Yeah well big is the keyword here.
I don't know what PopCap pays their star coders, but they're an abberation.
PopCap makes what, $5 million a year? They've got a ton of games out there already, they've got their own portal which repreat customers visit all the time, they've got their games on all the other portals, they've got their games in stores, and they've got a billion affiliates sites selling their stuff for a 30% cut. They've got great artists working fulltime, and they're accuiring smaller developers left and right.
They're a totally different beast than a smaller developer with three to six titles under their belt, which makes up the majority of shareware houses.
Oh and let's not forget that most shareware games from big shareware houses are written in C and Flash and such, not Blitz. If you're gonna code the game in a language which can't be ported to Flash or consoles easily, then you should expect to be paid less, since the work needs to be redone to do those ports which bring in the additional revenue that those C coders get a portion of.
I don't know what PopCap pays their star coders, but they're an abberation.
PopCap makes what, $5 million a year? They've got a ton of games out there already, they've got their own portal which repreat customers visit all the time, they've got their games on all the other portals, they've got their games in stores, and they've got a billion affiliates sites selling their stuff for a 30% cut. They've got great artists working fulltime, and they're accuiring smaller developers left and right.
They're a totally different beast than a smaller developer with three to six titles under their belt, which makes up the majority of shareware houses.
Oh and let's not forget that most shareware games from big shareware houses are written in C and Flash and such, not Blitz. If you're gonna code the game in a language which can't be ported to Flash or consoles easily, then you should expect to be paid less, since the work needs to be redone to do those ports which bring in the additional revenue that those C coders get a portion of.