Alright, now that it's pretty much confirmed I feel save to announce the first full time development week that I promised earlier!
On May 1 to 5, I'll stick to a full time modelling schedule for the Titanic Mod. Hopefully kickstarting production again.
As a working man, my holidays are not half as much as I used to have back at school, which is problematic, considering those were the periods I spent most work on the mod. I'm very fortunate that my current employer allowed a few separate weeks of unpaid leave this year so I could work on this mod.
In this first week, I my goal is to finish all of the ship's corridors and implement them ingame as well. These areas have been a bottleneck for quite a while since every other area depends on them for proper implementation. Not to mention, the programmer cannot put in a single line of code without any interior to walk around in.
I shall post at least one update at the end of each day. Stay tuned!
Thank you! Looking forward to first week of May!
Good job...you are sacrificing for your mod, and i expect that it will be the mod of the year....i hope so.
Great news!
Great news indeed.
Rob,
I know you aren't in this for the money, but have you considered starting a Patreon page? I apologize if you have addressed this topic elsewhere and I missed it, but I think you would have some people who would be willing to help lift a trifle of your financial burdens; thus possibly freeing up some of your time to work on the mod.
Great to hear about the full week work on the mod, in such weeks you can really do a lot of work. Please keep us updated as you always do.
greetings,
Leon
I understand how difficult it is to continue working on a game with the same pace after so many years. Real life can really get in the way, and motivation is not always the same as it used to be. Not to mention the project you are working on is a HUGE one. I am glad you are trying to kick-start development though and I am eager to see what you are cooking for us ;) . Also, consider what @XeNIKusGreekus suggested: Try to start a Patreon or Kickstarter for this. Who knows, that might give you all the motivation and funds you need to finish this a little bit sooner ;) .
Keep going mate! Definitely one of the most interesting and unique mods on ModDB right now.
Thanks a lot for the support!
I've considered a few ways to gain some financial support, including a Patreon account, though unfortunately in my case it is really hard for any method to work.
The first problem is that this is a mod, and although most people wouldn't mind a donation system or some sort, mostly for legal reasons, any income for a modder is still a taboo thing. For example I am not allowed to share a PayPal button on this ModDB page. I used to have one, which some people luckily used, but it was a hell to maintain it. Websites kept removing it so I was down to some news posts and links on my own website that had the donation button, which of-course, at some point aren't read by anyone anymore, so I removed the donation button altogether.
The downside of a Patreon page is that I need to be able to provide a rather consistent stream of updates, or else people will quickly lose interest. There can be months between updates, and chances are that 80% of who became a Patreon around any former update, already dropped out by the time the latter is released.
Being on a fulltime job still limits that flow of content, and without a job I could never generate enough income from this mod with a Patreon page to support my own life.
Added to that, with Honor and Glory out there, I'd need one hell of a feature list in order to convince people why this project is interesting to invest any money into when HaG is also around. Being a free project no longer functions as an argument I found.
The last gen graphics also don't help with the cause. People rather pay $60,- for a photo realistic representation of the ship rather than $1,- for an outdated graphical representation of it.
And lastly, the Mafia setting altogether isn't helping. It may be more than 100 years ago, but Titanic is still a very sensitive subject to a lot of people. The idea alone of Mafia gangs shooting around a sinking Titanic is repulsive to many amongst Titanic fans. So I can imagine that the second I open a Patreon page or some sort, I simultaneously open the floodgates of endless criticism, possibly turning an innocent mod into a controversial subject, which I'd want to stay clear from with a thousand miles.
So so far I'll have to stick with the only resource I can gather, time.
I understand what you mean. You bring up valid points. It's a shame, but I get that that's how it is. At the end of the day, you'll always still have your supporters who believe in you and your ability and dedication to finish this incredible endeavor.