Yes, people make free games all the time, but its not because people don't like being paid. It's because people love to share. Some people get paid in sentiments or perhaps the realization of a vision or idea. For others, well... That's not enough. This is a really difficult grey-area discussion and there's no 100% applicable philosophy to game designers. There are always people who work for goodness-of-heart and there are always people who work for a living.dmasterxd wrote: Okay, I loved your advice and was seriously gonna take it to heart until I read your last little comment. I never said they should work for free. I said, "I wouldn't pay if my game was free." People make free games for a reason. No one gets any money out of it, not even the developer. Second, it's not defaming and I made a deal with him over six months ago. Now call me crazy but when you make a deal with someone you pretty much are entitled those things. Especially when all you're asking for is a message of progress. And what irks me is when someone accuses someone else of being obnoxious when they're doing the same and then has the nerve to tell them to stop.
If you are strong enough to devote your efforts towards charity and expecting no material reward in return, then Godspeed, good luck and please continue.
But that's not what you're doing. Let me put this into perspective:
1.) You are in a Commissioner(Artist for HIRE)'s thread. By the basic description this is a guy looking to get paid for his services. Do you not see anything wrong with leaving an unwanted pile of "I wouldn't pay if my game was free." in a commission thread? Okay. Maybe you're too young to fully understand the concept of commissions (or the implications of your own words), but you need to at least know this now: This is a bad thing to do.
Can you imagine yourself walking to a store and telling the cashier "Look, I shouldn't need to pay for these candies because I just give them away for free" ? If your answer is anything but no, then that makes you an egotistical brat.
2.) No, unless you have a binding legal contract of any sort, you are -not- entitled to anyone's free services. "Oh, okay." doesn't cut it because to begin with, you had no intention of compensating the guy for his talent. He has every right to reject you for whatever reason he would give you.
If he doesn't deliver by March and you're still waiting by August, then it's really on you to mitigate your losses and move on. It's supposedly a "mutual" agreement anyway. You miss out on free talent and he misses out on a chance to become a part of your epic project. Everybody loses. Why would you push him further down?
Yes, you have the right to complain about it, but to what good? Say, if you walk into a store that gives away free candies. There are no candies left in the candy jar. Do you go around telling people "Hey, don't go to this guy, he doesn't give away free candy" ? Probably(Hopefully) not.
This is the last thing I have to say about this. I gave you my every honest opinion of your work, and had to be blunt because everyone else is too polite and unwilling to do it. If, by chance, you are taking game dev seriously and are looking into working with other people someday, these are the do's and don'ts that I've learned from my experience. Whether you understand what I'm trying to say is really up to you now. Good luck with your second draft and your future projects.
