NOTE: The following text was translated quite in a hurry, and it did not came through the hands of our native english 
speaking corrector, so the quality of the translation absolutely does not represent the final quality of english translation 
that will be seen in the game itself. For the ingame texts, we have far more time for perfect and clean translation and of 
course all the the ingame texts come throught the hands of our native-english corrector.



Money is funny!(?)


There have been few development diaries of our project written in the past only in czech. But as you might already noticed in 
the past news, we promised one thing- All the future diaries of our project should now come both in Czech and English.

I'm Roman Navratil , owner and leader of Faraway Studios in which I take care also of Game design and 3D graphic design and I
will be the person, who will guide you through all the future development diaries.

So, what I'll focus on today? Looks like today we'll take a look at our rejection of publishers. Even though we've covered 
this subject before I can't seem to find it anywhere on the site in a comprehensive form and if I'm not mistaken it has only 
been covered in some of the interviews and not everyone reads those. So why don't we cover it completely and thoroughly on 
a visible spot? 

You might not know that some publishers took interest in our project some time ago. We had a chance to make a professional 
project out of it (or, better yet, a commercial one) and put it out on the market. ,,But that's every team's dream!" ,,Why 
haven't you done that then?" you might ask. Well, because not everything is as it might seem at first look. A bunch of 
foreign publishers was interested. During a span of 1-2 years I received propositions from several publishers, I  
don't recall the exact number. The propositions came from Poland, Russia/Ukraine, USA and I believe that one more (Italy?), 
if I  remember it exactly there were 2 from Poland and 2 from Russia/Ukraine. We should mention one more thing: someone was 
a bit upset about it one time - ,,They couldn't have been interested in the project as you haven't shown anything worth 
mentioning yet, so why are you lying!?" he got exited. It was only preliminary interest from the publishers, when they were 
just gathering information, wanting a playable version of the game. But I guess you CAN call it ,,expressing interest" as it 
was them who contacted us, not the other way round. That' should be mentioned just so that no one would accuse us of skewing 
the facts. But let's get back to the publishers. Honestly, I wasn't too sure myself as for how to reply, even though I was 
more inclined to refusing. After I talked to other team members, got their opinion and told them mine, it became obvious that
 the others see it in a similar way. In the end we've always politely declined the offer, while explaining why we had chosen 
to do so. And now we're going to focus on concrete reasons why we've refused the potential offers:

Reason no.1 - What would be the profit?

That is the question... What profit would we make and would it be even worth it? As I have noticed there are two basic views
of the profitability of video games. People from the ,,outside" like to imagine naive dreams of a great fortune to be made, 
of buying cars,  mansions and a expensive vacations... People who've already got some professional experience often speak of 
having to struggle for every penny just to survive... So where's the truth? Honestly, I don't know. The first view is 
obviously quite far-fetched, the other view is much  closer to reality without any doubt. Nevertheless, I hope it is still a
bit pessimist and exaggerated. There has to be a golden mean... And don't forget that we're not making a 3D FPS that are 
currently going through the roof. We're not making a console game, that enjoy the same  amount of interest right now, we're 
making a PC adventure game... That's a genre that isn't selling too well lately and according to  some opinions is dying or 
even has already died. I had the opportunity to see the sale numbers of adventure games on the German market, even though the 
source was a bit unreliable. But let's assume that the numbers reflected the reality at least partly. So what were the 
numbers like? One word: horrifying! What more, they were only confirming the view of the above mentioned second view. And it
gets even worse if you take into account that the German market is quite inclined towards adventure games and the Germans 
enjoy them. But even  the sure ,,hits" weren't doing good on that list. So in the light of these facts and while being 
completely pragmatic: what would our profit be? It's hard to say but one thing is for sure: it would be very uncertain.

Reason no. 2: Dividing the profit?

