Open Letter to the Simming Community

This is the text of Rod Hyde's open letter to the simming community back in January of 2000. It is presented here for reference purposes only. Please note: The forum and the survey form that were originally included with this letter have been removed.

Date:	January 17th, 2000
From:	Rod Hyde
Company:	Rowan Software
To:	The Combat Simming Community
Re:	Software Angels

 

Over the last few years the cost of developing complex flight sims has risen dramatically and the market, if anything, has become smaller. The consequence is that game publishers are now reluctant to fund development and they are putting their money into mainstream products. You will all be aware of the products that have been canned, the publishers that have dropped out of the market, and the development teams that have been disbanded.

At the same time, early adopters of sims sometimes find the experience after unwrapping the box and putting the CD into the PC very frustrating. As developers we take pride in our products but every PC is different and so the potential for hardware problems is just a fact of life. Generally a patch is issued within a month or so that addresses most of the hardware and some of the game-related problems. This process works, but it is not the way to produce product for the mass market. This is another reason why publishers and developers are more interested in producing console games. I suggest that we bring these two problems together and offer the following solution: Instead of being straightforward consumers of sims, early adopters pre-order a sim and get involved in the development process. They would become Software Angels.

The pre-order would be a commitment to buy and might involve paying a deposit. This deposit, however, would not be spent until the product were ready to ship and so it could be returned if the game did not materialise. The purpose of the pre-order is to persuade a publisher or venture capitalist that there is a sufficient demand for them to make a profit. In return, the Software Angels would get a discount on the developer's next product. The size of the discount would depend on the success of the product.

In addition, the Software Angels would be involved in a closed forum in which the design was discussed. We all know, however, the problems of designing by committee. The developer would have to have the final say in the design but developers do listen and incorporate other people's ideas. Further input during the development process would be possible and would be especially useful during the beta stage and on issuing V1.00 of the game. It is possible that V1.00 would only be issued to the Software Angels. Of course people could wait for V1.1 if they wanted.

Rowan finished MiG Alley in 1999, and our Battle of Britain sim will be published in 2000. We are now ready to start our next sim with a proposed publication date of 2001. In a recent poll on COMBATSIM.COM, it was suggested that we consider a Pacific Air War (PAW) scenario. I am interested to know whether we can use this "Software Angels" approach to developing PAW on the PC. It just depends on the number of pre-orders that we can generate.

I am interested in your views about the idea and what concerns you might have. To this end, the folks at COMBATSIM.COM have graciously created the survey below and a dedicated forum which you can enter by clicking HERE (Forum no longer available). The forum is password protected and only those who complete the questionnaire will be provided with the password. After a while we will produce a more detailed questionnaire so that we can further judge the viability of the idea. In the meantime, if the idea interests you, please fill in your details on this form (no longer applicable) so that we may keep you informed of developments.

[Ed. Note: Here are the original questions with the resultant response percentages:] Interesting idea but I don't want to be involved - 1% Interested but I need to know more - 42% Likely to pre-order - 35% Definitely will pre-order - 22%

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