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| cbx |
Posted - Mar 21 2006 : 9:05:12 PM
So here is the deal, if you have been impatiently waiting for more tutorial videos from me over at www.createdbyx.com it ain't happaning any time soon. I can't stand the sound of my own voice, nore can I watch my own videos without making a face. But I may have a plan in the works...
I am still waiting to come across a web site out there that will allow me to download (for free) short and to the point tutorial videos on game programming or related things such as directx, hlsl, opengl, artificial intellegence etc. There are plenty of video tutorials on how to create a mod for FarCry, Doom3, and Halflife 2 for example. So here is my idea...
I hardly use any of my traffic bandwidth at my web site (maybe 1 gb out of 75 gb a month traffic) so I am paying for all that unused bandwidth. I am hoping in time to start saving up enough money and with that provide a place on my site that will allow people to submit video tutorials and GET PAID for them. Right now I am thinking about $10 to $30 for a video that is anyware from 5 to 30 minutes long.
The topics would be chosen by me and placed on a list on my website things like how to write a piece of ai code that would allow enimies in a game track and fallow the player around the screen, or something like a deep explanation and walkthrough on how to use the stencil buffer in directx. Topics and things that could be explained i under 30 minutes or less. People would go to the site and choose a video to create or submit a request to submit a video of there own choosing.
So what do you think? Do you think $10 to $30 canadien dollars is worth 5 to 30 minutes of your time for a topic you may already know about and would like to share with the world? Is $10 to $30 a fair price or would it be worth it for that price? Would you even visit a website that contained video tutorials on game programming or game programming related topics?
Right now my line of thinking is the only way to have a site dedicated to game related tutorial videos is to just get the ball rolling is by dishing out some cash.
If you are reading this from anywhere outside of canada you can use the yahoo currency converter at this url http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=30&from=CAD&to=USD&submit=Convert |
| cbx |
Posted - Mar 22 2006 : 8:09:33 PM
Reply to Eric:
I created most of them after having been playing around with some piece of code and realizing that hmmm that would be a quick little video tutorial to make that may be interesting or may help people.
All the code was either already written or was code that I could easily write from memory. $10 to $30 sounds a little low if are going to plan ahead for a video but if you are knowledgable about the content in the video you are going to make there really is little or no planning needed. I would prefer a kind of spur of the moment video rathe then one that was maticulusly planned, and the viewers get to see you make mistakes like I did in my videos. :p
Reply To DXGame:
If I get too much traffic I will probably setup some sort of rotating video list, or maybe even use bittorrent. I want to keep the videos free for anybody to download, so that would rule out any pay system.
In terms of video size my Basic Shaders video is 49 minutes long but is only 11 Mb in size. It uses the windows media 9 screen codec that has great compression. So a 5 to 15 minute video would be rather small.
Any way it's just an idea that I have been paying around with and one that I keep comming back to. Before I spend any money on this idea I will be spending some money on funding a private project that I have been wanting to create for some time now. It's one of them "Why did'nt I think of that!" ideas. If it eventually takes off that way I hope it will, it may set me free from any money troubles for a long time, maybe even forever, especilly if I manage to sell it to a big corperation like MS! But I'm drifting into fantasy land so i'll stop now... |
| dxgame |
Posted - Mar 22 2006 : 2:45:47 PM
I've never made a video, I was basing my thoughts on other media site license costs like music, screensavers, games, etc, and it's more than 10-30 per content. ;)
"I hardly use any of my traffic bandwidth at my web site (maybe 1 gb out of 75 gb a month traffic) so I am paying for all that unused bandwidth."
It won't take long to fill that up if you have even only a few popular videos running around 10-30mb a pop. ;)
What about the possibility of some kind of revenue sharing model put into place and then charge the user $x.xx to view the video and then split the income with the author?
Ofcourse you would need stats, payments, etc, but that could open up the possibility of zero costs to you to license the media, plus the media author would then have incentives, etc. I know you're probably preferring a free model for all, but if this takes off enough to make it worth your time, you will probably have higher costs with bandwidth, storage, etc.
Also ask your ISP about "burst rate" charges, if any. I found out the hard way a while back on one of my sites where I had some high downloads and this was causing a higher than expected bandwidth useage "spike". |
| Eric Coleman |
Posted - Mar 22 2006 : 10:20:43 AM
First, let me say I'm a bit biased, I prefer text over video. I can look at multiple sections of a text tutorial simultaneously, with video you can't do that. I find text to be more 'interactive' because I can highlight something and then search google for more information. And code can be copied as well. I can also follow along with a text tutorial at my own pace instead of a stop/start method for video tutorials. And honestly, my personal preferences have no basis in logic, so don't read too much into it.
Now that that's out of the way, I agree with dxgame that that rate of $10 to $30 CD is a bit low. Even if the tutorial is only 15 mintues, it will still take longer to plan the tutorial. You need to know what code you're going to write, what to demonstrate, and also what you're going to say. Someone could probably improvise as the video tutorial is created to save time, but I think it wouldn't be as good as one that was planned ahead of time.
Cbx, how did you create your current video tutorials? Did you plan ahead or just sat down and start talking? |
| cbx |
Posted - Mar 21 2006 : 9:47:28 PM
The videos that people submit would be hosted on my webite for free download with all credit given to the creators of the video. Take yourself for instance dxgame, I am interested in learning a little more about your game engine, even though I no longer work with vb outside of managed code. I may post a request for somone to create a simple intro tutorial on how to use your game engine, or maybe a series of video tutorials that would walk a person through the features of the engine and how to use them.
The whole idea is to try an start a comunity site that would eventually fund and drive itself. |
| dxgame |
Posted - Mar 21 2006 : 9:34:12 PM
What do you plan to do with the submitted videos? Are you planning any kind of revenue earning on your site from the promotion of the videos? (ads, clickthroughs, etc..) Sounds like a GREAT idea, but the $30.00 per video use site license seems very low. |
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| VBGamer |
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