Thanks for checking out the proposal!
At first I wouldn't focus on trying to on-board people from outside the current STEEM ecosystem. Getting it listed on https://www.stateofthedapps.com could catch some eyes and also there are a lot of dormant STEEM accounts out there. With my YouTube account I have decent engagement and talking about it on there could bring some users back in to play.
The reason I wouldn't focus immediately on trying to on-board people from outside is because there are over 1 Million accounts and there is a certain amount of work that goes in to educating users how this ecosystem works and them having an account with a little bit of liquid funds to play the game.
What made you guys stop the Steemgar game?
I'd play that game. Looks fun.
Steemgar was stopped for a few reasons. There were people cheating. The prize pool had been sponsored by a whale when the prices were high and the server costs covered. It was been ran by one person who wasn't able to keep up with all of the costs and work load as the prices dropped so it was put on pause. It might come back as pay to play in the future but paused for now.
I appreciate the answer and I understand the reasons for not trying to go too big too soon. The one thing I would say is that I would highly recommend having a revenue model built into the game to cover your costs going forward as I have seen lots of projects fail from not earning any external revenue or just relying on STEEM price to fund their ideas. It's not sustainable with current prices and involves selling STEEM which also doesn't help the projects. Whether it's advertising, buying accounts or having a market for different ships, weapons, upgrades ect... There will need to be dollars coming in to be sustainable.
I'll be following your progress eagerly as the game is exactly what you need for here. Simple but fun. I can see it being very addictive if set up properly.
I get what you are saying about having multiple revenue streams. The prices and lack of funding is one of the reasons why I haven't made more progress on the project before now. It is tough if you feel like all the work is going towards nothing.
I like the idea of having a market for different ships and weapons....etc. I could certainly see if a large set of games became popular and it was more like a virtual arcade that the traffic generated could lead to advertising revenue / sponsorships.
I have thought about the viability of this type of funding system in relation to the SPS and the game itself. I think that if the majority of the funds end up staying in the system by paying other Steemians to help with development and marketing that can be positive and if there are tons of activities and entertainment for Steemians to stick around and participate in this economy it could make the SEO funnel bigger and bigger to where the advertising revenue of Steemit and some of the other associated websites / apps could support themselves without selling tons of STEEM. But that is a long term macro level thing.
Otherwise it can become this thing where people are always chasing the carrot but if the tide is going out too fast the funds dry up and everything turns into somewhat of a ghost town.