500 Bananas!
Posted by Derek Yu Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:32:00 GMT
cactus and VilleK have set up a new blog for Lo-Fi Minds. Their inaugural post has screenshots and descriptions for their two current projects, Brain-Dead Toon Underworld (made for our VGNG Compo), and Secret Agent Hotel. Both games look/sound absolutely fantastic, natch.
I also thought this would be a good time to make a request for donations to our friend cactus. I’ve gotten more value and excitement from all his games than your average triple-A mainstream title. His work inspires me every day as a game designer and an artist.
cactus is incredibly creative and talented, but could definitely do more to market himself. But I really wonder if he should have to? Shouldn’t being good at making games be enough to make games for a living? I think so. And I’m dreaming about alternative business models to let people like cactus make great freeware and keep at it.
But until then, let’s give a little back to this supercool dude and support him on his quest to entertain and amaze us! Everyone who met him at GDC fell in love with him (for some coughBrandoncough, it was romantic love). He’s a really nice, genuine guy, who just wants to make games and be happy. It would be awesome for cactus to be able to put all his energy into being himself and not have to get a ho-hum job to make ends meet.
I’m putting in $20 to start, and suggesting $5-$20 donations from those who want to. We can’t easily keep track of how we’re doing, but feel free to post a comment letting us know why and/or how much you donated. I hope you do!
Donate here! (PayPal link at the bottom of the page.)
$20 donated.
Maybe a good incentive for people to donate to freeware authors would be to sell a CD with all of the games on it; this can be done pretty easily using things like lulu.com or cafepress.com – an example of this business model working is the Angry Videogame Nerd, who sells DVDs of his reviews even though they’re available online for free.
Support! Donated too :) Keep up the good work!
http://www.willhostforfood.com/users/dorkman/arcade.zip (40MB)
Aw :( I can’t donate.
Cool post, though; I hadn’t even heard about this collaboration!
Hmm donated. Nothing to consider really.
Come to think of it, messhof, jph and chris roper (pug fugly games) kinda need donations too.
Sounds like a good idea - I’ve chipped in $20 as well. Keep making excellent games, Cactus :D
Didn’t know about VilleK, but that’s cool.
I’d donate too, perhaps I might be able to get an account to do so in the future.
You might as well set up a paypal fund for every starving musician, artist, filmmaker, etc etc…
Or just the ones you like :)
Really nice post, derek. I will throw some dollars cactus’ way, and also long for a business model that can fairly support the indie game community.
Donated $20. That’s only like a dollar for every game I’ve played by him :)
I’d donate but I’m in a similar money lacking boat :( but cactus gets my full emotional support, I know you cant eat with it, but its the best I can do right now ^_^
let us know if you come up with anything buisness model wise that can let games stay free. every time I try and think of something I just run in a circle and hit adverts head on, and I certainly dont want to go with that. luckily I quite enjoy menial work to fund dev time, heck its my strategy to do so once I’m done with Uni. :D
i think this is kind of marketing is inappropriate for a blog like this. but - derek knows how to lead the indies and theyll follow. good for our sweetycactuspie.
“But I really wonder if he should have to? Shouldn’t being good at making games be enough to make games for a living? I think so.And I’m dreaming about alternative business models to let people like cactus make great freeware and keep at it.”
I think you’re a godless communist.
Yea this is very inappropriate, what about all the other indie devs working on projects that would like money?
There’s lots of marketing for cactus - I’ve never even heard of VilleK, for example D=
I can’t make games but I’m kind of cool, and I drew a neat tree the other day. Can I get some money too?
Is this a joke? Am I missing out on something here?
This business model isn’t valid until the indie can get enough money to buy a yacht and code his indie games from the deck if his yacht while being massaged by two hot women/men/fursuits (chose your option).
That’s what indie is all a bout biatch.
Wow, this was certainly unexpected. A big thanks to everyone for the support!