The second reason depends on the first maybe even more than it could seem at first... Let's say that the game would make 
enough money to  pay for its cost (its development even though this would be quite cheap as we've completed most of the game 
while getting no pay) and  suddenly it would be making profit... During the time of development quite a big number of people
has been working on the game (just remembering what some of them have left us leaves me in quite an unpleasant state of 
mind- a mix of comedy and horror at the same time). Anyway even now, when the team is rather stable, its still quite 
numerous. Had the project been commercial, each one of them would have to get payed. But now I'm not talking about the 
drop-outs, who suddenly ceased communication one day, not bothering to send us one single line of explanation, or to reply to
our emails, probably just vanishing into thin air. But now they would return smiling: ,,Hey, how're you doing? :-) I've heard
that you've succeeded :-) Hey you remember that I did that and that... Yeah sure, I probably should have written earlier,  
but hey, you surely can recall how I...." Well, I can't, sorry :-) I don't remember one model of a wardrobe that was sent to
us after a whole month of urging and that we've never even used in the game. I simply can't recall that, no, if I want to 
remain polite. However, that was just an example, this has fortunately never happened and the ,,Hey guy" never existed. But 
I think it illustrates quite well which group of people I'm definitely not counting on when it comes to dividing the profits.
Anyway, without taking these double-crossers into account, there's still a lot of people left that took part in the project 
and would deserve their share once Until I'm Gone would have been sold. But there's one big problem with that (or maybe 
actually two). The project has been since the beginning developed as freeware and nobody was counting on making it 
commercial:  neither I imagined that at that time and I dare to say I have a vivid imagination. And that's where the two 
problems step in:

Firstly, we didn't decide on any division of any profit and all of us started this project only hoping to make a good game 
that would satisfy the players; hoping to create an original experience and hopefully have some success and have their names
forever written down in the game credits (and maybe even committed to memories of devoted fans). But nothing more! We had no
rewards ratio, no tables with information how much work has that graphic designer or that programmer done, nothing like that.
And I would be in charge of the money as the project leader and this tricky situation would be my responsibility. And trust 
me, no one would like that... How much should I give to each one of them, so that they would by content and wouldn't feel 
cheated that one programmer got more even though he had done less... etc etc.

Then we should consider that the project has been developed be a lot more people than it would have been desirable for a 
commercial project of this size. I'm not taking into account the ,,hey guys". Their contribution to the project has only been
negative as I have only wasted time while dealing with them, time, that could have been used on creating some in game 
graphics etc. And we're certainly not thinking about paying for negative contribution.... Even when we exclude these people,
there's still a lot of others that deserve their share. And so we would have to decide how big the share should be...

You don't have to be a mathematician to understand that should the project go commercial everyone would have to get their 
share. I can only speak for myself but I am fairly sure that others feel the same. After all we've went through with the 
project I'd definitely not make UIG commercial for 600 bucks. But I wouldn't do it for $6000 either, maybe not even for 
$16000, but hey, you never know... And that's considering I'm not even remotely rich, and everyone likes money. So why would
I never do that? Just because it wouldn't be worth it for me and I think I'm not the only one in the team feeling this way.
Do you find it absurd and think nobody would do that? It's true that money makes the world go around but there's more it... 
Honestly, if someone approached us, put $600k on the table and told us he's gonna take care of the project and he'll arrange
all the necessary details, there'd surely be no discussion about it in the team. If any reader thinks he would act 
differently then I guess he's a bit delusional or incredibly stinkin' rich and in that case we'd like him to visit this page
:-) I'm talking about $600k but that's obviously a completely unreal figure, no body would pay this kind of money especially
for an adventure game. The problem is no one would even give us half the amount not even half of the half... So, knowing  
how much we could  really get for the project and how big would be the share for each one of the team members... 
(and I'm not even mentioning having to pay taxes which could easily subtract about 20% from the profit). Even if this was 
the sole reason you'd have to come to the only logical conclusion: we're not going to sell UIG! Period!

