6 ms·

And it's 15k divided by 2 before tax isn't it? Pretty amazing story of just doing what you love and eventually getting rewarded.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Apparently Toady has had several 6 figure opportunities just to license the name that he's turned down. The game is made for the love of making it and what little money they made was always just about allowing them to keep doing what they love. The resulting good will from their 20 years of labor and refusing to sell out paid off in the end when they needed it. Honestly, I'd have bet that if they released the "premium" version for free on bay12 but $30 on Steam they'd still make the majority of what they have.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Yeah, they've been "comfortable" for years now, the main reason to "sell out" if you will was to ensure that health insurance would be available.
  - nasmorn 4y ago
    How can you be comfortable if you don’t even have health insurance. Seems like an oxymoron to me.
    - colordrops 4y ago
      When you are young it seems like you don't need it. Usually there comes a time though where you realize you should have it.
    - NoraCodes 4y ago
      In America, healthcare (insurance and out-of-pocket) can be a major contributor to cost of living for anyone with anything more than the occasional cold. It's especially bad for self-employed people like the Adams.
      - anamexis 4y ago
        You seem to be in agreement.
  - davemac8 4y ago
    That seems to be an uniquely American approach to the situation ...
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  It reminds me of Justin Hall's story about holding out and refusing to sell "bud.com" to Budweiser. Instead he just hung onto it, and eventually used it for his own bud delivery company, once recreational cannabis was finally legalized. He was much happier that great three-letter domain name be used for something he loves, strong kind bud, instead of something he hates, weak piss beer. https://bud.com https://bud.com https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ >In 1999 I was contacted by a lawyer Steven M. Weinberg, representing Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud beer. >We chatted by phone: “So, you’re a college student!” >Actually I graduated the year before. >He continued: “Well, how does $50,000 sound for bud.com?” >I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated. I remember reading that the marketing budget for Budweiser beer that quarter was $16.1 million. BUD was the company’s stock symbol. >I wasn’t going to sell lightly, and they weren’t going to bid against themselves, so we didn’t get anywhere. The story about his fight to register the four-letter domain name fuck.com is also hilarious: https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html
  - zamadatix 4y ago
    I'm torn on this story. On one hand I'm really glad he got to keep using it personally out of the gate and eventually was able to later use it again for the intent it sounds like he gave when registering, couldn't ask for anything more for a short domain. On the other his reasoning for not selling was really unrelated to any of that. His response was standard squatter logic - I registered it first and you have a lot of money + will actually use it heavily so I'm not selling unless it's for tens of thousands of times what I got it for. It wasn't like he responded "I think I will get more than 50k of use out of it" or "It's more than 50k of inconvenience for me to change my email" it was straight up "I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated". Kind of ruins the inspiration when the thing he actually held out for was rent seeking. On the third hand Budweiser is indeed really shit beer...
berkle4455 4y ago
$15M * 70% = $10.5M and some percentage goes to the publisher they're working with (let's say another 30%) = $7.4M / 2 = ~$3.7M each
- SXX 4y ago
  Steam revenue share over $10,000,000 is decreased to 25%. Also it very unlikely publisher get 30% for title like DF. More likely there is some recuperation if publisher invested into new version and then then 10-15%. PS: I work in game development.
- HDThoreaun 4y ago
  30% goes to the publisher? What service are they providing?
  - gnarbarian 4y ago
    being on steam is pretty valuable. people are more likely to buy a game on steam than off of a random website. steam will show your game to people who like similar games. there are cloud saving features, mod integration, updates etc.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - imtringued 4y ago
      There is also pretty good Linux support. So if you wanted to tick the Linux box you only have to make sure your game works under proton which generally just means avoiding proprietary anti cheat and Microsoft specific codecs/fonts. I know a franchise whose games ran with 99% compatibility in proton except the cutscenes which used a proprietary codec. Proton then got a patch and just shows a static image during cut scenes while the rest of the game works perfectly. The developer can fix it by reencoding the cutscenes. No need for explicit Linux support.
  - pflats 4y ago
    20% is going to the publisher. They paid for the Steam version, including hiring the graphics and sound people. They're also handling customer support for the paid version. https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b0mzog/official_announcement_dwarf_fortress_is_coming_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b0mzog/offic...
KRAKRISMOTT 4y ago
Can’t they carry forward the losses from the past 15 years?
- hgsgm 4y ago
  Food and rent aren't losses.
  - expazl 4y ago
    What? A company pays it's workers a salary and that's a loss for the business no matter if the people it's paid to are using it for food and rent. If they didn't have any revenue coming in at all, then they should have a quite high deficit in the company that they can subtract against the income now to reduce taxes.
    - mlyle 4y ago
      Where do you think the Dwarf Fortress guys got all this extra hypothetical money to pay themselves in excess of receipts?
    - robbiep 4y ago
      To be able to maintain carry forward losses, you have to have capital. The boys didn’t have capital. They paid themselves what came in. If they had been maintaining losses, they wouldn’t have a house because they would have had to sell it. Because of the losses, right? How do you think money works?
      - expazl 4y ago
        Why would a worker who owns a house and every year is owed more and more in unpaid back salary from a company they are working at for free, ever need to sell their house to cover the debt that the company has to themselves?
      - User23 4y ago
        Not necessarily. But they probably didn't have a good lawyer and accountant. It's certainly possible to have a corporation run a loss while its employees keep their houses. I mean that's pretty much the entire point of corporations.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

