I went into a really long post over on the Miscellanibugs thread, so I decided to just shift discussion over into a new thread. After all, this really does deserve it's own thread now.

Well, the title is pretty self explanatory, but there will be someone who can't figure this out, so:
Getting Thrive Noticed While Helping Other People.
GTNWHOP for short. Very catchy.


So, to recap the discussion:

Mysterious_Calligrapher wrote:

Orygandian2 wrote: Ill try to think of something... I liked PTs idea for in-game stuff with lower donations. How about there is something in-game along with concept art posters and/or soundtracks for every donation? Like a golden biome? We also need exact donation amounts, except for above-a-certain-point donations. (you know, $100+) We'll have to think of something that's achievable by our programmers. I'm thinking something highly decorative that wouldn't break game physics. Of course, that would delay the kickstarter even more because we'd have to program easter eggs as well as the stage... Also, even if we couldn't sign physical stuff, it is entirely possible to design t-shirts, have them printed, and ship them to people without ever seeing the t-shirt. Plus, you know, real-world advertising, not something we'd get out of having just an easter egg.

Orygandian2 wrote:

I thought of a tonne of In-game donation rewards. Here they are: - Exclusive special textures and parts (parts are optional) - Golden and Silver textures - (expansion on PTs Idea) Ability to make creatures Solid gold, Silver, Platinum etc, as well as making allowing you to color parts that way, or actually MAKE the parts gold/silver/platinum/etc, along with exclusive new parts corresponding with precious metals like those. - Same as before, only with birthstones. - Thrive-labelled parts, TOs, and a special t-shirt in-game. - Secret/unlockable editor of some sort. (ghost/spirit editor? I dunno.) - Special god tool. (I didn't see a weather tool discussed, but that seems like it should be included in game... We need something that isn't as should-be-in-the-core-game. Maybe a fear-inducing tool?) - Special material biomes. (Gold, Silver, Lapis Lazuli, Platinum, Ruby...) - Infinite amount of one type of resource. - Access to something from the beta (something REALLY early on in development) I'm prone to think of something else.

I don't think we should go with in-game rewards, people getting involved will want to support actual game, not a modded version, which is all in-game add-ons would be. They also will want our resources to be going into making the actual game, not rewards for them, so people not donating will suffer. Yes, they will indeed suffer. Waiting longer will be suffering worse than a simple slap, we're talking tickling-until-they-wet-themselves suffering.

Plus, Thrive is open-source, so anyone could go ahead and get the rewards anyway, theoretically. And what do we want?
An extra enjoyable, realistic, and Thrive-like feature?
Or a glistening yellow (i.e. gold, but more matter of fact) biome, which will be the entire ground floor of suffering players houses if we went ahead with it.

Trust me, people will drown themselves in their own glistening yellow biomes if we go ahead with pay-only game features. Literally. I vote we let our already overworked programmers make the game, and set up a system we can manage ourselves.
And stick to non-profit, but if the money pays for a shirt, fine.
The rewards shouldn't make non-donators feel like their missing out.

------------------------Seperator Because I'm Changing Subject------------------------

The goal is to make the donators spread the word, because we're supporting someone else with the money rather that making a profit, and that makes us unique. If people donate to get in-game features, they wont spread the word. If they donate to support starving children, or to save species, and also get something small like a shirt, people will see the shirt and ask about Thrive, and the person will say the Thrive team gives money to those that need it, take no money for ourselves, and are making an awesome game. That's good, and just what we want.

To summarise, the goals are:

1. We raise awareness of Thrive, that's the entire purpose of what we're doing.
   
   
2. We remain non-profit, we give the money to... We need to decide who. I'd suggest a charity, that will give people the immediate impression of us being good people, which makes them want to talk about us, achieving goal 1. Also, it's a good thing to do.
   
   
3. If they get a reward, it is inexpensive, simple, and not going to make anyone upset they have to pay money for it.
   
   Paying for features in a free game = unreasonable and misleading.
   Paying for a shirt = reasonable, and resources go into making the game.
   
   
4. Preferably, if they get a reward, it can raise awareness of Thrive in some way, because otherwise it defeats the purpose of this whole thing.

So, the shirt is good, we can go with that. The in-game features... See the entire first half of this post. Just no. The point is, we should be focusing on 1 and 2:
How do we make sure this gets Thrive noticed?
And where is this money going to go?



So, we have this thread. Time for some debating. Pull up a chair, everyone.

Yes, I agree with no in game features, that wouldn't be a free game anymore and many seem overpowered and unrealistic. I once tried to make a shirt for thrive, it started off as a perfectly good white t-shirt and ended up a ruined shirt with a fail attempt at the logo written in marker. Anyways, after seeing the shirt idea, my immediate thought was a black t-shirt with the logo in white and underneath it "supports (insert cause here)" in smaller white lettering. does that design sound good?

Sounds good to me. I just thought of some in-game stuff, but you're right that it would seem like you had to pay for a part of the game, and that would Belgium everything up. Any way, would there just be a single donation amount ($10?) and just the T-shirt, or other things like soundtracks along with multiple donation amounts?

Example:

-T-shirt = $10
-Soundtrack + T-shirt = $15
-etc...

But what about, after a certain amount, you get hinted about in the game, or get put into a "special thanks" part of the credits?

interesting point of view, i agree, we can't stay getting noticed only on forums and youtube and ModDB, kickstarter could be that solution, but apart from T-shirts we should add more rewards, like mugs and the like, not part of game play but actual real stuff, posters, or albums with soundtracks of the game. those types of things, as long as it doesnt interfere with the game development.

I support this, but only after we've a solid first stage out. I'll happily run it.

I think the people who make lets plays for games on youtube should become aware of this game after the first stage is playable. They could play it and post videos of your game to their fan community. Like I could send whoever might show interest a message to their accounts about Thrive.

This is a brilliant idea. I've seen many things on the internet gain popularity through charity donations and selling/giving items like t-shirts. Thrive, IMO, should support something that can be related to the project itself (Like Environmental Conservation or possibly even something like SETI?).

The only issue is, what would be given away and who would design it. I also agree that the thing shouldn't be in game.

I like this, but as has been said before, get a belgiuming prototype out first.

I get that we need a prototype before we start this up, but I just wanted to show something I made which we could use

Spoiler:

We could put them on rings and they could be keychains.

thanks! It was just something I whipped up in Rhino and printed out. That's one downside though, if we do decide to distribute these, we'll need to get a 3-D printer.