Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-on-children-of-neinzul-donations.html

Progress, progress, progress!  As of December 14th, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $8,097.29!  Bear in mind that the money that was generated in November via distributors like Steam and Impulsewon't reach us until the end of December, and we can already tell that our total donated is going to increase substantiallyagain at that time.

We look like we'll be close to hitting our goal for the year at this rate, but even if we don't hit the goalby the end of December, it looks like we will by the end of January.  We'll post monthly updates on how we're doing towards our goal, so check back!

More About AI War: Children of Neinzul and Child's Play
When you purchase AI War: Children Of Neinzul, you're not onlygetting an exciting new expansion, you're also supporting an important cause.  Arcen Games has partnered with theChild's Play charity, pledging 100% of the profits from sale ofChildren of Neinzul (excepting any taxes and distributor fees) to helping sick kids in need.

The staff at Arcen has long admiredthe work done by Child's Play, and we're very excited to finally be able to contribute in a substantial manner.  Ourgoal is to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play in 2010, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansionwill continue to be donated to the charity.

At the moment, this micro-expansion is available directly through the Arcen Online Store ($3.99 USD), as well as through Steam, Impulse, and GamersGate.

[Spikey00]

Can I assume you've then made $20-50K for the base game, and somewhere around that for the expansions? 

[x4000]

When, during the last couple of months?  Something along those lines, yeah.  Total for those combined since AI War originally came out is somewhere between $300k and $400k.  Not too shabby!

But, thing to remember is, it's not just me.  If it was, that would be an absolute killing.  When that comes in over a year and a half and you've got 5-6 people pulling varying amounts out of that, plus the part that goes to taxes, plus all the various business expenses (tools, licenses, web hosting, etc), the number looks smaller and smaller.

But if we can keep that level of income up, maybe slightly higher, we should be able to get where we can comfortably support three of us fulltime.

[Spikey00]

That's still quite a substantial achievement!  If Alden Ridge is anymore successful than Tidalis, then perhaps you'll be over in the land of the riches, huh? 

Though, I do hope we evade the opposite, the debacle with what happened during that one month.  I suppose stability in income would still be better than doing poorly in the long term.

[Wingflier]

Yeah I'm still upset that so few people were interested in Tidalis.  I guess puzzle games are a dime a dozen these days (as opposed to say, good Space RTS games).  I think people have developed such a stereotype for them as "boring and repetitive", and they have been used so frequently as simple money pits for kids trying to get their parents' credit cards, that nobody even gives them a chance anymore.  Hell even I probably wouldn't have even tried the game and bought a copy if it wasn't for that Cyber Monday, and then after I bought a copy I was practically kicking myself in the face, and telling all my friends about how awesome it was (I had a friend who tried it and bought that very night).

Unfortunately game stereotypes can be just as detrimental as bad reviews, and in this case I just don't think enough people have given Tidalis a fair chance (and maybe never will).

Also, great job on the Child's Play donations, if a small company like you can donate so much, just imagine what a bigger company could do if they gave a portion of their revenue to organizations like this.  It really makes you examine priorities.

[x4000]

The number of units sold of Tidalis are actually now slightly more than AI War's base game, funnily enough, thanks to a Thanksgiving promotion -- somewhere north of 30,000 copies of Tidalis sold now.  The bad part of that is that most of those were at 90% off, so... a dollar.  But it's good exposure, at least, and hopefully it will get more people knowing what Tidalis is and telling their friends, etc.  We're still working on things to push that number higher, so hopefully those will work out well.

The "land of riches" is a dubious thing.  Did you know that some huge percentage of lottery winners are bankrupt in a few months?  And it's not just because of the lottery being an annuity.  It's because people way overestimate how much spending power they get from X amount of dollars.  Even if we made as much money as Minecraft, I'd still be antsy and keep a very small staff, because you never get guarantees when it comes to future games, etc.  Ah, well.

Thanks so much about the kind words on the Child's Play stuff!  It's really cool to see how much we've already been able to do there, too.  Of course, Desert Bus is just insane and makes me feel a bit small by comparison, but so it goes.  We all have to start somewhere.  If we're able to survive and comfortably do some sort of charity-focused micro-expansion for our various games as a yearly thing, then hopefully that will only grow from here.  But even now I'm really proud of what we've accomplished, it's far and away above anything I'd ever have been able to do until this year.  Crazy stuff!

[Spikey00]

You're not the type of person or company to go overboard. 

(That's actually surprising, but I would have thought it was more like $5 win from the lottery, and then they go bankrupt, not the ones who win millions.  :p)

[Ozymandiaz]

One can do nothing but applaud Arcen (with its people ) for its integrity!

And its good for the children as well, I am sure they are glad for that kind of help. I know I would be if this kind of thing was around in my country when I was a kid in the hospital!

[Echo35]

Though, I do hope we evade the opposite, the debacle with what happened during that one month.  I suppose stability in income would still be better than doing poorly in the long term.

Personally I'm incredibly impressed with Arcen that, despite going through said financial trouble, still decided to donate the CoN expansion proceeds to Child's Play like they said they would.