I’m not starving or anything (yet), but my economy is certainly not too good at the moment. Still, feels kinda bad to be taking cash from other developers… :X
donated.
I’m all for supporting indie devs and the community.
Yes there are a lot of “starving” developers out there but I don’t think Derek meant in the literal sense of the word (not entirely anyway). I think what Derek meant was it would be great to help support the little guys that either don’t have quite the exposure or financial background and are unable to receive a form of financial backing. So I think this was a temporary solution but at least Derek was being thoughtful about it and was trying to think of a more substantial and concrete solution.
Another big thing is that these devs are from all over the world and their economy may not be a strong as your economy (as cactus stated). Jobs might be harder to find or require a skilled trade to even obtain one (because in some countries the only work available is physical labor - where the pay ain’t great).
Anyway before going off on a tangent lets be thoughtful about this and try to find a solution or a reasonable way to add to the discussion rather than act like ass-hats with a cavalier attitude just because some of the people who have posted are either spoiled rotten to the core, had mommy and daddy provide everything for them, or just don’t have the means to understand what it’s like to “have the shoe on the other foot”.
I think Petri Purho had a decent attitude about it and summed it up nicely:
“Donated $20. That’s only like a dollar for every game I’ve played by him :)”
So, if you don’t want to donate don’t, but at least be considerate. Perhaps you don’t have much money yourself, then perhaps instead you could send cactus an email and let him know you enjoyed his game(s), and do the same for other indie developers as well.
Let’s be thoughtful and not act like a bunch of Micro$oft executives!
Peace!
Derek and cactus sittin’ in a tree, … d o n a t i n g. Fuck, that didn’t work.
While I fully accept and support the nobility of this cause… I think Derek totally has a mancrush going on here.
Don’t forget that cactus has also made large advances in finding a “cure” for cancer.
I wish I had some money to donate :[
We all do, Pip, we all do.
Pip: Not having a mancrush on Cactus is bizarre. Unless you’re a woman, of course.
Hey man,can you donate three fifty man? just three fifty, I need those three fifty man.
“it would be great to help support the little guys that either don’t have quite the exposure or financial background and are unable to receive a form of financial backing”
I’m in that situation. And for exposure I don’t even get my games on here! It’s almost like Sparta. Still I don’t complain GIVE ME FREE MONEY.
You said it, MrBig!
Mancrushes all around.
Pip: when you meet Cactus its impossible to not have a man crush on him. He swooned all of us at GDC with his talk of 500 bananas and generous manhugs.
The banana thing: what?
I donated $10 because I’m a poor guy from the third-world country known as Poland. ;-)
Three fiddy?
“Still, feels kinda bad to be taking cash from other developers…”
You’re only taking money from developers who want to give you money.
Until something different comes along, you should consider selling one of your future games.
Also, the idea of selling a DVD that has the entire ‘cactus collection’ would be cool. Especially if you designed some nice packaging, and maybe included some bonus content not available elsewhere – concept artwork, unreleased/unfinished/abandoned games, interviews, phptos, etc. Posters and t-shirts would be awesome.
That’s a really good idea, actually - I’ve recently been looking at a service called Lulu that could help with that. I know I’d buy a “best of 2007” CD or whatever you came up with :)
But seriously: The Banana thing. What is that? :)
I just hope cactus doesn’t let all this mancrushage replace real love. Or else someone’s gonna get hurt.
ALLLL WEEE ARRRREEE SAAAYYYINN — IS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!
;-P
If my parents weren’t so paranoid about giving money to random people that deserve it, I would. Cactus is quite possibly one of my favorite indie devs, along with Nifflas, and YoMamasMama.
Also, I have a huge mancrush on Cactus, too. He’s just so goddamn sexy.
If a ‘gamemaker’ plans to go full commercial, dunno if this is the case they could try the steam platform..
http://www.g4g.it/download/comment.php?dlid=2205
If i heard correctly audio surf surpassed the sell of Orange box for a short period of time..
p.s btw i don ‘t like nor steam neither audiosurf. ciao.
