FreeBASE Project Manifesto
The FreeBASE idea was born in early 2013 handpicked from a pool of ideas that would be the basis for a new product. Many of the projects seemed somewhat untenable but passion for a gaming product was sparking within a team of three people. Me as project manager with expertise in operating systems, a software developer with general desktop application skills with automation and a hardware analyst responsible for the design of the physical product. After hitting several emotional walls and zoning out a potential investor, the idea was put to bed. In 2022, the idea was reconsidered for a rebirth after some experiments with an old netbook to see how practical it would be to run freeware software on underpowered hardware.
Heavy competition came from the Ouya project and Steam Machines which scared our team into despair. Their apparent success extinguished our zeal for our own idea thinking that we'd have no chance in getting anywhere close in terms of matching their product story in addition to the big three that had established market for decades. What was more painful is that there was no redeeming feature that would actually pull in an audience for our product other than having a box, that would likely, sit there collecting dust while AAA titles stayed dominant within the market and an indie game market that was at the time, struggling to grow before initiatives like Steam Greenlight existed. An investor pitched into the product but we got afraid of our own shadow still fearing that we'd be outcompeted.
Both projects ended up falling flat on their faces bringing two contradiction signals. Either their ideas were not properly executed or the market for this type of product simply doesn't exist. In more hopeful terms, it showed that massive capital was not needed to do a project our of own. Today, we have a much more lively gaming community willing to experiment a bit more who learned from failures of the past. The FreeBASE will have to eschew becoming a brick like the Ouya and Steam Machines have become.
The premise of the FreeBASE was pretty simple, a hardware console that would pull in from a library of free games and freely available content curated by us. A fully off-the-shelf designed made for hopefully a more accessible product but current market trends have put that idea to bed. There was no business model other than hardware sales which would eventually flatline once the market was saturated. No market analysis or study was done to ascertain if such a product was even in demand. The offering was deceivingly simple but the resource required to run such a project were pretty massive and with the money we had in hand, would destine us to failure.
A new business model was needed to be seeded to bring the idea to life, as a revival project. The biggest component that was completely ignored in initial talks was a community aspect that would build an audience around the offering. A possibility of running some of the frontend software, known as FreeCENTRE, on other hardware that would be approved for giving the best gaming experience. Even the idea that was considered was a multiplatform store like today's Steam or the original idea from the now dormant Desura project.
The market we are aiming for is one that is obsessed about non-pecuniary endeavours and seeking a community around it. The idea that free products could be exposed to the world and bring forward a totally different world than the popular commercial market has in line for us now. What is often termed as passion projects would often sit behind quite a few curtains that would limit their exposure making developers who were so adamant as sharing their gift to the world disappointed. The FreeBASE project should be a catalyst to transform that obscure world into something very accessible and ideally more popular.
The FreeCENTRE software is simply a product that exposes free games and media in a console-like interface making the intricate details of getting less well-known software to work seamlessly. Things like mods should be easy to install and use along with automatic updates, community reviews and trailers. All the content would be tagged to make navigation easier and help gamers hone in on the type of content they are looking for. Even soundtracks should be a download option as indie projects tend to excel quite well in that area.
An interesting proposition would be to have a FreeCENTRE magazine that discusses the world of freely available content to yet an unknown base of readers. While the obvious will be included like new releases and featured products will be present, bringing out some of the more obscure offerings will be highlighted as well. Inspiration will be taken from the Nintendo Power and GamePro magazines who have proven to be especially successful with circulation hitting the millions. Unlike Steam, which alleges to curate content, is actually only advertising for content that is already available. Content is presented in a bubble such that gamers are only presented with choices that will already likely enjoy rather than taking them out of their comfort zone.
Community-focused features can also include the ability to share 'instant-replays' of their gaming moments, have others spectate their sessions with or without commentary. Leaving reviews and ratings for games to rank them in the store or have them make recommendation. Things like friends, chatting and scores will be an integral part of the whole experience as is already part of many popular offerings like Steam, which we might be able to surpass in terms of scope.
There are vibrant communities and events that celebrate these developers' initiatives. Cooperating with established communities like GameJolt and itch.io as well as events like the infamous SAGE and SHC should be promoted and immediately available for gamers not to only play these demos, but also make recommendations and vote for awards. Some worlds like the one of fan games is buried in the deep recesses of the Internet only known to those who have been part of the scene for decades. Even considering homebrew software and abandonware should be part of the world we are exploring and exposing.