Apparently Toady has had several 6 figure opportunities just to license the name that he's turned down. The game is made for the love of making it and what little money they made was always just about allowing them to keep doing what they love. The resulting good will from their 20 years of labor and refusing to sell out paid off in the end when they needed it. Honestly, I'd have bet that if they released the "premium" version for free on bay12 but $30 on Steam they'd still make the majority of what they have.

bombcar 4y ago
Yeah, they've been "comfortable" for years now, the main reason to "sell out" if you will was to ensure that health insurance would be available.
- nasmorn 4y ago
  How can you be comfortable if you don’t even have health insurance. Seems like an oxymoron to me.
  - colordrops 4y ago
    When you are young it seems like you don't need it. Usually there comes a time though where you realize you should have it.
  - NoraCodes 4y ago
    In America, healthcare (insurance and out-of-pocket) can be a major contributor to cost of living for anyone with anything more than the occasional cold. It's especially bad for self-employed people like the Adams.
    - anamexis 4y ago
      You seem to be in agreement.
- davemac8 4y ago
  That seems to be an uniquely American approach to the situation ...
DonHopkins 4y ago
It reminds me of Justin Hall's story about holding out and refusing to sell "bud.com" to Budweiser. Instead he just hung onto it, and eventually used it for his own bud delivery company, once recreational cannabis was finally legalized. He was much happier that great three-letter domain name be used for something he loves, strong kind bud, instead of something he hates, weak piss beer. https://bud.com https://bud.com https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ >In 1999 I was contacted by a lawyer Steven M. Weinberg, representing Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud beer. >We chatted by phone: “So, you’re a college student!” >Actually I graduated the year before. >He continued: “Well, how does $50,000 sound for bud.com?” >I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated. I remember reading that the marketing budget for Budweiser beer that quarter was $16.1 million. BUD was the company’s stock symbol. >I wasn’t going to sell lightly, and they weren’t going to bid against themselves, so we didn’t get anywhere. The story about his fight to register the four-letter domain name fuck.com is also hilarious: https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html
- zamadatix 4y ago
  I'm torn on this story. On one hand I'm really glad he got to keep using it personally out of the gate and eventually was able to later use it again for the intent it sounds like he gave when registering, couldn't ask for anything more for a short domain. On the other his reasoning for not selling was really unrelated to any of that. His response was standard squatter logic - I registered it first and you have a lot of money + will actually use it heavily so I'm not selling unless it's for tens of thousands of times what I got it for. It wasn't like he responded "I think I will get more than 50k of use out of it" or "It's more than 50k of inconvenience for me to change my email" it was straight up "I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated". Kind of ruins the inspiration when the thing he actually held out for was rent seeking. On the third hand Budweiser is indeed really shit beer...

berkle4455 4y ago

$15M * 70% = $10.5M and some percentage goes to the publisher they're working with (let's say another 30%) = $7.4M / 2 = ~$3.7M each

SXX 4y ago
Steam revenue share over $10,000,000 is decreased to 25%. Also it very unlikely publisher get 30% for title like DF. More likely there is some recuperation if publisher invested into new version and then then 10-15%. PS: I work in game development.
HDThoreaun 4y ago
30% goes to the publisher? What service are they providing?
- gnarbarian 4y ago
  being on steam is pretty valuable. people are more likely to buy a game on steam than off of a random website. steam will show your game to people who like similar games. there are cloud saving features, mod integration, updates etc.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - imtringued 4y ago
    There is also pretty good Linux support. So if you wanted to tick the Linux box you only have to make sure your game works under proton which generally just means avoiding proprietary anti cheat and Microsoft specific codecs/fonts. I know a franchise whose games ran with 99% compatibility in proton except the cutscenes which used a proprietary codec. Proton then got a patch and just shows a static image during cut scenes while the rest of the game works perfectly. The developer can fix it by reencoding the cutscenes. No need for explicit Linux support.
- pflats 4y ago
  20% is going to the publisher. They paid for the Steam version, including hiring the graphics and sound people. They're also handling customer support for the paid version. https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b0mzog/official_announcement_dwarf_fortress_is_coming_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b0mzog/offic...

KRAKRISMOTT 4y ago

Can’t they carry forward the losses from the past 15 years?

hgsgm 4y ago
Food and rent aren't losses.
- expazl 4y ago
  What? A company pays it's workers a salary and that's a loss for the business no matter if the people it's paid to are using it for food and rent. If they didn't have any revenue coming in at all, then they should have a quite high deficit in the company that they can subtract against the income now to reduce taxes.
  - mlyle 4y ago
    Where do you think the Dwarf Fortress guys got all this extra hypothetical money to pay themselves in excess of receipts?
  - robbiep 4y ago
    To be able to maintain carry forward losses, you have to have capital. The boys didn’t have capital. They paid themselves what came in. If they had been maintaining losses, they wouldn’t have a house because they would have had to sell it. Because of the losses, right? How do you think money works?
    - expazl 4y ago
      Why would a worker who owns a house and every year is owed more and more in unpaid back salary from a company they are working at for free, ever need to sell their house to cover the debt that the company has to themselves?
    - User23 4y ago
      Not necessarily. But they probably didn't have a good lawyer and accountant. It's certainly possible to have a corporation run a loss while its employees keep their houses. I mean that's pretty much the entire point of corporations.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]