License out the engine to a select few people who have shown interest in the engine and can do the job.
Showcase their work in the Kickstarter video after infinity battlescape pitch. Do not showcase them in the main KS video.
Tell them about these other projects in KS updates saying that “We want to be an engine and game company however we need money to do so.” or Something along these lines.
Offer Licenses for the engine as part of the Kickstarter rewards.
I can see the benefits in several ways -
People will have an incentive to back. Not only would they be getting one game but they would be getting multiple by supporting engine and the company. Basically by investing so to speak in the companies future they get Engine licenses and the possibility of other games.
Engine Licenses for developing games.
More Money for developing the engine and the game.
They’re most of the way through their Kickstarter, using an engine that is not ready to be used by anyone but their team. What you’re talking about isn’t remotely practical. They’d have to get the engine in a form ready for use by third parties, support that engine, wait for the third parties to develop something worth showing in INS’s Kickstarter, then fold whatever great stuff the third parties come up with into it. And all the while that the third parties are developing those great applications, INS would be on the hook for supporting and enhancing the engine to allow the third parties to build their separate visions.
This could go on for a couple years, and most of the those independent developers - who aren’t on the hook for doing anything at all - will just get bored, get married, get a new job, have a child - and move on. “But you can have my game source code” will be their parting words.
So just sit tight and wait like everyone else. You can spend your time hoping that the Kickstarter will have a donation tier that allows you to get early access to the engine. Then you can support INS financially, get your hands on the engine, build the game of your dreams, and show the world how great the INS engine is.
@JB47394 is correct however we are considering the possibility of making the engine available as a pledge tier during the Kickstarter. It would have to be with the understanding that:
We still have some major engine work to do and the API may not be stable.
We still have a lot of work to do on tools. In fact our engine will only be immediately useful to programmers, or artists working with programmers, as our tools need a lot of love.
We have no documentation whatsoever at the moment. For those of you who have significant game/engine programming experience we can write up something in fairly short order that would be enough to get you pointed in the right direction. For those of you with little to no game/engine programming experience you’re likely in for a world of hurt in the near-term. That being said we actually do have a number of tutorials programs we’ve written to show people how to use the engine. Ironically we also use them as unit tests for the engine
Well, as long as you specifically refer to it as “Access to the Engine Alpha” it shouldn’t be much of a problem. I mean, who puts himself into this sort of things should know what an Alpha is.
About game Alpha/Beta tier, will modding tools travel along with them or we’ll see them later (around Beta/latter Beta)? I would like to bash my head on them even with little documentation, would be quite an experience.
I’m only guessing here but making the engine available to the sort of tinkerers that wont mind its unfinished state might be directly beneficial to you. A community of tinkerers (wishful thinking?) would be best suited to finding and reporting the breaking points and perhaps even help fill in the gaps (/voids) in documentation for each other as they work things out.
That is currently the plan though don’t hold me to it until we formally announce our pledge tiers.
I couldn’t agree more. This is an active area of discussion for us, we want to get the tech into the hands of modders asap however we have to balance the development of the mod tools and the game - the game itself will take priority. This is why we’re still debating exactly how/when we’re going to give you guys access to the engine.
