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An open discussion about petetheduck
Posted By: pete_the_duck	Date: 3/6/12 7:14 a.m.
Hey guys, This is going to get uncomfortable for all of us, so let's just take a moment and appreciate how not uncomfortable it is yet. Read on when you're ready. Ready? I love Halo, the Halo community, and making things with Halo for the Halo community. It's a bizarre passion of mine--if I had all the money in the world, making things with Halo is what I would most want to do. What has enabled me to make the things that I have is that for the past 8 years I have had a job that paid me for 40 hours/week but only actually required I work about 24-32 hours/week. I put some of that spare time into Halo, but honestly, I was unfocused. I could have been doing much, much more than I have, but it simply never occured to me before to do these things deliberately. Unfortunately, I am being laid off this month. It sucks, but it's life, and I'm sure it's something that many people here have experienced. But this part is actually slightly relevant here: whatever job I manage to find next will certainly require me to actually work a full 40 hours/week. With a wife and kid, my Halo time will basically disappear and the days of me making things with Halo will end. That might not matter to anyone, but that's what I've come here to find out. This is the dilemma I have: Just this year, I have started to wonder if there is anything that I do, or could do, for the Halo community that has real value. Money value. What if I worked for YOU guys? Let's entertain the thought for a moment--after all, Rooster Teeth and Penny Arcade would never have become what they are without community funding. But the question comes down to: would you give me money to focus on Halo full-time? I'm not talking about people giving me charity so I can play Halo 8 hours a day, I'm talking about deliberately and vigorously creating content with Halo for your entertainment. Specifically: -- Halo comics, Monday-Friday. I did these in January and I had a lot of fun with it--I would love to keep making these! And the best kind of Halo comics are daily Halo comics, of course! Weekly contests. All kinds of contests; obstacle course, Forge, puzzle. I would love to create activities that the community can get involved in. And varied activities at that, so all kinds of players will have a chance at something. Machinima projects. A season 2 of Last Forger Standing is a must, but I have smaller projects I'd like to do. Smaller, one-episode things. I still want to do Forge Pictionary, I have a naughty idea for something I've code-named TROLL, a concept that has a striking resemblance to this year's Pepsi Superbowl commercial, and I think the Last Forger Standing concept could also be applied to single-week events. I made a Halo 3 Rube Goldberg machine and I'm due to make one for Reach.. oh, and a Halo stop-motion movie. In Halo. Filmed, not a screenshot compilation. Seriously. That's my short list, but I have no doubt that I can come up with more ideas. Custom game maps. I love making custom games. My favorite is Knockin' Zombs, but there is also Onslaught, Musical Chairs, Incoming!!, Light 'Em Up (which I'd like to revise), and Small Town Sheriff (also want to revise). Again, I've never been deliberate about making these things, so the list is short (but sweet?)--but these are things that I would like to make more of. Plus there's off-the-wall stuff like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Single player maps. I sympathize with not having any friends online to play. That's when I'd like to provide things like the Flaming Ninja Challenge, Halo Pinball, Minesweeper, Ballslaught and other single-player Forge maps for your entertainment. I mentioned the Flaming Ninja Challenge, right? I'd love to bring that series back! Bad. Forge Tutorials. Not at this point in the lifespan of Halo: Reach, but I would love to make a video tutorial series for all the basic gametypes in Halo 4. The goal would be to provide an accurate, straight-forward, no-fluff resource for Forgers. Once that's done, I would move on to creating tutorials for custom game maps that have non-standard gameplay, like the duck hunt formula that Knockin' Zombs and Incoming!! use. Forge Diary. I've always been very secretive about my Forge projects. I'd like to change that, honestly, and be more open about what I do and how I do it. I would like to make Forge Diary videos showing the different stages of my Forge projects, giving insight into how I build them and how they function. My goal would be to have a new Forge project each week with 3 videos associated with it: prototyping (proving the mechanics work), rough-in (building the general layout), and final touches (the last steps to get it out the door). The goal behind this would be to inspire and enable other Forgers. Miscellaneous. Stuff like the Forge Ciphers would fit here. Small things, things I haven't thought of yet, experiments. I love to make new things. I can promise I'll come up with something I haven't listed here. Suggestions. Seriously, I'm open for suggestions here! If I was community employed, I would do my absolute best to create whatever the community wanted. -- Now I need to give you guys some sort of number. After much thought and in trying to be realistic in both what I might expect to raise and what I absolutely must have to survive, to get started, I would apprehensively say $1,500 a month would keep the lights on while I do everything above. That's a scary small number to me, especially when taxes and Kickstarter fees are considered--but I'm serious about doing this and my desire is driven by passion, not greed. I'd like to do this for more than one month, if you know what I mean, and of course for more than just that. What I think might be a good approach would be to try to raise enough funding for 2-3 months and then come back at the end of those 2-3 months to hopefully an audience that has grown and would like to see me continue. I've spent 10 years with Halo, I'd gladly spend another 10. I approached Louis Wu before posting this here and what he said has stuck with me; community funding for Halo endeavors aren't anything new. But I'm asking for money upfront, which is unprecendented (well, kinda). The problem is that I must ask upfront; if this isn't a viable option, I need to know so I can start vigorously looking for a new job. I don't have the option of doing this for free for 3 months and then asking for funding, although nearly everything I've listed here is something that I've already done at one point in time--so you guys already know what to expect from me. Just more of it. Much, much, much more. So, this post is meant to start an open discussion. I'm not rushing to launch a new Kickstarter project without a reality check. I'd like to listen to what you all have to say before I do anything. Does this stuff interest you? Would you be willing to fund me to create these things? How much is a realistic goal? What would be the best way to be funded--Kickstarter, direct donations, etc? Or, does this whole thing seem incredibly foolish and you think I should suck it up and move on with my life? I want honest opinions, good and bad.

Message Index

An open discussion about petetheduck	pete_the_duck	3/6/12 7:14 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	sharpsniper99	3/6/12 7:24 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	sharpsniper99	3/6/12 7:33 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	ElzarTheBam	3/6/12 7:56 a.m.
disruption bomb, incoming!	Revenant1988	3/6/12 8:22 a.m.
One single answer	Louis Wu	3/6/12 9:27 a.m.
Agreement.	Bones153	3/6/12 10:08 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	pete_the_duck	3/6/12 10:17 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	kanbo	3/6/12 10:26 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	RC Master	3/6/12 10:54 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	kanbo	3/6/12 11:04 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	RC Master	3/6/12 11:26 a.m.
Re: Agreement.	kanbo	3/6/12 11:41 p.m.
Well said, Revenant...	SEspider	3/6/12 2:05 p.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	pete_the_duck	3/6/12 9:04 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	DEEP NNN	3/6/12 9:23 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	bluerunner	3/6/12 11:06 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	The Woaf	3/6/12 9:52 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	Schooly D	3/6/12 10:34 a.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	Pkmnrulz240	3/6/12 11:27 a.m.
Re: petetheduck hears the people	pete_the_duck	3/6/12 12:00 p.m.
Re: petetheduck hears the people	Beckx	3/6/12 12:10 p.m.
I second this. ^ *NM*	Kermit	3/6/12 10:09 p.m.
Re: An open discussion about petetheduck	Leviathan	3/6/12 5:38 p.m.
Shut up and retroactively take my money! *NM*	Bryan Newman	3/6/12 5:52 p.m.