New game & ideas about cooperation

I'm currently in the process of wrapping up something, though there's still some more time before it'll be released (no date is set yet). After that, I'm going to dig into a project I want to be a lot more open about than I have been for many rescent projects. It's not going to end up as a Knytt Experiment, as the help I'll get isn't what features that will be implemented into the game (I've already decided all of that).

Anyway, I miss the times where my games had these huge credits lists, like in Knytt Stories where tons of people contributed with so much different material. What I have in mind is another game like that, where I can get help from the community and my friends for a lot of the material. However, the problem here is that though I live off game development these days (I need to as I otherwise can't get the time I need to spend creating the games), I simply don't have enough money to compensate everyone involved in the way I'd like to, and it's complicated to write a contract with every party involved and set up money transactions, which includes handling a lot of legal details with different countries and through different payment methods, taxes, and so on. Yet I need to give something in return, something more than just a credit in a list.

So here I'm asking for ideas; how can I set something up, a way I can cooperate with friends and forum members to create a game in the spirit of Knytt Stories, where anyone can contribute, and also get something back for doing so, despite that the full version to the game will be sold (or alternatively, a purchasable big expansion to a free game)?

For me, a copy of the game would be more than enough. I am not particularly talented at anything, though, so I'm not likely to be much of an asset.

A free copy of the game should be adequate compensation for small contributions. Larger contributions may deserve more, but there will be fewer of those.

For music contributors, I suggest better association between songs and their composers. In Knytt Stories you have to use outside resources to discern which artist created which tracks. Building a music player --listing author and title-- into the menu system would give musicians better exposure compensation than simple credits.

I'd love to contribute graphical stuff to another game of yours! I'm really happy about the tilesets I did for Knytt Stories and seeing people make use of them in their levels was reward enough for me.

So... I'd also be happy with just a copy of the game. If the amount of work I contributed was really huge, you could throw in a free copy of NightSky or something too.

I like ego's idea of a more methodical listing of contributors and think that is a good compensation.  Other than that, yeah, free games man. 

I think that for artists (music and graphics) a nice library with some of the artists work would be a great reward.

Like a music player or image viewer, with credits and website link to advertise that mucisian in some way. I suppose it would be cool to have the ingame music also playable in there.

Kind of like the jukebox in Saira.

Yeah, Saira's ship radio is an example of how I wanted to directly promote the work of artists who contributed for the space travel music. I'm also practicing this (though in a different way) for a new project. The player is a good idea, if I set it up right it should be able to work both as an external soundtrack player and art viewer, as well as an internal player that can be accessed from the game menu. I could integrate it with the image viewer as well.

Anyway, the soundtrack player with website links and all that is something I'll definitely do. Free copies of the game (and more games) is something I'll also do. Free games unfortunately just won't work for the time being, my budget is right now under the swedish living wage, and I need to do that to buffer up a bit and get a business working, and a large freeware project isn't realistic until perhaps sometime later. Don't misunderstand me, I'd love to do it, but the options here are either to get a regular job or have all the time I want developing games - and as the second now seems to be a realistic option, I need to take that chance

More ideas are welcome too!

I like the FiNCK idea, that a player must buy the game to play more levels.

Idea:
The game will be normally well playable, but there may be more good stuff to buy (like expansions or level editor).

And about contributing, I can do some of painting-things, like tilesets or gradients...

*Looking forward for the newest game, and good luck!*

Well, with FiNCK I have to admit I got stuck in a chicken and egg situation, people had to register to play and design levels, but without many more levels, people wasn't that interested in purchasing the game. Besides, the editor was kind too hard.

In the new game, I'm going to take a different approach. The original Knytt Stories was actually meant to be free, including its level editor and third party level support - but I planned the whole A Strange Dream expansion to be purchaseable, but I decided not to since I didn't know how to enter profits or handle legal details. Looking back at the success of Knytt Stories, I often regret I didn't take that approach. Perhaps I'll try it this time. Of course the classic demo/full version approach I took in Saira worked well though, but I'm still going to take another approach than with Saira for this new game, since level editing, expansions, and level sharing will be very easy with this new game.

But anyway, before this one, there's another game comming up I'll announce it when the time is right.

Can't you make a meta-announcement? Like... Announcing when the time will be right to announce the release date? xD

Haha, I'll meta-announce when I know the date I'll announce it.

The original Knytt Stories was actually meant to be free, including its level editor and third party level support - but I planned the whole A Strange Dream expansion to be purchaseable.

I also think this method would work pretty well for that future game.

I also think that small collaborators will be happy with just a free copy of the game  .
(Sorry for not giving better ideas  )

Instead of building a music player/art viewer, which would be cool but maybe taking you too far away from the development of the game itself, why not have a page in the credits with a users contributions? Tilesets/creatures or any other visual items could be shown with a simple cropped screenshot, and if the user has contributed music, it would play on that page instead of the standard credits music. I've seen a few KS levels that tackle it in this way, quite well I find.

Also, I realise this probably isn't the place, but I'd love to compose some music for this.

- Apte

For me, a copy of the game would be more than enough. I am not particularly talented at anything, though, so I'm not likely to be much of an asset.

Agreed.. but I still feel like that would be asking a lot.
I would enjoy spriting or making other graphics needed that I can work on in my spare time, and seeing them in the game is enough alone.
Since I would likely only help in areas I would enjoy and would be good at, I wouldn't ask for any sort of compensation..
I'd feel honored to be able to help contribute.
But that might just be me..