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This thread really inspired me to never release anything for free for decades.

thunderfork 16d ago
You have to look to the people for whom those decades brought joy, and realize how grandly that outnumbers complaints... and if you find yourself blessed enough to be in that position does the road, then "reading HN" is a problem that solves itself ;)
AngryData 16d ago
Why? Dwarf Fortress only exists because it was given away for free for decades, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars in donations, and eventually leading to a fandom popular enough to bring others onboard with the project to produce a GUI and paid steam release version. If something you build brings in a lot of critique, it is likely something of great value. Because something that doesn't have value won't bring much critique at all.
- izacus 16d ago
  Tens of thousands dollars of donations over decades is a very small amount of money even outside US.
  - olmo23 16d ago
    The premium version of Dwarf Fortress made over $7.2 million in its first month alone.
    - aqme28 15d ago
      "first month" is really obscuring the decade or beforehand. That's 20 years of development before the premium version launched
      - Sander_Marechal 15d ago
        So that's 360K/year over 20 years?
        aqme28 15d ago
        And a lot more from subsequent months, but I don't think it's a problem that this wildly successful videogame made its developers decently rich.
        Sander_Marechal 15d ago
        Oh I fully agree. I hope Tarn an Zach make millions more and can keep working of their life's work for many years to come.
      - olmo23 15d ago
        It made an additional $23 million after the first month.
  - OkayPhysicist 15d ago
    Their donation revenue was alright for a pretty significant chunk of that time. For the first decade it was ~$5k/month, which jumped up to ~$10k/month for the second decade before the Steam release. Toady wasn't exactly raking in the cash, but he didn't need another job.
  - tripleee 15d ago
    it was ~10k per month if I remember correctly. They used to post monthly updates
oortoo 15d ago
They made a couple mil off the steam release. It wouldn't have happened without the massive cult following, which only happened because it was free.

You have to look to the people for whom those decades brought joy, and realize how grandly that outnumbers complaints... and if you find yourself blessed enough to be in that position does the road, then "reading HN" is a problem that solves itself ;)

AngryData 16d ago

Why? Dwarf Fortress only exists because it was given away for free for decades, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars in donations, and eventually leading to a fandom popular enough to bring others onboard with the project to produce a GUI and paid steam release version. If something you build brings in a lot of critique, it is likely something of great value. Because something that doesn't have value won't bring much critique at all.

izacus 16d ago
Tens of thousands dollars of donations over decades is a very small amount of money even outside US.
- olmo23 16d ago
  The premium version of Dwarf Fortress made over $7.2 million in its first month alone.
  - aqme28 15d ago
    "first month" is really obscuring the decade or beforehand. That's 20 years of development before the premium version launched
    - Sander_Marechal 15d ago
      So that's 360K/year over 20 years?
      - aqme28 15d ago
        And a lot more from subsequent months, but I don't think it's a problem that this wildly successful videogame made its developers decently rich.
        Sander_Marechal 15d ago
        Oh I fully agree. I hope Tarn an Zach make millions more and can keep working of their life's work for many years to come.
    - olmo23 15d ago
      It made an additional $23 million after the first month.
- OkayPhysicist 15d ago
  Their donation revenue was alright for a pretty significant chunk of that time. For the first decade it was ~$5k/month, which jumped up to ~$10k/month for the second decade before the Steam release. Toady wasn't exactly raking in the cash, but he didn't need another job.
- tripleee 15d ago
  it was ~10k per month if I remember correctly. They used to post monthly updates

oortoo 15d ago

They made a couple mil off the steam release. It wouldn't have happened without the massive cult following, which only happened because it was free.