Reason no. 3 - Going professional?

I've been quite prolific when dealing with the last reason as I consider it quite interesting and important to explain. The 
next problem would be going professional. It would be necessary to make everything professional - from administration (all 
the needed legal procedures,taxes and many other boring chores and responsibilities that have nothing to do with the 
development itself) to making the development professional itself. Stress, firm deadlines (well, those wouldn't really hurt)
etc. All that we've been doing out of sheer enjoyment would be suddenly a necessity, because it would be our job. We would 
face the threat of losing enthusiasm and more stress would come with that. It would probably mean a complete change of our 
way of development and it's hard to say whether we would be ready for that... Well, it we could make it, we can make it, but
at what price. Going professional would bring even more problems. No one in the team (especially not me) would like any 
(major) interference from the publisher considering the game or even the screenplay. Nobody likes that and that's no surprise
as this interference is often downright stupid, from people who have no idea and in the end only it harms the  
project as it happened with Vietcong 2 for example.

Reason no. 4 - Everything else?

As for everything else: the project is a freeware i.e. it's being developed voluntarily by the team members in their spare 
time. So obviously they're not getting any money for it. But they do need money. Of course that nobody has left his current 
job since the beginning of the project (and they've got various jobs: students, a professional animator, a database 
programmer, a soldier, an administrator of military networks, a high-school IT teacher... :-)), a job that gives him money, 
a job he's content with and working on a freeware project as a hobby in his spare time is okay with him... But suddenly the 
project is going commercial that requires full-time attendance... Especially when the publisher is pushing the deadlines. 
So what can I do if I'm a high school student and I haven't got my final exams yet and having just elementary education 
isn't really that great these days? What if I am working at a firm, I'm getting payed quite well and wouldn't like to go 
commercial as I could hardly get a job as good as I've got right now? What if I don't want to leave my job simply because I 
like it there? How many members would the team involuntarily loose by this and where would we quickly find a replacement? 
Even if someone would take the plunge it would mean a big and uncertain change in life that would require a lot of time and 
patience.

Reason no. 5: The fans?

We've been developing the project for quite a long time already and we've always presented the project as freeware and 
suddenly we want money for it? That isn't exactly fair, even though ,,hey guys" probably wouldn't mind :-) But the others 
would. And also there's the moral side of things to it. If I'm to be payed $16000 then it's not worth it for me, believe me 
or not. How many players will really get to play it in the end? How will they accept it? How many of the fans will feel
betrayed by us going commercial? That's not worth it to me and the others. We'd rather make a great, entertaining, original 
and breahtaking game that can get to a great number of players for free (especially if you take into account that the game is
being translated into 16+ languages and we're aiming for more)) We'd rather do this than an expensive game with interference
from the publisher (i.e. deviated from its original concept) that will get to, let's say, 20000 players and that's only if 
it's a hit...

,,Well, it sounds great," some people told me in the past when we talked about it. Maybe some of you are thinking the same 
just now. But then a thought comes through their minds: ,,So why don't you just finish the project as you're making it right
now (that is, for free) and then why don't you present it to the publishers as a finished project?" Well, if some of you are
still having these thoughts then I guess you just haven't read the article very thoroughly: we won't do that out of the 
reasons no 1,2 and 5 :-)

With this I guess I'd like to finish this diary entry (probably the longest so far)... The subject was quite interesting (at
least to those who want more in detail information about the project and weren't really familiar with the problem so far) and 
hopefully it compensated for the lack of web updates. And what we'll be taking a look at next time? It's hard to say, two 
subjects come to my mind. Either ,,The  participation of each member on the project and its effects on their personal life" 
or ,,Creating of each part of the game (e.g. graphics, sounds, screenplay...") You've got no idea what's that going to be 
about? Well neither do I :-), but we'll take a closer look at it in 4 weeks in another development diary of project 
"Until I'm Gone" from Faraway Studios :-)! 
Stay tunned


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