The Ouya project claimed to be saviour of indie projects but has proven to be a failure because of its poor hardware, and more importantly, their seeming interest in building big business rather than actually encourage true indie engagement. As a result, the selection of games were mostly ports of existing mobile games that ran poorly due to the already outdated hardware of the micro-console. Indie developers were smart enough to know that other platforms would provide better exposure to their projects. Other products like GameStick also failed for similar reasons. Even the CEO of the then called Boxer8, admitted that there was nothing special to their box.
Monetizing ideas are in the backburner for now, as the FreeBASE idea is heavily reliant on providing a completely free experience but this might an inevitable aspect if the concept really takes off. As much as I hate the idea, analytics could be a very good Segway to bringing in revenue. We can consider micro-donations like the now defunct Flatr platform. However, likely the most driving force would be that additional community features would be behind a paywall, especially those that might make more advanced usage of the existing infrastructure. Subscription models seem to be most successful especially if they promise an unlimited amount of content. Access to games can't be paywalled as they are clearly not commercial projects and even illegal in some cases. To be clear, models like pay-to-win, microtransactions and loot boxes will not be permissible options for companies that wish to distribute their games on our platform.
One of the biggest blind-spots for the original FreeBASE idea is that it has no foundation to encourage users to actually buy into the product. Offering just the promise of free games will only attract parents who are looking for ways to save money on their young children's desires to play more games. An excellent example of their failure was the Action 52 game compilation for the NES in the mid-90s. We are not looking to be presented as a shoddy replacement to the big-three's offerings, but rather build a whole ecosystem around this world that is seemingly hidden.
The project is currently being considered in various offerings, in this case from the least risky to the most. A FreeCENTRE multiplatform distribution services like Steam or GOG would present the least risk to the user to try and experiment with this new paradigm, but making a multiplatform product is very difficult and would lead to an inconsistent experience. The slightly riskier proposition would be to make a Linux distribution out of FreeCENTRE with recommendations on what platforms were tested with like SBCs such as the Raspberry Pi and LattePanda. Finally, a complete hardware package could be made available but it is likely to be the least successful as people are unlikely to invest into another box on their stands. A combination of the strategies is probably the most sensible but we'll need to measure the convenience/compatibility ratio.
I believe this project has a lot of room for opportunities though it might not be immediately successful. The key is to be cognizant of emotional walls but also keep impulsiveness at bay. We will need a big team to make it happen, though it's likely the beginning will be a volunteer basis kind of project until a solid business model comes out of it. While a crowdfunding campaign is tempting, we should wait until we have a nearly-complete product so that we don't end up as one of the failure projects YouTube documentaries and that we can almost guarantee that our backers will have something in their hands if they make a contribution or pledge.
At the end of the day, the purpose is to revive this idea due to its potential of being unique and introducing a world to gamers that they didn't necessarily explore. Before the term commercial comes into play, this should ooze and exude a sense of a passion project, made by people who actually care about the ecosystem they're trying to bring forward. While the gaming market seems saturated, the more obscure packages are still as presentable and enjoyable as existing commercial products.
The FreeBASE concept was born out of blindness to the market, but with a much more vibrant market in the gaming space, I think we can birth something that will not necessarily beat the current players but hopefully compete against them in providing a world that is completely different than the high-budget but low-risk endeavours have become mainstream today. It's a pipedream, but our company should try to fill the 'hip' and 'innovative' corporate mind-view
Many firsts have been already done in the forms of prototype, such as SBC compatible software, nearly instantaneous booting, focus on high framerates, V-sync and low-input lag, and high compatibility and performance on very modest hardware. While much of the FreeCENTRE software will rely on Linux technology, almost the entirely of the Windows game library has been shown to run perfectly in Wine, even on non-x86 hardware. A huge backlog of software is being experimented with in order to bring modern console features like suspend/resume, easy wireless controller collection and perhaps even enable split-screen in single instance games.
Our strategy is still unclear yet, and will require refining. This is a very research-heavy project and will require much experimentation. In terms of resources, we really haven't measured what we need whether it comes in the form of talent or infrastructure. It is obvious though that the pool will be a bit limited due to the need of very polyvalent talent. Let's get the conversation started and for whoever is interested, to join in a possibly risky but very rewarding project. If we succeed, we might make an impact in the gaming world.
