We have thought about how to release "Nikki and the Robots" for a long time, and this is what we finally came up with...
First, there will be the "Edit Mode", a fully playable version of "Nikki and the Robots" featuring various levels, a level editor, and online functions. This will be released as free software (under LGPL and Creative Commons).
And then, towards late 2010, we will release our "Story Mode", which will tell the adventure around Nikki, Dr. Lacroix and the robots in four episodes. These episodes will be available for download for a rather small amount of money.
We think this will be a very attractive way of distributing our game, and we will be talking about more details soon!
Online functions as in multiplayer?
Sorry, no... this is not planned at the moment, it's a single player game. Nevertheless, the online functions that we have planned should be quite nice! We will give you more information about that soon!
I think it is a great way also. Start out with the tools, get a community involved then sell the actual game and premium content.
I like it. It's not totally proprietary, but it's not completely dependent on donations. If the game continues to shape well i'll buy it.
I think this is a fantastic idea--the engine/concept is freely available to all, whereas the gaming experience developed using that engine/concept is commercial. I think it sticks to your indie roots without selling yourself short.