Gibbage

First, the P-40 is not my product. Im working with another developer as part of a team. I did only the cockpit textures, but the next few products from Blue Sky I will have much MUCH more involvement in. I have worked with MANY other sim teams including A2A, Milviz and many others. I have been selling my Seabee through Dovetail/FSX Steam for over 2 years now, so this is not my first product with them. My first FSW product will be the Zenith 701, and with the P-40 to bed, I can start back up on that. As for working with Dovetail for the last YEAR (I met with Simon and the team last November to talk secretly about developing for FSW) things are going great. I helped them beta test the SDK and they took my feedback very well. They also implemented features and systems in the engine based on my feedback, and are very open to various things. Im a VERY small developer in the grand scale of things as my team currently consists as 1, but to get that sort of attention is great, but I attribute it to my former job on the Microsoft FSX team itself ;) Overall, they are very eager to be part of the community and make and support a great flight sim, and I look forward to doing more work with Simon, Aimee and the rest. Its not every day a sim team listens to not only a small developer like me, but the community in general.

Or they could have the SDK tools privately. Developers such as myself have been granted access to the tools. I cant speak for Orbx, but its possible that they already have the tools they need. Developing add-on's takes time, especially for a new engine.

Glad you guys are liking the P-40! I was on the dev team (I did the cockpit textures) and please, any feedback would be great. The team is really eager to please! She can be a bit of a hand-full, but these warbirds were not easy to handle. You had the biggest engine crammed into the smallest and lightest frame =) Once you do mater her, she is very rewarding for sure! Show us some screen shots! Every forum thread needs some eye candy! I was also thinking about doing a custom livery. Any idea's or suggestions?

Well the SDK is out, so feel free to make one!

FSW is based on FSX and so is P3D, so it MAY be possible to use parts of P3D's SDK in FSW. I have not tested this myself yet. It will be interesting to see how the public SDK differs from the dev SDK I have.

Another quick update ;)

Another update on my Facebook page. The cockpit is almost fully textured! Just a few more tweaks and weathering. Hoping to run it through the SDK and get it in-game soon. Gibbageart Facebook page

Cable TV "I want all-a-cart!" Flight sims "I want it all in 1 expensive box!" Sometimes you just cant win. I dont remember people complaining when MSFS has only 1 aircraft and 1 airport for $50 ;)

The Maule is on my short list of aircraft that I would model next. I modeled and textured the one in MS Flight for Microsoft, so im familiar with it. The biggest problem would be trying to license it. As for floats, its something im looking at doing if I can find enough information and references on them.

Who says I dont have the SDK? ;)

Its been a while since I posted here, but I have some very good progress done on the Zenith 701! Follow me on Facebook to keep track of the progress. In-game shots will be posted soon and I update at least weekly. Gibbageart Facebook The Zenith 701 is a fun little aircraft for people who like "low and slow" and will have some very nice features! Zenith Aircraft is helping me out directly, even so far as to give me 3D Cad data that allows me to model this aircraft accurately within ~1mm tolerance. Its not often us 3rd party dev's get that chance! Kevin "Gibbage" Miller

If the market for it exists, than a 3rd party dev will fill the gaps im sure.

Look at other business models like Star Citizens. Do you think this community would be willing to pay for a $2000 aircraft? I don't like that model at all. Even War Thunder does work with 3rd party's now but that work is highly controlled and will cost 40-60$ for a rather simple aircraft. Fsx was truly unique. I don't think it's dead, but its not an attractive platform for me since its users are dwindling. Kevin

Yes, we have had it great for years, but no other game this. FSX was an abnormality (well X-Plane also) in the industry. Have you tried working in DCS? You get NO freedom. As for the %, FSX/P3D has a very small (and rather picky) customer base. If FSW gets a large customer base, you make up the loss of 30% rather quickly. It all depends on the number of active users. Thats why im making a product to test out the waters. I have gotten good sales in FSX:SE, on top of the sales I do myself and other web pages.

Why not? P3D cant be sold through Steam. P3D Cant be sold at all! Its part of LM's license agreement. Steam is a great platform, with millions of users and a trusted reputation. Its a lot easier to publish through Steam than try and find a box publisher or even self publishing.

