3D in Revolution Needs Your Help

[Brian Yennie]

Lynn,

Perhaps it would be worth re-thinking the founders formula based on  
how far the product is from release. Hearing that a Mac release only  
"compiles" tells me that the product is more like an early alpha at  
this point than a beta. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the work to date  
is a considerable feat, but it is hard to consider a cross-platform  
product to be at beta stage when there is only an early release on 1  
platform. And although your team may in fact deliver a great product  
in 2-3 months, I'm sure many software veterans read that as more like  
6 months to maturity when a whole platform is still up in the air.

Alpha / beta / gamma nitpicking aside, maybe you could open up the  
program more and offer a lower price point for the beta program. What  
if you offered something like a $100 coupon for $50, so anyone with  
$50 to spare could join and get a discount on the product later? You  
might get some more "just curious" parties that way. $300 to me says  
you are actually actively planning a 3D project, which quite possibly  
nobody here is at this point.

Maybe RunRev would be willing to throw in a $25 coupon for their store  
or something?

Just a thought (or two), hope it helps.

> Hello all,
>
> Several months ago we set up a team to create Franklin 3D, after  
> talking
> with quite a few Revolution users about a founder's program.  
> Franklin 3D
> adds a powerful 3D game engine to Revolution. This is all following
> conversations Ive had over the last several years (quite a bit at  
> the Las
> Vegas RunRevLive) about having 3D support for Revolution.
>
> My team at Paradigma, as most know, is focused on the database  
> market. We
> put together a separate team to tackle this problem.
>
> We set up a founder's program so that we could pay for an  
> engineering team
> to bring this product to fruition on Windows and Mac OS X for a 1.0  
> release.
> About 15 people in the community said they would participate when it  
> reached
> a beta release, and pre-purchase Franklin 3D to help this happen. This
> number is about 1/3 more than what we need to complete. Founders get  
> the
> full year of updates after release, plus have a direct voice in the  
> features
> we incorporate into 1.0. Future features are driven by customer  
> feedback. We
> have a private beta list ready for those who participate.
>
> The Windows version beta is available for download on the Franklin 3D
> website at http://www.franklin3d.com. The Mac version is the one  
> that has
> the biggest cost - at this point, I can say it compiles, and we are
> estimating 2-3 months to deliver the 1.0 Windows AND Mac OS X  
> release. This
> project is driven solely by our ability to pay the developers for  
> their
> work.
>
> We reached the point about two weeks ago, and unfortunately none of  
> those
> who said they would participate have placed an order yet.
>
> We need your help in bringing this to fruition. If you previously  
> said you'd
> pre-purchase, please follow through and do it. If you have an  
> interest in 3D
> games or 3D simulations, check it out at http://franklin3d.com/.
>
> If you are one of those who asked for Linux after our first  
> announcements of
> the founder's program - Linux will happen only after a 1.0 launch.  
> The best
> way to have a say in a Linux version is to participate. A Linux  
> version will
> never pay for itself unless its part of a complete platform launch.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Lynn Fredricks
> President
> Paradigma Software
> http://www.paradigmasoft.com
>
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