>Indeed the market has changed a lot. An important factor is that the
>LTOI releases had the unfortunate side effect of devaluing IF games
>greatly. "If I can buy real Infocom games for a couple of dollars
>each, why should I pay $20 for a (supposedly inferior) shareware
>product?".
>
>Also it should be noted that (at least according to my sources :-))
>Graham Cluley's games are crippleware. Some puzzles are impossible to
>solve without he hints, which you can only getby registering. Today,
>such a scheme would be far less effective, since pople would just ask
>for hints on rec.games.int-fiction.
I'm truly a lurker on this group - I didn't ought to be here because I
don't ever plan to actually write if. [If anyone's interested, I lurk
because I find the process of designing games fascinating, and it's
something that I'd do if only I had infinitely more time.] However,
I'd point out that I'd have registered Curses if it had been shareware
rather than freeware, and I know I'm not alone in this. Maybe I should
send Graham a tenner?
Although a crippled game isn't really an option, I would have thought
that a viable approach would be to release about half the game as
shareware - "if you're enjoying this, then register and get the
remaining puzzles and the endgame." Certainly not as a viable strategy
for making a million, but sufficient (I would have thought) for a
useful hobby income.
Also, I keep harping on about this, but infocom-compatible games *are*
state of the art on the Psion 3a; simply the best-designed games of
any type available. I suspect this is true for a number of other odd
platforms as well. I simply don't have the option of playing modern
games that are all style and no substance on the Tube, and until I do,
games for the z machine represent the best available option.
-- Alison Scott alison@fuggles.demon.co.uk