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Paying developers for homebrew

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WiiUBricker

WiiUBricker

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I think most people have the impression that homebrew should always be free, but is this really the case? We all know that homebrew developers make homebrew in their spare time and some of them accept donations for development support. Common people often bitch about the slow progress of development and features, that won't be added. They should either make things themselves or be patient. This way, the potential of homebrew is limited and that is truly a sad thing. The solution to this might be paying homebrew developers.

We are paying licensed developers for their games, so why can't we pay homebrew developers for their homebrew? I personally see no problem with it. In fact, people are already selling their homebrew in the phone scene, so why not in the Wii and DS scene? A lot of homebrews are GPL, but that's not an issue since the GPL explicitly allows people to sell GPL licensed files.

With that said, how about an official request thread or a forum, where people can request homebrew and additional features to existend homebrew? This should perhaps work this way:

Lets say I want feature X to homebrew Y. A developer accepts the request and wants 50 bucks in exchange. He/she sets up a chipin widget where people can donate some money in and when the amount is complete, development starts.

I believe that this would result in a lot more exciting homebrew. Your thoughts?
 
I support that.
It would at least give people who bitch about slow progress a right to bitch. And the guys who make good homebrew deserve it.


That won't be possible though. To use homebrew you need a flashcart, 85% of the people who own a flashcart own it because they don't want to pay for their shit.
If they don't pay for games, they won't pay for homebrew.
 
Yes, some developers do accept contributions, other don't -

Many times I've asked if there was a way to give a contibution to some developer - the basic reply I've had was...'If people start paying for development, they'll expect us to keep developing it - but many of us do it in our spare time/as a hobby & can't commit to doing such a thing full time'

In the past GBATemp has even done 'Homebrew Bounty' so that developers get a 'pay-back' for their hard work (BTW - How's the latest Bounty results coming along ??). I myself have contributed towards this because I belive homebrew developer should get something back for alltheir hard work

As for an 'offical thread' - there has been many threads started for request for homebrew (or added features) but once again it's down to the developer(s) to decide if it's possible - & if they wish to continue development of their homebrew

The idea of giving suggestion, & the developer won't working on it unless there's enough contributions sound likre a good idea ... but IMHO, most people want stuff for nothing - & you may find that what one person wants - another doesn't.. so you could end up with 100's of suggestions with 1 or 2 contributions each
 
Good idea, but I don't think it would work because people are dicks and for the same reason in Ikki's post

I feel there would be too many cases of money getting wastefully given to projects that still don't get finished or meet the demands of those who are paying.
Not to mention there would be plenty of people that wouldn't pay anything but just wait for others to pay
Also it would just increase the bitching and complaining because everyone would say "What the fuck are we paying you for?" when things are going slow
 
Also, keep in mind how many of these projects are already open-source. You could get devs on board with charging for homebrew but there would always be people who have the ability to work on those apps and provide them for free...
 
I have seen places that do accept actual bounties for softwares or tasks and it certainly does seem to encourage development... but my main fear is that a majority of the wanting people on this site are young kids. This generally means they don't know how much work goes into programming things (and won't often judge a project's difficulty or length accurately when offering a bounty) or would be able to offer anything more than a few bucks anyways.
 
There were two GBA homebrew programs that went under some form of payware (a book reader and technically meteo was payware not that most people realised to say nothing of some of the other video codecs).
Also several pieces of DS homebrew later morphed into phone software (probably most notably puzzle maniak) and more than a few homebrew authors over the years have been recruited as a result of their efforts and on the flip side some of the stuff that appeared in the homebrew realm when publishing fell through. Several programs have donator bonuses and registered versions as well (even in open source thanks to obfuscation).

There is definitely a precedent for such things and I can see no legal worries outside of emulation and the general intellectual property issues that already exist.

About the only problem I see is that hacked devices tend to be a smaller market so it might not be the best business sense not to mention most hacked devices we deal with around here are coming to the end of their run and although that will not stop enthusiasts......

