Should I Add a Disclaimer?

I’m currently making a README Template for the products and one thing popped up… should I add a disclaimer?

When I released my free games I placed a disclaimer in the vein that I hold no responsibility for any damages and so on. Considering it’s a program, I understand it would be applicable but would that same disclaimer hold for an art asset?

It’s not an executable though it is something that one loads in order to manipulate or use. Plus, considering it is a digital asset, there is no knowledge of whether that file is intentionally or unintentionally carrying something malicious. :|

Hrmmm…. I guess it doesn’t hurt to have the disclaimer. Anyone have thoughts about this? :?

Price Check! (Photos)

Okay, I was surfing around as much royalty free photo sites I could find that indie devs like to go to and let me just say this – what’s with the prices? They ranged from free, cheap but affordable, to highly expensive! O_o

Offering my photos for a high price is out of the question since I’m targeting indie’s with a tight budget but I’m not willing to provide them for free either. It wouldn’t be a business if I didn’t turn a profit after all, so that leaves me with the cheap but affordable route. Now the 1 million dollar question most people ask themselves is: at what price should I sell my product?

If I was selling a game, I’d go with $19.95. Too bad I’m not selling a game! Anyways, I like reminding you of what I said earlier, so do you remember this?

So far, there isn’t a set pricing list for the photo assets but we plan on providing them at reasonable prices based on the size of the image. The larger the image, the higher the price in other words.

I’ve thought of some initial pricing; the lowest is several dollars for a single 800×600 photo and will go up from there. I haven’t decided on prices for packs yet but count on them being a little bit more cost effective than buying assets individually. (It’s better to in buy bulk!)

Did I mention there’ll be sales? $1 photo sales? O_O

Ready-Made Template Service?

Yes, I know. It’s another idea amongst some others I put out already (and it won’t be the last!) but I’ll mention it anyways. :p

Some recent threads in Indie Gamer Forum popped up that mentioned templates and re-doing the website design. Those two merged in my head and formed into…. :drum roll:

Ready-made template service!

Now, I’ve been doing my own web site design for over 10 years now and I’m at the stage where I’m really confident of my web designing skills. Of course, there’s always new things to learn, imo, but I think I’ve learned enough to make spiffier web designs than the average Joe and newbie web designer.

For a set fee, whoever wants the template can buy it and then use it for their own site. For an extra fee, I can use any images they provide me and customize it to represent their business. Otherwise, if they’re savvy enough, they can do that themselves. Buyers can edit the coding as they wish but they cannot resell it or remove the credit in the HTML file that names me as the creator. With the template at hand, all the buyer has to do is redo the links, image files, place text and their site can go live instantly!

From what I gather, the most popular would be designs for CMS sites, forums, and traditional web pages. Regarding the overall site design, I will be coding in HTML using CSS to control the look of the site and I can also provide it in php format. My Manga Tutorials site, for instance is in php for which I have also designed the forum around the style of my main site.

There’s a market out there for it with big sites like Template Monster leading the way for commercial templates. The downside is that I will basically be competing with services like that along with sites that offer free templates. Then again, if most people go to those sites and use their templates, original web design is lacking and I can build a niche for myself if marketed wisely.

It’s a nice idea but one I will have to put away for now as I really want to get the avatar paper dolls out and started. If you think it’s something really worthwhile and you’d like to use, drop a line and maybe I’ll bring it out this service sooner rather than later. n_n

Photographic Backgrounds?

I have tons of photo’s I’ve taken over the years and they’re sitting at my hard drive taking up space. I know photo’s have been used as a quick solution to backgrounds in games. The problem: I’ve been rolling my head over whether to provide photographs at Pixel Petunia or not for awhile now and I finally decided to just stop and ask you guys. (Yeah, I should have done that in the first place but oh well… n_n; )

Here are a few photo’s I’ve taken:

You can see more at my DeviantArt account. They won’t be as artsy as the two samples as above (unless you guys actually want these types too) but I can assure you that they’ll be “picture perfect”. n_n

So what do you guys think? Should I provide them at the site or not?

Idea: Art Assets Portal

I was surfing through some indie freelance artists’ sites, and I came across Qitsune’s blog. One of the posts Qitsune made that caught my eye was entitled “Art and Audio Assets Portal?“

From her post, she plans a “…portal where artists can publish packaged pre-made graphical 2D game assets, like a map pack, a sprite pack, tile packs, or themed pack like, all the art needed to make a XYZ game… When the license to the art is bought, …you buy the rights to use the art…, [and] you can use it as placeholders in as many prototypes as you want.”

Personally, I think this would be a great idea. Finding pre-made 2D art is a rare sight and building a site to house a multitude of these assets would create business for both indie’s, who can churn out games faster, and artists, who can make a livelihood or earn extra cash, alike. The only big hurdle I see is getting enough artists to contribute.

Building a repertoire of art assets take time and dedication – it’s almost like making a game continuously through the years. Amateurs would create one or two packs, most likely drop off soon after and move onto to another project. Freelancers are a mixed bag. So far, most have not made art packs available to indie’s with an exception or two. Who among them will take time to make art packs when they get paid for their time at much higher prices already? If they must be persuaded, I think you’d have to sell them on the long term earnings that packs can bring in but even that is flimsy with no hard facts.

If Qitsune ever decides to make this portal, I’m in! But for now, it’s a nice dream.