Just for the record - the previous post wasn’t written by me. Mind deleting it or sth. Derek?
With all the anti-spam-url-filtering systems in place the blog has no nick-protection. :-\
Impersonating people under fake nicks is low, very low…
Donated.
My only question is, just how many time can someone donate before their sense of goodwill is stressed? I think it’s great to provide indie devs with cash, but there are far too many out there to feed every one. I find it odd for cactus to receive special attention like this, but I donated anyway because I like ‘off the grid’ financial support like this.
Also, I don’t like that cactus is getting paid so he can not work a ho-hum job, by people who are likely working ho-hum jobs. What can we do as a more permanent solution?
You could try selling the music from Shotgun Ninja on iTunes. I’d buy.
Hey, guys, thanks for the response, even if you didn’t agree with what I wrote!
I can see that it may be odd to single out one developer for donations when there are many who work hard and need the money as well. But…
For me, cactus really embodies what I would like to see more of in indie game development: unique style/vision, well-versed in all aspects of game creation, willing to experiment, and finally, has the ability to FINISH what he starts. Keeping him making games has immeasurable benefits to the scene, in my humble opinion!
Even though cactus is well-known ‘round these parts, the mainstream press has not latched onto him in the same way. I could be wrong, but I think that’s partly because cactus’s games are very small in size and scope, and partly because he’s more press-shy than a lot of other successful indies.
He is my friend! Like I said, everyone who met cactus over GDC loved him. This may be kind of a contentious point, but I admit that I prefer to support people who are good people.
sinoth asked what we can do as a more permanent solution, and I think that’s a great discussion to have. I think we’re having it right now, which is pretty awesome. I was hoping that this would be a by-product of the donation run.
I really don’t want to overlook any developers who deserve recognition. By supporting cactus and opening up a dialogue, I think we’re taking steps toward helping everyone out. But you gotta start somewhere, and I think cactus is a great person to start with. I’m always open to suggestions, however. :)
But yeah, thanks for the feedback - I’m going to do a lot more thinking about the whole thing.
And Terry, “500 Bananas” is something cactus kept saying one night at GDC when we were all drunk walking down the street. Apparently in Swedish there are different words for varying numbers of bananas.
We basically all pissed ourselves laughing over it!
Uhm, there would basically be two words for all I understand…
Just like you add an S at the end of the plural, but we would write “banan” and “bananer”.
WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT IT?!
So.. is there any reason why a deserving developer can’t be singled out on a monthly (I realise weekly might be a bit too much) basis in an article such as this?
I quite liked this and would like to see it happen again.
I’d so buy a ‘cactus collection’, especially if it had bonus stuff like posters/artwork/soundtracks etc.
What the indie scene really needs is not so much to be paying small sums of money to each other (which is a nice gesture, but ultimately not very effective) but instead to be working together to find effective business models that do pay the bills.
Cactus releases his games for free. This is something I have a lot of respect for. But ultimately making a living from writing games is hard enough even if you charge for them. Rumours about donations to Dwarf Fortress aside, I don’t think donations are the right way to fund indie development.
@konjak: They don’t seem to have a word for “klase” in English…
cluster/bunch of bananas
if i had internet money, i’d give -_- shall i mail you instead ;d
I’ve never seen a straight banana.
@konjak: That’s what they told me, but I was too drunk to accept those words as correct. Isn’t bunch and cluster both more universal words not necessarily related to being connected to the same twig/branch? Klase is only applicable to fruits, berries and similar things, right?
Anyway, I shouldn’t be discussing this in a sober state :(
Bunch and cluster are both generic, but in English there’s a tendency to use collective nouns in these sorts of contexts and as well as being a generic word, “bunch” is also the collective noun for bananas.
