your custom game (which is just a cesspool of a bunch of retards who have no idea how intellectual property works) I've gotten a lot of messages from jealous haters, Fuck em . Right now I can tell you it's not that much. You shouldn't need a lot to get some relatively high quality work done. I didn't expect you to make crap from it either. The incentives offered aren't enough because valve is being too cautious.

Good luck in your future endeavors

Noya

Huge wave of Dedicated Servers, around 100+ games now have them. PMP and Footmen Frenzy got em, but so did another bunch of quickly made mods (overthrow remakes and random dotalike mods), interesting move by Valve.

fallia

gongratulations!! also, i am a little bit curious, what kind of people are u thinking of hiring? actual modders, or levelmakers, or something else entirely?

ChalkyBrush

Well Fallia,

I was originally thinking coders, but now it looks like we might need artists - since I'm getting absolutely shit on for using Workshop Icons. Although perhaps a deal can be made so that the artwork can be used, which seems like a better idea than having people draw new stuff that looks similar. Anyway too many unknowns at this point to say for certain.

edit actually the first to get a contract will be the Chinese translator, he's been so on point and adds so much value to the project.

Arhowk

Why are you paying a translator? I've seen so many mods that have translators because people are willing to spend the little amount of time it takes translating to do it... Artists are fine though (don't listen to those retards at reddit though... I mean you should be getting custom tilesets, world design, etc)

ChalkyBrush

Think about it from the translator's perspective. They spend 2 hours / wk keeping the localization file up to date, and they can see that the game has at least some revenue. They can easily threaten to quit and lose nothing but the burden of having to keep the game up to date - and then I lose a good translator. I think both myself and the translator benefit from a clear agreement. Something that covers a monthly payment and the expected # of translations /wk or 2wks would probably be good enough.

Myll

Open a google docs for each language, and invite interested translators. Send mass emails whenever you need it updated.

Arhowk

when are you using dem volvo connections to get us map transitions kappa