I have finally gathered the courage to post

I am starting a small coldstone game publishing company.
This has been something I have wanted to do for a long time.
It works like this:

1:You submit your game
2: The game is approved
3: You experience the benefits

What are the benefits?

1: You get your own website @ origin interactive
a) this site has not ads or banners
it is hosted on a dual OC3 (meaning really fast, a fiber optic line)
c) this is not a simple html site that takes for ever to update. This a dynamic site with news posting system to keep your progress updated.
d) At request I can add polls, dynamic faq, forms, and more. Any php or cgi.

If you cant make a site I will help you make one or make it for you

2: You get your own discussion board or forum.
a) people can talk about you game
comment on it
c) tell you bugs
d) ask for support

3: If you are going to sell your game I will set up an online shop for you or help you find a way to sell your game.

4: I will host a download for you game or help you find a place to download it.

5: hopefully I will make a developers community site

Any questions? Contact me at benwinslow0@yahoo.com.

Oh, I am also interested in making web investments with coldstone sites.
I may be willing to host your coldstone community site ultra fast with no ads.

I am also a web designer.

Please contact me or ask questions.

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by benwinslow:
**I am starting a small coldstone game publishing company.

Please . . ask questions.**

Hi benwinslow. Welcome to the boards. That sounds like a bright shiny coin has been dropped onto the Coldstone board, but there must be another side to the coin. Since it is a publishing company, I would expect it to make money. Do you plan on accepting a percentage of the sales, a rental fee for the site, or some other way of supporting it?

I think there are quite a few here who would welcome a place to display their game and benefit from a store in which to sell it. Are you not, however, then in competition with Ambrosia?

~RD

------------------
My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/damsels.sit?path=pog/addons&file;=damselsV1.1.sit")Damsels in Distress(/url) - A plugin for PoG.

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
**Are you not, however, then in competition with Ambrosia?
**

I don't think he would be in competition. If, for example, Graham would still like to sell legends he could on this store if he gets permision from ambrosia or beenox or whoever he needs to get permission from.

As for the origional offer I believe it is a dream come true. Some one who will host for free with no ads. I also have to ask if there is any catch. As I will be developing freewear how would you possibly benefit from that? Sorry to be so sceptical but if something as good as this comes along you have to see if there is a catch.

As for the hosting our coldstone community site I assume you are talking about the coldstone resource page I am making. If you are then an ad free server would be brilliant.

As for hosting and designing our websites. Would you code a site for us if we gave you site designs eg a mock-up drawn in photoshop with annotations. I am all right at coding html but i would prefer php.

If there is no catch (or one that is reasonable) then I think this is a very generous offer that will benefit all coldstone users

------------------
Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubed.cjb.net")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~pilky/coldstonecentre/home.html")Coldstone Resource Centre(/url)
Cheesiest film line of all time "Flash I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth" from Flash Gorden

Thanks for welcoming me. I think I will stick around.

As for this stuff about a catch. There is no real catch except for you join a sort of Origin Interactive group of developers. Basically you are joining a little community.

Some of you might be wondering how I do it.

I have special benefits from the company I work for.
We own a server and it has a dual OC3 line.
So I can hosts your sites.

The things that are not so cool:
I can set up a way to sell your games or Serial # but I cannot print cds for you. Sorry.

(This message has been edited by benwinslow (edited 09-15-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by benwinslow:
**Some of you might be wondering how I do it.

I have special benefits from the company I work for.
We own a server and it has a dual OC3 line.
So I can hosts your sites.
**

What happens when you quit/get fired/move, etc?
What happens when there is downtime? You don't own the server, the owner could decide to buy a new one, turn it on tomorrow, etc, etc.
What happens when you get 15 games, 100MB each, and 1000 people start to download the demo? Someone pays for the bandwidth.
etc, etc.

------------------
Just pimpin' my (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/iblog/dampeoples")scandalous stories(/url),(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/damcam.html")voyeur cam(/url), (url="http://"http://www.dampeoples.com")stuff(/url), (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/artlinks/stuff.html")art tutorial links(/url), and (url="http://"http://www.thejbfc.com")Fishing!(/url)

Q:What happens when you quit/get fired/move, etc?
A: I'm not going to quit in for a long time. I'm in to high a position to get fired. And it's a web business so nothing happens if I move.

Q:What happens when there is downtime?
A: There is downtime. Every on has down time. But this server does have a raid and all the stuff will be backed up.

Q: You don't own the server, the owner could decide to buy a new one, turn it on tomorrow, etc, etc.
A: I own a share of the server and the main owner is a best friend. I guess if we got a new server I could work something out with the main owner.

Q:What happens when you get 15 games, 100MB each, and 1000 people start to download the demo? Someone pays for the bandwidth.

A: This, I am sorry to say, I can't do. That kind of bandwidth costs to much.
I said I would help the developer find a way to get thier game hosted. Or I will try.

Good questions though!
Thanks for asking.