A native English speaker would never say “cluster of bananas”. Or rather, nobody would have done prior to this discussion. Now I plan to say it at every opportunity. ;-)
Ooh, I was going to make this very post myself today… bizarre. (By the way, you should link to his arcade pack.)
@cactus: Bunch! A bunch of bananas! Hahaha, you really wouldn’t have it.
I think you should know my friends and I all say “500 bananas” all the time now.
@whoever was like “why cactus and not me?”: Because cactus is really, really good. He doesn’t deserve donations because he’s starving, he deserves them because he’s doing great things.
And he gives great nose.
500 bananas isn’t a bunch of banana though, bunches have more like 30 bananas, banana trees can’t produce bunch of 500. I know that.
For a good cause from the gaming community for a fellow. This should help out a lot.
I would say cluster of bananas if I was using the bananas to perform computations.
Oh yeah, cactus, I donated, but my name may show up as “The TS Creative Network.”
<3
BMcC: Didn’t you say you were going to donate to me as well? Whatever happened to that?
Dang, did I? I dunno what happened. I really don’t have the money to be donating to everyone I’d like to right now, but a promise is a promise, yeah?
LINK ME
Since when did this site cater to panhandlers? I’m not going to donate anything unless its for charity. I won’t donate just because some guy wants free money. So what, he makes freeware games. I do too. Welcome to the club. But then again I assume this is some sort of joke. A really bad one at that.
BMcC: Haha thanks. I’m cool. But if you insist, you could pass on a few bucks to the guys at Retro Remakes. They really need a little help at the moment..
BMcC: http://www.retroremakes.com/forum2/announcement.php?f=13
@noname,
And that’s why you have no name…
din banan
@noname
It is a joke. It’s all a joke, now get in on it, man! :D Moaning doesn’t get anybody anywhere.
Maybe I don’t have the means to donate, but were cactus here, I’d take him down to the bar and buy ‘im a round. That’s the same thing,; a slap on the back.
Cactus seems to be a nice guy, but I never donate anyway.
@noname : no , there seems to be an even more private ‘club’ around here.
By the way - I though cactus didn’t exactly ask for money - Derek was nice enough to do it for him for reasons he described…
I don’t know why some people are bashing cactus as if he was an smug indie dev asking for money because he thinks he deserves it. 0_o
However, the fact that OTHER people encourage donations is a sign that he probably DOES deserve the money. =)
What’s all this talk about money? games? money?
GAMES!
I think the reason to donate to cactus is because he’s awesome. Unlike a lot of other freeware devs, he has mad style.
And he’s never whining about what indie should be and what it shouldn’t be
:)
People do that?
What we need is more all-caps ranting.
Better yet, |24n75 w|21773n 1n L3375p34K!* :-D
*rants written in leetspeak
I’ll donate once I get Akuchizoku. Which I already donated for.
My name has a period and a space, see?
Yes it does you dirty rotten impersonator! Get your own name! ;-) Not that I care… but get your own name!
“500 bananas isn’t a bunch of banana though, bunches have more like 30 bananas, banana trees can’t produce bunch of 500. I know that.”
Sure it can :D ,genetic manipulation rulez… ;)
How’s this? =
Much more appropriate.
So.. is there any reason why a deserving developer can’t be singled out on a monthly (I realise weekly might be a bit too much) basis in an article such as this?
Yeah, especially when the first couple of posts gets you $80 or so ;)
$80 can buy you a banana in europe.
Or it could get you a blow-job from Celine Dion!
I wonder if we’ll be sending cactus more donations in a few months.
Will this be the new trendy thing? Send cactus money randomly?
I only have $20.
Anyone else want to chip in on this $80 blow-job from Celine Dion deal? Sounds good… is this monthly, too?
if we all starts helping each others doing donations….
…we’ll end up having the same money we started, maybe only with different serial numbers
@Mr. Medium,
Of course you’ll need approval from her 80 year old husband/father first, but he seems to be down with that.