Modding for Money:
I've been developing Elements of War for years now. I've never made a single dime from my work. In fact, I've lost countless amounts of cash to just World of WarCraft alone (EoW is a WoW mod too). Sure, it's great for players, Blizzard, Valve, and hosts like ModDB... But I'm not making anything. Sure, my work might be complete poopie, but I've still made -something- and people are still using it.
Now imagine if I was a better than crappy developer. There used to be a time when Valve/whoever would outright buy you. They'd sell your game and you might even be asked to move or work from home. Now we get this: http://store.steampowered.com/freestuff/mods/
So, back to me, I'm a bad developer. It'll take years to have something that looks like a stand alone game/mod. I don't have core skills to be asked to work as a mapper or whatever I do. Plus I'm not even sure if I want to move atm. But I like to eat veggie burgers and I gotta eat everyday. That requires money.
I've got a ton of issues. I've never read an EULA in my life. I don't know anything about laws(I made a post on SteamPowered, but admins there are clueless at times). I'm a developer for the Source engine and if you look at the Gold Source/Source games you're not going to find very many of them(Which means to me you gotta be loaded with cash or lucky/skilled).
Figuring I have nothing to lose:
1. The .zip file includes a small text file about donating to me.
2. The first level of the game also shows how to donate.
3. Get more people to visit the website. Next step if I ever make it that far: Do something with the website!
4. I added ten textures to the game, they're only for advertisements. I'm guessing this isn't very legal, so, useless and highly lame. I didn't even bother to make ads... I just put "512(The size of the texture) Advertisement!" lol...
As for the software itself, there isn't much I can sell. I have bad textures, no sounds, just some text/map files that are pretty much for Source only. So, yeah, I just thought I'd point that out to somebody who's made awesome models/sounds/textures. You're more likely able to sell to anyone. Some companies buy maps. Valve did this for TF2 I believe(For CS I think the actual creators gave money to the mappers and not Valve). Blizzard even stated that you'll be able to sell maps for StarCraft II.
Anyways, if I'm going to make money, it's probably gonna come from ads more than anything else. I can keep it simple or overkill it:
Startup videos with ads(I _HATE_ startup/shutdown videos)
Ads on the main menu when you start the game
Ads on the scoreboard
Ads on the HUD
Ads in the options menu
Ads on your tabard! :D
Ads on your cape! :D
Ads on your weapons!
http://www.moddb.com/games/world-of-warcraft/images/iceiyian-t3h-ph34r3d1
Ads when you play demos
Ads when you make movies for the InterwebZ
ADS ADS ADS :D :D :D
oh come on now, you knew this last part was coming!
http://www.ElementsofWar.net/
http://www.ModDB.com/Mods/Elements-of-War