------------------

I think that I could get a game that is 100 MB when uncompressed down to 50 maybe 40 MB (this is just a guess) I would first compress all the picture movie and sound files as much as possible without losing quality. I would then stuff the whole lot which it's self can take 10-20% off

------------------
Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubed.cjb.net")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~pilky/coldstonecentre/home.html")Coldstone Resource Centre(/url)
Cheesiest film line of all time "Flash I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth" from Flash Gorden

(rant)

Do you gentlemen proofread your posts before you hit the "submit" button? I know the web board guidelines caution against criticism for spelling errors because the age or nationality of the poster may not be known. However, let me say that if I were considering doing business with a company, or submitting to a hosting web page, I would be sincerely turned off by posts concerning them which were fraught with typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. Not only does it make the posts harder to read, but also gives an unintended meaning to certain phrases.

If you are twelve years old or less, ignore this rant. If you are older than that, and want to attract business, buy a dictionary and use it. Learn punctuation and grammar. This short thread contains about twenty careless errors. From a business point of view, I give it a C-.

(/rant)

------------------
My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/damsels.sit?path=pog/addons&file;=damselsV1.1.sit")Damsels in Distress(/url) - A plugin for PoG.

Quote

Originally posted by benwinslow:
**I have special benefits from the company I work for.
We own a server and it has a dual OC3 line.
So I can hosts your sites. **

Pardon me if I sound skeptical, but dual OC3 lines? Please. If you are going to exagerate please be realistic.

I'd like to see the company web site for this mega company that plays host to dual OC3 lines. No they aren't as rare as they used to be, but most ISPs do not have a single, let alone dual OC3 line. So please give this skeptic some more information.

------------------
(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/pogwalkthrough.htm")PoG Walkthrough and Compendium(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/dev_tools.htm")PoG Dev Tools(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/spells_expander.htm")Spells Expander(/url)
(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")Stark.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.net")EVula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://mail.ambrosiasw.com/mailman/listinfo/coldstone_dev")Coldstone-dev mailing list(/url) | (url="http://"http://ucplugs.evula.net/pog.html")PoG Upcoming Plug-Ins Directory(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by benwinslow:
**Q:What happens when you quit/get fired/move, etc?
A: I'm not going to quit in for a long time. I'm in to high a position to get fired. And it's a web business so nothing happens if I move.

Q:What happens when there is downtime?
A: There is downtime. Every on has down time. But this server does have a raid and all the stuff will be backed up.

Q: You don't own the server, the owner could decide to buy a new one, turn it on tomorrow, etc, etc.
A: I own a share of the server and the main owner is a best friend. I guess if we got a new server I could work something out with the main owner.

Q:What happens when you get 15 games, 100MB each, and 1000 people start to download the demo? Someone pays for the bandwidth.

A: This, I am sorry to say, I can't do. That kind of bandwidth costs to much.
I said I would help the developer find a way to get thier game hosted. Or I will try.

Good questions though!
Thanks for asking.
**

Too high a position to get fired? um......

Sure, everyone has downtime, how long until it's back up? Wait until Monday, during regular office hours?

you guess you could work something out with the main owner of the server, he know we'll be using space now?

The bandwidth costs too much? Awful big pipe you got there to choke on a few downloads.

------------------
Just pimpin' my (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/iblog/dampeoples")scandalous stories(/url),(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/damcam.html")voyeur cam(/url), (url="http://"http://www.dampeoples.com")stuff(/url), (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/artlinks/stuff.html")art tutorial links(/url), and (url="http://"http://www.thejbfc.com")Fishing!(/url)

I should have said I was wanting to start a company. But this was more or less an idea. And because it is met with such criticism, I guess i should not do it. But thanks for the input.

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by benwinslow:
because it is met with such criticism . . .

Excuse me, benwinslow, but in reading through the whole thread there is no criticism of the idea of starting a company. There were some serious questions asked about how it would come about, and that is natural for any members who would want the services of such a company. A number of these questions you have left unanswered.

The idea is a great one. You can expect people to question how you will do it. Perhaps it has some stumbling blocks you did not anticipate? It is the job of the company president (you) to solve these if it is to succeed. I, for one, am disappointed that you are giving up on a project as welcome as this is. ~RD

------------------
My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/damsels.sit?path=pog/addons&file;=damselsV1.1.sit")Damsels in Distress(/url) - A plugin for PoG.

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
** <good stuff>**

Pretty much what he said, it's in my nature to be callous, but my questions were sincere. You offered a way for many who don't have web design skills, money handling skills, or a webhost to distribute a game. I simply inserted the 'what-if' factor.

------------------
Just pimpin' my (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/iblog/dampeoples")scandalous stories(/url),(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/damcam.html")voyeur cam(/url), (url="http://"http://www.dampeoples.com")stuff(/url), (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/artlinks/stuff.html")art tutorial links(/url), and (url="http://"http://www.thejbfc.com")Fishing!(/url)