Hello,
Finally! Coffee, the engine is available, while it's an early release it already contain the wished features : deploying packages right from the editor, publish it on the Coffee Shop, and importing those as well.
Lot of work has been done to get this pipeline, website development, engine and tools...
It's young and a bit creepy, current price is really cheap, and will increase a bit in the future.
Links:
Thanks for your support.
If your main product is a game engine, potential customers will be looking for galleries of pictures of your engine in action on your site. I only saw one picture of actual 3D, and it was in a corner and slightly hidden. Also, your web icon looks like the loading symbol, so you should change that.
Sorry for being in the peanut gallery. You have done more than I could have.
No one will use it unless you offer a demo. People must be able to test the engine out. Otherwise good luck finding anyone that will doll out that kind of money, even if it is only 16 bucks. I hope you change strategies here, drop the licensing and do kick-starter instead to fund it until it is finished. Then when you have a finished product, sell it for 1,500 dollars instead. Just my opinion.
Yes, you both are right, thanks for your comments!
I removed the old videos from youtube channel just before the release, because they were old, maybe it was a mistake.
It's an early release you know, I'll add new fresh videos next weeks (first one has just been added http://www.youtube.com/CoffeeTheengine).
Sure, there will be an Indiegogo about it, I was just waiting to have a first consistent release.
But, the base price won't change that much (nearly 40€ per seat for the 0.1), and it's staying commercial, since it's already providing nice features.
I want to keep it cheap for Indies, as well as the open store, even if a game engine for 30 bucks sounds crappy.
Provide a working demo. Your first (and only) video shows me how to buy the engine (!?), then focuses on the asset pipeline and then shows a 2D minesweeper clone above a very generic 3D scene. I'n not too sure that the 3D scene was generated by the engine.
Don't focus on the development pipeline. Anyone that is willing to buy your product will be more than capable of figuring that part out. Make some demos showing the features of the engine. I'm not buying it for the pipeline, I am buying it for what it can do. What can your engine do? I made a simple minesweeper clone many years ago using Windows GDI. I can make a textured and normal mapped cube with OpenGL by downloading one of the plethora on tutorials available online. Point is, cheap or not, I can do this now and for free.
Videos are great, but when I say demos, I mean an actual demo application that I can download that shows what the engine can do. Videos should be instructional. They don't give the same effect as actually playing something built on the engine.
Videos are great, but when I say demos, I mean an actual demo application that I can download that shows what the engine can do. Videos should be instructional. They don't give the same effect as actually playing something built on the engine.
This, but provide both. The real playable demos to satisfy on personality type of your potential customers, but then also provide videos of you walking through the demo and explaining the features apparent in it to satisfy another personality-type of your potential customers.
I'm the type of person who won't download your demos, but will watch your videos. I only turn to the demos _after_ I've already downloaded your engine and am trying to figure out how to do something that is demonstrated in one of the videos.
And for me, videos are for demonstrations. For detailed instructions, I want text and images. I don't want to watch someone showing me something for 15 minutes that they could've summed up in two paragraph of text and a simple chart/image.
Working on demo and better videos sound good idea, thanks!
I've re-upped the old videos, not that useful but...
I'll participate at the Ludum dare 27, next week-end, at first it is to test the whole thing in a "dedicated environment" and show it a bit to other people...
I'm really not a good game developer (read: I plainly suck at gameplay), but it'll bring lot of things to fix/improve on the end,
the resulting game/thing will be used as a first demo (well second, minesweeper was first, just to test the GUI).
Done, here it is: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=25221
A bit row, but I'll use it as a base project to improve/test things later on.
At least, besides all the bug fixes, I really learned that testing on real conditions is the key to stability.
Coffee 0.2 is on the way, there won't be new features for now, note that there will be a free/evaluation version as well.
Shadows, post-processes, better importers, particles, are already prototyped and on the roadmap, but pipeline and stability are the main targets.
Some updates:
- I've choosen new licensing model, wasn't even aware to be able to make it technically, but hopefully it is, so: FREE and PRO versions are available, right now :)
- An Indiegogo will begin the following week, this to fund the new Company (dedicated bank account, all money will go on build servers for a start)
- Coffee, the engine is now registered on http://devmaster.net/ which is a good starting point as well.
Happy with those news, will share followings here later on.
Thanks for your early support!
Coffee 0.2.21 (PRO) and Coffee 0.2.5 (FREE) are out! http://www.coffee3d.net/
Indiegogo will come in few days, stay tuned!
