Lately I''ve been reading a lot of different shareware marketing systems and the best way to protect your sw game and all (well, I am going to get my first ''big'' game done soon). I realize that it''s actually impossible to make a rock-solid secure system in your game and it''s also time consuming to make a *good* protection. So I got this thought: (please tell me if it''s just plain ridicilous) I make all my games freeware and available for full download to everyone. So there is no need for criminal activity and registering. And then I ask the user, if he enjoys the game maybe he could, for all my effort I''ve done in making the games and giving them away for free, at least make a little donation. I don''t do that in any rude or annoying way, just a simple suggestion for users. I could put a ''donation'' link in my website and also in my games'' helpfiles. Yes, some people couldn''t care less about donating, but maybe some people actually would be so kind enough to donate whatever amount of money they think is enough for playing the games. What do you think, should I just implement some shareware system or is the donation method worth trying?

To get an idea of the difference in revenue, read Why Do People Register, Does Crippling Work, Does Anybody Really Know?

If you just want to do this for fun, and dont care much about the money, by all means use donations. However, if you actually want to make something you can one day live off of, everything I've ever read says donations won't cut it.


[edited by - LordKronos on July 18, 2002 11:11:42 AM]

A lot of Mac shareware authors have used Kagi in the past. I wonder if they do Windows too..