Was a very interesting read, thanks Steve for the background

Good for you Steve. Stay happy!

I'll provide some more background on why I don't want to make Aurora a commercial game.

Firstly, there is a major difference between creating a commercial game vs a hobby game. For example, if I was trying to make money from Aurora I would make it much simpler, so it would appeal to a wider audience. I would spend a lot more time on graphics and UI than mechanics, because its easier to sell something visual. Once money becomes the primary goal, rather than mechanics, the resulting game would not be Aurora in its current form

Secondly, I think one of the disconnects here, and why the topic comes up regularly, is that not everyone places the same value on a higher income vs other considerations. I've had periods of low income and high income and been pretty happy throughout. The high income is usually because I find something interesting that happens to pay well . My last job lasted 12 years and was in the eGaming industry, which followed playing poker professionally for 6 years. This was very enjoyable, especially working with a great team, until 2021 when the company was taken over. The new management was not interested in evidence that contradicted their own opinions, so it was frustrating from that point onwards.

I was made redundant in late 2023, which was not unexpected, and spent most of last year travelling with my wife while working about 12 hours a week remotely. My income was a fraction of the previous year and yet I enjoyed it far more. We had the time and freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted, and spend that time mostly outdoors in scenic places. It was a very full life, despite the low income. I've just agreed to go full time with the same company, still working remote. We spent the last few weeks looking for a house and a car, so we could return to a 'normal life', with me wondering if I had made the right decision despite tripling my income. Last week, we decided to try to have the best of both worlds, so in 10 days we are back on the road with me working 5 days a week. We will see how it works out

Thirdly, going back to Aurora, you might think that working full time on a game would be enjoyable and I could do it for that reason, rather than any money I might make. However, I have had previous hobbies that became jobs. I used to play keyboards and started working as a musician at 15 in clubs, providing backing for singers in the days before backing tapes. They turned up with sheet music and the drummer and I would play. No sounds checks, no rehearsals - just five minutes to look at the sheet music and then on stage for two 40-minute sets. Definitely character-building   I went full time, but within a few years I quit. When being on stage is a job and you are checking the clock, it isn't fun any more. These days, I hardly ever play. Playing poker was a hobby. I went full time and made a good living from it, but in the end it was just another job. Now I hardly ever play.

Programming was originally a hobby that turned into a job in the early-to-mid 1990s, but over time as I moved into the management side, it was more of an occasional novelty and so it has returned to being a hobby. Besides, Aurora is really more about game design and enabling AARs. I spend more time playing, writing and researching than programming. It is also entirely enthusiasm-driven, which is why more boring work, like improving the UI, doesn't happen often. If I went full time, Aurora would become a job. Generally, anything you can choose to do is fun. Anything you have to do is work. If I went full time and got bored, or started to resent having to do it, that would be the end of Aurora. Besides, I am really happy with my life as it is right now.

So in summary, there isn't really a choice to make Aurora a commercial game. If I did, due to the commercial-driven decisions that followed, it wouldn't be Aurora any more and it wouldn't last very long anyway. Once it was a job, the enthusiasm would disappear and I would eventually resent it. I know that is a very long explanation, but now its written down, I can point people to this post when they ask in future.

DF also had a bigger player base and was/is lot more famous than Aurora.

If that sounds like amateur hour, it is! Aurora is one of several different hobbies and its just for fun. It's not in any way a professional, or commercial game. I'm not trying to sell it, or maximise the number of players. I often get suggestions along the lines of: "If you simplified X or made Y automated, or added better graphics, it would attract more people". That is probably true, but the whole point of Aurora is that it is a very niche game for those players who want something that isn't available in commercial games. I created Aurora because I wanted a specific type of game that didn't exist and I ended up sharing the result. There are plenty of options for 4x space games with much better graphics and simpler mechanics

So basically the same as Dwarf Fortress, right? 



https://steam-revenue-calculator.com/app/975370/dwarf-fortress

Off Topic! 

There is also a reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aurora/

OK, this is funny:
I knew there was a reddit, had been there during the recent outage.
on reddit there is a sidebar of "related topics" on the right,
and since this game is named after an atmospheric/space phenomenon, all the related topics there are about aurorae, not Aurora 4x.

Sometimes the topic titles are truncated, so when I saw: "Space Weather Update 12/11 & Do we really know Aurora?...and Who the hell is STEVE? W..."
I said "If you don't know who Steve W is, then you aren't paying attention!"
STEVE stands for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement."

My WTF meter immediately went off scale high.
link : https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1hcasdm/space_weather_update_1211_do_we_really_know/

The 'development roadmap' is a few notes at the end of whatever AAR I am currently writing, plus an occasional trawl through the suggestions thread, plus the very occasional immediate implementation of a suggestion on the day I read it.  The level of planning is minimal to none and subject to change without notice, based on my latest whim

The available development time is affected by how much free time I have at the moment, modified by whatever else is distracting me. Last year it was a nine-month trip in a motorhome. Currently, it's RogueTech, which is a great game that I have kept going back to over many years.

Prioritisation is based on whatever I like from the suggestions thread, identified bugs, any generally accepted problems, my current level of enthusiasm and whatever would make the events in my current AAR easier to handle. Occasionally, someone crafts a brilliant proposal backed by evidence, which catches my imagination, and it ends up being a major change to the mechanics.

The UI is usually bodged to accommodate the desired changes with as little modification as possible, although I do sometimes completely revamp certain areas when the level of 'Required Bodgement' gets too high.

Graphics are a low priority and the need for imagination is intended. I use Windows Forms and GDI graphics because that is the fastest and easiest way to implement the mechanics. Aurora is about building an Empire based on the vision you have in your imagination. It is as much an RPG as an exploration and combat game. The more in-game graphics you add, the more you constrain players in that vision of their Empire and their space/ground forces (and the more effort required on non-gameplay elements).

If that sounds like amateur hour, it is! Aurora is one of several different hobbies and its just for fun. It's not in any way a professional, or commercial game. I'm not trying to sell it, or maximise the number of players. I often get suggestions along the lines of: "If you simplified X or made Y automated, or added better graphics, it would attract more people". That is probably true, but the whole point of Aurora is that it is a very niche game for those players who want something that isn't available in commercial games. I created Aurora because I wanted a specific type of game that didn't exist and I ended up sharing the result. There are plenty of options for 4x space games with much better graphics and simpler mechanics

However, if you have specific UI or graphics suggestions that would make the game better without sacrificing the core principles above, or requiring me to spend a lot of time on UI/Graphics - which aren't much fun, please lay out those suggestions and they might be added to the game.

Steve question for you..

DO you have a Discord server for Aurora?

If not would you consider creating one. ? Or is the forums here just the way of things?

It's interesting that you're so committed to RogueTech whereas I'm a big fan of BEX, but based on the number of posts on the BT Reddit, BT Advanced is the most popular of the big three modpacks.

We play Aurora, we all know that what's popular is rarely what's best - and vice versa.