One other aspect is, I think the target market will be slightly different. I alluded much in my original post that I think the "hard core" users will stick with FSX/P3D, and FSW will have a lot of new blood. Are the two market groups different? Yes. The hard core simmers demand accuracy down to the last rivet and are willing to pay $100-$200 for a PMDG product, and willing to wait for the developing time. I do think that the new users will have interest in something as detailed as a PMDG heavy, but not at that price. They want realism, but at a good price. So small developers like me can make a really nice looking GA aircraft that fly's well and sell it at a good price to the masses. Eventually, those new users WILL become "hard core" simmers and will demand the level of technical detail that is in something like a PMDG product. By that time, I think FSW will mature enough to entice high end developers and be able to provide that. I just hope nobody tries to sell a P-51 without a cockpit. That will be the death nail.

For many of us, it's well beyond just making money. I can safely speak for most 3rd party developer's and say its a passion. It's our hobby! To some, it's our livelihood. That's why some of us can get heated if they feel slighted, wronged or left out. I don't know of any developers that got rich from doing this, so it's not about the money. Kevin "Gibbage" Miller

Yes there was designated members who were active, but 99% of us were under strict orders to not talk about anything to anyone as is typical with any software development.

We were forbidden to interact outside the company due to a heavy Nda. With that said, my Nda on Fs11 expired a long time ago, so if anyone wants any info on that... it's for another thread ;) Kevin Miller

We (Aces) has little to no interaction with 3rd party developer's. Microsoft released the Sdk with limited document's and the developer's did whatever they wanted. It truly was the wild west! There was no quality control, and no security. Some add-ons would crash online servers due to bad coding or heavy art assets. Developer's loved this as there was no big brother telling you what to do. This in some ways was bad for customers. You never knew what you were going to get and had to rely on forum reviews before you paid for your add-on. It also allowed us to do whatever we wanted with little to no consequences. Bad developer's were wedded out by the community. Many developers won't this, as they prefer the wild west, but a closed development is the norm through the game industry. I think that if Fsw is successful, it could lead to massive profits for developers. This development system is already being used in Dcs quite well and I have worked on a few projects in Dcs. Kevin

Thank you for the clarification. I will make the edit when I get home. One question I have is for me to sell my product through dovetail, I must have the license to use the aircraft from the maker. If I would sell my own product, but must also sell through dovetail, that would still mean I need to secure a license? That requirement is a massive limiting factor for us developers and will greatly limit what we can produce. That's the key point of that section of my post. Requiring the product also being sold on your store limits what aircraft we can motel due to the need for a license. Kevin

Yep. Competition is a good thing, always.

One of the more interesting aspects of sim dev work is when I see a questest like this go unanswered, and the guy requesting it goes "You know what? Ill just make it myself!" and becomes a 3rd party dev himself. You would be amazed at how many of us dev's started out that very way! Please dont misunderstand me as saying "go do it yourself" but just commenting that many of us started out just like you, with a passion to see what they love in a sim. =) But ya. I looked up that aircraft. Not a lot were made, not very famous, and not a lot of resources. Dont hold your breath. Hehehehe. But sometimes its these vague aircraft that can make a sleeper hit. Kevin

You do know that investors invest billions daily on nothing more than speculation, right? Its all we have right now.

Lots of great stuff in this post. Didnt quote the entire thing since it all the good stuff was the entire post! Yes, if MS was still making FS##, they would of jumped onto the DLC bandwagon. How do I know this? I was on the team! The software industry in general is going to a more peace meal approach for development. Its a single maintained product paid by DLC/Add-on's and not a 1 and done package. Think im wrong? Look at your phone! Your iPhone or Android is subsidized by apps. Apple and Google make more money on apps then the phone itself. Then you have games like World of Warcraft that is kept alive by subscriptions and DLC. Even Windows itself is going this path with Windows 10 being the last OS Microsoft has planned, subsidized by its own storefront. Its the way of the industry, and the old way is gone. I mean look at Star Citizen! It hasent even been finished, and its already fully supported by $2000 space ships. I think this is viable for a flight sim, if done properly. The problem is that you need content to sell a sim. Dovetail are not in a position to provide that content themselves. They need to rely on 3rd party dev's. Thats a good thing! Means more opportunity for someone like me. The problem as I said before is the requirements for a license to sell through Steam. If you want to sell your apps on Apple or Google's phones, you dont need a license. They dont care frankly. If someone whines, they pull your app and say "whoops" and carry on. I dont think Dovetail has that luxury when Boeing or someone does not like a 747 they didnt license on FSW's market. Thats were a 3rd party market could come in. Then Dovetail can compete for dev's to sell on its own system. I think, given the benefits listed, 3rd party dev's would choose Steam if given the option once FSW gets enough users. Chicken or the egg? Content or Customers?