As for your suggestion it could, I am struggling to think of an example but there have been cases of it before (prices were along the lines of a food bill for a week).

"In fact, people are already selling their homebrew in the phone scene"
Just wanting to expand- ignoring the java nonsense there have been paid for emulators for quite some time now (as in some were around somewhat prior to the DS launch).
 
One of the big problems I think is that developers would have to devise some sort of licensing system if they wish for only those who paid for their homebrew to run it. And if commercial developers can't do that, it'd probably be harder for homebrew developers when stuff is more "open" (not necessarily open source, just "open") in the homebrew scene.

However, donations is a fine mechanism, and is already employed by many devs. Perhaps it would be a good idea for time-pressed devs to request a certain amount of donations for a particular feature though, never come across that anywhere.
 
Outside the commercial software world it usually gets to be paid for milestones and on a related theme you also have the Blender 3d modelling program being funded by donations to turn GPL. Also a couple of developers of noted programs being seconded to companies to do things (the likes of WINE and some of the stuff going on in LaTeX) as well as whatever goes on in the open office/libre office and such.

Back in the commercial world paid for features are common enough in corporate grade software and paid for plugins even more so.

All this is somewhat besides the point though (I agree most of the homebrew programs that tried the commercial side of things it were things that built a custom ROM image- the "value" arguably being in the build program) as WiiBricker seems to be proposing a paid feature request presumably to be fed back into either the main line program or licensed off to the user to do more or less what they wish with it (a custom build thing) not to mention the likes of POWDER that has a donators build and is open source.
 
Asking a community primarily made up of pirates to pay for something that is usually free when most of them don't even pay for what isn't free? I don't think this idea will stretch very far.

I for one, would love the idea of getting paid for homebrew. However the only current viable option, would be to create an iDevice game. there are two main problems with that and a third smaller problem.

1. I don't have a mac, so I am not 'allowed' to make iDevice games.
2. Virtual controls on a touch scree are 99.9% terrible so it is not really an option for traditional games.
3. I'd have to learn yet another programming language because companies don't seem to like the idea of using pre established standards.
 
spinal_cord said:
Asking a community primarily made up of pirates to pay for something that is usually free when most of them don't even pay for what isn't free? I don't think this idea will stretch very far.

I for one, would love the idea of getting paid for homebrew. However the only current viable option, would be to create an iDevice game. there are two main problems with that and a third smaller problem.

1. I don't have a mac, so I am not 'allowed' to make iDevice games.
2. Virtual controls on a touch scree are 99.9% terrible so it is not really an option for traditional games.
3. I'd have to learn yet another programming language because companies don't seem to like the idea of using pre established standards.
Click to expand...

There are other commercial platforms: Android, Windows Phone 7, Web OS. Not sure what you can develop in for any of those, but maybe one will let you use what you are familiar with, and none of them I believe require a particular OS to develop (perhaps WP7 needs Windows, but I haven't heard of that).
 
I agree to this thought.
mthrnitesmiley.gif
 
I'm a developer (but not for consoles), and my project is GPL too.
Sometime I see other developers putting Donation button on their website, but I never did it myself because I think users will start thinking that they deserve a fully working program, without bugs, with enough features to justify the paid price.

I think making paid homebrew may require a certain level of completeness and debugging process first. You can't sell it the same price amount from the beginning or near the end of the project. The developer is working on it the same way everyday, but the final user don't get the same amount of enjoyment if he take a new version everyday. (it will be better every time)
You will have to wait until the project is complete before selling it?


The problem is that the user is not buying a final product.
I think donation is more appropriate for softwares in constant development.
or maybe a "paid once - full life update free" method ?, or upgrade software/upgrade payment since the last purchase ?

How is working the paid system for smartphones homebrew?


I like Rydian idea, users providing a fund for a specific homebrew creation. (though, how much completion is needed to earn the fund?)
 
"a fully working program, without bugs, with enough features to justify the paid price"

You will have to tell me if you ever find such a program anywhere. I should be interested to see it whatever it is.
 

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