Howdy guys-Maybe this isn't a simple question, but I've been wondering for a while now how much initial capital would be required to start a payware project. I know nothing about aircraft design or programming gauges. I don't really care if it turns a profit, but rather to simply add to the flight sim community. I don't want to attempt an airliner right away, maybe a good GA aircraft first.Thanks everyone, let me know what you think.Mike

Depending on whether you do it as your main source of income or just want to get the money from tools and research back (and of course the size of your team) the cost can varry from a few thousand to many tens of thousands of Euros.

An exceedingly simple approach to a complicated issue, Mike. The answer is "it depends." Who's to do the work? What kind af acft...what sort of instrumentation...what sort of modeling and animation, etc. If you have the skills to create the model, write the gauge code with a freeware C compiler, design your own FDE, and integrate it all yourself...then cost would be minimal except in terms of your time. After that the cost and complexity go up, depending on the choices you make. And the FS market is pretty fickle, too. The customer base is widely varied, from the clueless nuggets that'd buy any add-on that was put in front of them, no matter if it flies like a grand piano being dropped from a 5th story window, to the relentless perfectionists that'd dog you until the death of your grandchildren because the color of the rudder pedals in the VC was 2 shades too dark.But, in general, it's a great place to try...the FS market is one place I know where you as a marketer can screw everything up by delivering a half-completed buggy product hopelessly late and in the process treat your customers like they owe YOU something...and many will buy it anyway and keep coming back to lap up more.Why not Minot? Freezin's the reason.CheersBob

My tips--The greatest investment is in resources. To release something this community would be willing to pay for, you have to be a master of CAD, C++ (gauge) programming, physics/flight dynamics, and documentation. Very few have ALL those skills. That means partners, and with partners, you get a splitting of the profits.Almost every payware player in the market today started as a freeware designer. If you release payware without any stab at freeware, that would likely blow some of the credibility you'd need. The more credibility, the less investment in advertising. I release freeware for the sheer pleasure of it. If you simply want to add to the flight sim community, thanks to sites like Avsim, no money's required. I've just taken my first steps in A/C design in the past year, and I've done that by collaborating with other designers--it's a great way to learn. But I also have some programming experience, so I back up my design interest by supporting a couple of dissimilar utilities I've released over the past couple of years. One of those utilities, Landclass Assistant, brought offers from a couple of good people to help publish and distribute it as payware, but I wasn't interested--I'm not "in it" for that. But it does prove my point that a sincere effort at freeware gets you on the radar..-John