Scratchware doesn''t mean "A" or "triple-A" games sold at bargain bin prices.. Rather, the idea is to create games that don''t need a large budget/dev team and thus don''t have to sell half a million copies at $50 to make a profit. Incidentally, these games usually appeal to non-hardcore gamers because they''re simpler and don''t demand as much from the hardware.

Shareware certainly could be seen as a subset, or lower end of scratchware. However, most shareware is created by amateurs and the products are often unpolished and badly documented. Somebody recently posted an article on flipcode.org about "amateur vs. professional shareware". The term "professional shareware" is pretty close to what the manifesto talks about. That is, making games that aren''t as big as the corporate blockbusters but are just as polished if not more so. With less quantity to worry about, the quality may even benefit.

The economics are a bit hit-and-miss, but the theory is valid. The high end of scratchware is probably around Roller Coaster Tycoon. With a budget of $50k, it would''ve been profitable even if it had only sold 10,000 copies (assuming net $5 per copy). Beyond that it''s all profit.

Sales numbers that low would be a dismal failure for a $5 million game (and these happen; think Dominion and Daikatana) but are perfectly OK for a small company like PopCap, Digital Eel and what have you...

<i>Being a christrian I believe that simplicity is truly what we want.</i>

Uh, I''m not seeing the connection there. Christians are pro-simplicity?

quote:
Did you know that Valve software used the profits from Half-Life to give themselves independence from publisher deadlines etc.

you realy sould read this
http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/index.html

Great thread. I havent read the whole thing yet but heres what I think in general. I would love to see this in action but I think it would be a little more difficult to do then with books. The reason for this is that to write a book you only need 1 person, to make an list game in a decent amount of time requires a small team at least. As for how it could be profitable, I would suggest making a trial membership and a premium membership. The premium membership granting access to everything but for a low monthly price.