Hi Philip, Thanks for all the hard work you have done to bring us this great product. I think considering the situation you are making the right decision. I don't believe abandoning it and releasing it as abandonware would have been the right thing, but equally if you can't support the product commercially then releasing it as freeware is the next best thing. It alleviates the pressure of offering support etc while still making it available to everyone who wants to use the product for game development. You have put a lot of time and work into this project just to let it go as freeware, and for that you deserve our thanks.
Cheers! On 5/31/14, Philip Bennefall <phi...@blastbay.com> wrote: > aHi all, > > Over the last few years, BGT has acquired a pretty large user base. In > fact, it has become more popular than I could ever have imagined when I > first started developing it back in 2009. So in terms of adoption and > community, it has been a definite success. However, financially the > picture is a little different. I knew when I first envisioned it that it > would not sell very much, seeing as how it is targeting a small subset > of the blind community which in itself is not that large to begin with. > However, over the years it has become apparent just how small the > potential market is. I have concluded that I can no longer justify > working on it to the extent that I did in the beginning, and on top of > that I am involved in a lot of other projects which take up the absolute > majority of my time. > > For the last few months I have been debating back and forth with myself > what the right course of action would be. One option is to simply make > it abandonware and forget about it, but I do not like that alternative. > Another option would be to continue selling it and releasing updates in > the little free time that I am able to dedicate to it, but that seems > unfair to the users who have paid for a product that they expect updates > and prompt support for. I dismissed that. The final option that I have > actually chosen to go for, is to make the product free but not abandon > it. I will continue to maintain it, adding new features as time permits > and fixing any bugs that spring up as soon as I can. I will keep the > forum online, and I will continue to accept sponsorships from those who > want to see a new feature in the engine and are willing to pay a little > something for it to happen. > > Simply put, a fully functional version of the engine can now be > downloaded free of charge from www.blastbay.com. Be sure to uninstall > any prior version that you may have on your system before installing > this new one, as it contains some minor incompatibilities. > > I will continue to maintain the product as I mentioned previously, but > please understand that any emails you send to me with questions about > how to write this or that piece of code will probably go unanswered. The > right place to ask such questions is the Blastbay forum. I do visit the > forum fairly frequently and will continue to respond to queries whenever > I am able, but please do not get upset if you don't hear back from me > quickly. > > With all this said, I would like to thank everyone who has used and/or > supported BGT over the years. It has been a labor of love for me and I > hope that you will all find the unlocked features in the new freeware > version useful. Continue to make fun games with it and send me a copy of > your next blockbuster if you feel thus inclined. > > Thank you! > > Kind regards, > > Philip Bennefall > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
