Planet PostModerna - Q&A with the Founder

Hiya Knuckles,
Let me answer this for you.

Q: What will Planet Postmoderna have to offer that would attract people from Planet Calypsp? I dont see much potential in PostModerna (or any other partner for that sake).

A: As mentioned before, each planet is responsible for bringing its own player base to the scene. It would be naive to think however, that players won't move from one planet to the next.

We are planning to drum up support throughout and get a potential following based on our immersive storyline.

You also say its pretty much "volunteer" work on it so how will that work in terms of financial systems? Everyone who was a part of it gets a % or will you take it all?

A: We will reward our volunteers in a myriad of ways. These include but are not limited to, payment for work down the road based on the translated value of their long-term commitment and recorded hours, a potential permanent position or even ownership interest in the final planet.

Many volunteers contribute just to say they were part of the project. For those that plan career paths in the industry, I will gladly write them letter of recommendation to attach to their college or job applications and they can list Project Planet Postmoderna on their resumes.

Q: And lastly, do you accept donations to the project and will you pay those back when the project never launches?

A: First off, donations are just that, a donation. Those don't usually get repaid and are treated as grant contributions used toward building the project. Now an investment or a loan is a different thing and will be paid back or translated into ownership stake.

 

Are you a official planet partner and do you have the development kit?

Would you be willing to share proof of working on the actual EU platform and not some other platform?

 

Q: Have you even tried using the CryEngine 2 sandbox editor to get the feel of basic design for the future platform or are you guys just gonna try and convert and hope for the best if you would actually manage to get a license? The product is pretty much vaporware until its made in the correct platform format atleast

 

Hiya Knuckles,

I have messed around with the public slice of the CryEngine2 Sandbox and it is pretty intuitive. When and if we get a contract with Mindark in order to be officially recognized as a Partner Planet, Mindark provides training on this so I am not worried in the slightest about that part. We will cross that bridge when we get there. :)

In the mean time, thanks for your interest and support. We are taking this step-by-step and for now we need to build the demo and interest in the project from the community. As of current, we are likely the only indie project in the works for this and your support in spreading positive word about us is invaluable and very much appreciated.

Best,

A

 

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Hiya Nat,

Thanks for the question. Unfortunately, I can't really answer those since I believe they are items or processes that are controlled by Mindark and the existing Game Dynamics. Those are all pretty neat ideas though. I like especially the one about knowing how many players are on.

Sorry, I wish I could have been better help here but you stumped me. :)

A

 

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Hiya Nat,

I understand. I would feel the same. As of the last conversation I had with Mindark, all economic components stay intact. The only thing a planet partner can do is basically "re-skin" the game in their world. :)

That said, dialogue will be open in the future for suggested enhancements (the "code" part of things). It is simply a matter of requesting what you want and they will try to make it happen.

On a related note, this is why our Indie project is building the demo in Multiverse. We can portray the possibilities. Always a lot easier to "show" than to just "say." :)

I hope that helps.

A

 

Good question i was wondering that too from listening to Davids interview.

 

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Hey there,

Sorry for the delay in my getting back to you. It was implied that it would be Mindark coders. Afterall, the base-game is Mindark's.

:)

 

Hiya,

It really is not a matter of paying for a license as much as showing you have the funding to build and run your planet. Essentially, your planet is a 'business' and needs to be shown that it will be run as one.

You get 40% of the revenue generated by your planet. If a you bring in a new player and they leave your planet, you get 10% of the revenue they generate on that planet. I hope that helps.

This info is in the partner planet overview document on Mindark's website. (http://www.mindark.com/partners/) However, I might add that much of the original documentation about this is no longer there. I know I have a copy of it somewhere and can post it here if that is okay with Mindark.

As far as number of player, we talked estimated numbers. I'd rather not use conjecture here without more hard specifics as to not mislead anyone or misrepresent the game.

Best,

A

 

Ballpark figure I heard about a year ago is that there are 30-40k unique IP's logging in on a monthly basis..now if that is still somewhat near accurate or not is hard to say.

I really do not like the 10% revenue from someone who created the account on that planet first. This gives high PR but crappy content planets a chance for survival...I want the shit gone faster than that

Anyway. What is it that is included in the package. MindArk wants 50% for support,platform and hosting?

 

why is it a problem for you if planet X pulls in n number of people who then move to Calypso or other? as long as they stay, thats the main thing isnt it? this way the planets are encouraged to draw in longer term customers rather than short term.


the burgeoning question i have, bearing in mind the funding required to run a planet (ballpark prediction would be handy for context), the revenue model, the fact that all system changes and coding has to go through MA, and the apparent fact that Postmoderna has some skilled people onboard to develop the current vastpark/Multiverse prototype, is this: have you considered running an independent game? if not, why not?

 

Hiya Aridash,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to me. Busy season it seems (holiday, bdays, family and tradeshow season in my RL job. :) )

I am going to answer both questions: yours and Knuckle's, prior to that. Yes it takes a cut back to Mindark just to have a planet for the support and the platform and system they built. I still am unsure and uneasy about the percentage. I would be lying if I said otherwise.

As far as what you said Aridash about the 10%. You are correct. It is a good thing since bringing in new people and keeping them is more work and does encourage such a reward for doing so. The big win in this case is if you are a planet owner that can keep those players. That revenue will keep your planet's heart pumping.

We can think of the 10% is a residual for recruiting them should they fly off to another Entropia adventure.

Now with regard to the mention of whether we have thought about building our own game and sticking with Multiverse and/or Vastpark, that has come up multiple times. This is especially since the cut back to Multiverse would only be 10% vs. the cut back to Mindark. However, in trade, we would have to build everything from scratch. That can take a very long time. Impossible? No, just a lot of work. Still do we think about it? We would be crazy not to.

Hopefully though, we can make it in the Entropia Universe and possibly provide some valuable input and insight into making this game a "great" game. :)

 

Ok I have a question...let's see if I can phrase this in a good way...

You have doubtless been on Entropia Forum and seen the profound discontent and disillusionment with the way Mindark has historically mishandled a single planet: Planet Calypso.
Do you expect they will suddenly be able to properly handle multiple planets?
If so - What exactly do you base this confidence upon? I ask only so that by your answer we players may be instilled with the same confidence.
If not - Could you please explain why you find it a sound & profitable business decision to "re-skin" an already sorely lacking game structure that MA will neither change nor allow anyone else to modify?

 

Hiya Yirkk,

Thanks for your interest and feedback.

I understand your thoughts and points pretty well and have asked myself the same many a time. I can say that initially mine and our project's efforts were based on the original business model and partner planet plan laid forth by Mindark. I cannot comment on how they do business nor on how they handle dealings with the other planets or the community. I cannot control that. I can only control what we do and what we can bring to the table as far as ideas in the hopes of making a better game.

Besides, there is likely a lot we don't see that goes on behind the scene and good reason for that too. That is the way it is with lots of games. So, we probably should cut them some slack there too. No company is perfect.

Now one thing is for sure, we are building our demo and concept in a fully functioning platform that should things go south with Mindark, we can still finish Postmoderna as a stand-alone project. There is a benefit to the way we are doing this. Who knows? Maybe there is a reason we are where we are right now and that we are not officially a planet partner yet. :)

Best,

A

 

From listening to Justin's interview, it sounds like your business plan is based around getting people to work for you for free.

Do you really think that will work?

And if it does, aren't you simply exploiting people's goodwill?