Post by Il Padrino on Apr 20, 2014 20:34:12 GMT 1
This is my first topic in this forum since a long time, it feels a bit weird 
I feel like I have some explanations to give, but don't know where to begin... so I'll start from the beginning.
I started the development of Peloton while studying ICT and continued working on it during the first years of my professional life as SAP consultant. I had big plans and lots of ideas (still do
), and especially with the help of Nikeboy (and CableGuy!) the game certainly took of, although we never gotten the amount of players that we hoped for.
There were also several drawbacks, and one event in particular, that in hindsight broke the progress of the game in my eyes.
Just when the game started to attract lots of new players and was even getting there to break even financially, it got attacked by a 'hacker' who pretty much broke the database. It wasn't the fact that the game had a bug that was exploited that bothered me, but the lack of intention of this person to point out where the flaws were and help fixing the bugs. That's what really annoyed me, considering the time and money I had already spent on creating a completely free to play game.
The game was taken offline, losing any momentum it had, and it never really recovered after that. I admit that the enthousiasm I had before this, also never returned as much.
Things also changed in my life. In particular after finding a lovely girlfriend (I guess she's known as the 'Yoko' of Peloton), and in combination with working full time, I had less and less time to spend on the game.
Especially the last couple of years were pretty hectic for me. In February 2013, the company I worked for kind of imploded (long story) and I was let go. I quickly found a new employer, but got disappointed fast in how they operated and quitted after just 9 months. So in January this year, I decided to start my own SAP consulting company, and that's where we are today.
It wasn't nice of me to suddenly disappear from the forum, I fully admit. The combination of sparse spare time and some discussions here made me decide to just stay away from this place and focus on the game. This didn't work out exactly as planned, and I basically just let the game be. I was somewhat active in the background though, preparing the new seasons with Nikeboy, but this is also getting less and less now that I'm self employed.
It is a bit painful for me reading through this forum now, considering the current state of the game. The enthousiasm to get back to 1000 players, the cool ideas and advice to improve the game... you guys really are great And I'm glad I didn't just call it a day and pull the plug out of everything.
I have been thinking about the future of Peloton and what I can do to bring the game back to its former glory.
In the past I was always very reluctant with publishing the game's code (working in IT, I know how easy code gets stolen and modified to look original). But it's gotten to a point that it's either keeping everything for myself and let the game slowly die, or share the code and let others shine their light on it.
Selling the game is always an option, but there's too much sentimental value for me that I don't think I will be able to do that. And I doubt there are any candidate buyers anyway
The crowdfunding idea is still appealing, although I have no experience with this.
Another idea is to make the game open source. I have no idea how this could work out, and whether or not it's a good idea to just let everyone contribute. It's hard enough as it is to find the right balance to everything, especially the race engine.
We've searched in the past for some additional programmers, but there were never any serious candidates (or they disappeared after a few
I'm open for everything!
I feel like I have some explanations to give, but don't know where to begin... so I'll start from the beginning.
I started the development of Peloton while studying ICT and continued working on it during the first years of my professional life as SAP consultant. I had big plans and lots of ideas (still do
), and especially with the help of Nikeboy (and CableGuy!) the game certainly took of, although we never gotten the amount of players that we hoped for.There were also several drawbacks, and one event in particular, that in hindsight broke the progress of the game in my eyes.
Just when the game started to attract lots of new players and was even getting there to break even financially, it got attacked by a 'hacker' who pretty much broke the database. It wasn't the fact that the game had a bug that was exploited that bothered me, but the lack of intention of this person to point out where the flaws were and help fixing the bugs. That's what really annoyed me, considering the time and money I had already spent on creating a completely free to play game.
The game was taken offline, losing any momentum it had, and it never really recovered after that. I admit that the enthousiasm I had before this, also never returned as much.
Things also changed in my life. In particular after finding a lovely girlfriend (I guess she's known as the 'Yoko' of Peloton
), and in combination with working full time, I had less and less time to spend on the game.Especially the last couple of years were pretty hectic for me. In February 2013, the company I worked for kind of imploded (long story) and I was let go. I quickly found a new employer, but got disappointed fast in how they operated and quitted after just 9 months. So in January this year, I decided to start my own SAP consulting company, and that's where we are today.
It wasn't nice of me to suddenly disappear from the forum, I fully admit. The combination of sparse spare time and some discussions here made me decide to just stay away from this place and focus on the game. This didn't work out exactly as planned, and I basically just let the game be. I was somewhat active in the background though, preparing the new seasons with Nikeboy, but this is also getting less and less now that I'm self employed.
It is a bit painful for me reading through this forum now, considering the current state of the game. The enthousiasm to get back to 1000 players, the cool ideas and advice to improve the game... you guys really are great
And I'm glad I didn't just call it a day and pull the plug out of everything. I have been thinking about the future of Peloton and what I can do to bring the game back to its former glory.
In the past I was always very reluctant with publishing the game's code (working in IT, I know how easy code gets stolen and modified to look original). But it's gotten to a point that it's either keeping everything for myself and let the game slowly die, or share the code and let others shine their light on it.
Selling the game is always an option, but there's too much sentimental value for me that I don't think I will be able to do that. And I doubt there are any candidate buyers anyway
The crowdfunding idea is still appealing, although I have no experience with this.
Another idea is to make the game open source. I have no idea how this could work out, and whether or not it's a good idea to just let everyone contribute. It's hard enough as it is to find the right balance to everything, especially the race engine.
We've searched in the past for some additional programmers, but there were never any serious candidates (or they disappeared after a few
I'm open for everything!
But I have lot of good ideas. 
Melres United