FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I wish i didn't have to ask. I'm in an unfortunate and difficult situation. My income is currently one quarter the state-defined minimum amount needed to survive.
In future, if i am lucky, i might have the minimum amount needed to survive on for one half of each year, for the rest of each year i will probably have no income. This will be the case for at least the next 4 years and very probably longer.
I wish i could share more details, and you deserve more too, but it's personal information i would be very uncomfortable to make public.
So, since i work 4-8 hours a day on Minetest and continue to be obsessed with it, i have decided to ask for donations.
Donations go towards food, energy bills, basic essentials, internet connection, computer costs.

I have passed 300 commits, roughly 150 in each of Engine and Game, you can see my commit history here:
https://github.com/minetest/minetest/commits?author=paramat
https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/commits?author=paramat
I am the top contributor in Game and 6th highest in the Engine.
Here are my mods:
https://forum.minetest.net/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=topics&author=paramat&fid%5B%5D=11&sf=titleonly

Here is the PayPal link to donate:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UW3E75K4ADGVE
You can use any debit or credit card, or if you have a PayPal account you can log in to use that.
Please don't consider any donation too small, i will appreciate any amount.

Must be tough situation.. Did you consider open patreon account? IMO its more transparent platform with better communication between creator and supporters. Especially for longer term.

What about doing paid requests for work? I'm going to be using minetest to teach at my job next year and I'm sure will be needing specific features so maybe we could work something out :)

I'd definitely donate, but I won't use PayPal, for a number of reasons. I agree with xeranas - I can help you out via Patreon, I'm not looking for any "perks" in return.

Not sure about Patreon, that's more about crowdfunding which is not what i'm doing. I can be contacted easily here and on IRC. I would rather keep things simple by just using PayPal. To be clear you can pay using any debit or credit card at that link.

There is no change in my work or attitude, i continue to work through obsession and love on things that interest me and on general maintenance and organisation of the project. I'm certainly not doing it 'for the money'.

Thank you to those who have donated.

How many times would you need the donation for? Every month? Week? Like... what is the goal you're trying to raise right now?

Not sure about Patreon, that's more about crowdfunding which is not what i'm doing. I can be contacted easily here and on IRC. I would rather keep things simple by just using PayPal. To be clear you can pay using any debit or credit card at that link.

It is exactly for your use case.

Another dev (from openmw) does get some money through it. → https://www.patreon.com/scrawl?ty=h

On Patreon you give people money because you know they will do good stuff and want to support that. You don't give them money as payment. → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

MykieDoesStuff wrote:How many times would you need the donation for? Every month? Week? Like... what is the goal you're trying to raise right now?

I'm really not expecting regular donations, that's just an option that appears automatically beside the donate button.
A regular payment is a lot to ask so i feel a little embarassed by that option appearing.
I'm more than happy for someone to just make a one-off payment for what i've already done, you can always make another sometime in the future if you really want to.
I'm not trying to raise any particular amount, any small amount helps.

I'm surprised and also sad to see this situation. The UK isn't a poor country and the unemployment rate is just about five percent. There are people out there who don't or can not work - but you're not one of those. I would like to support you to reduce the problems but I'm still in study and only earn some money from the holidays' jobs. So I hope you can find a (nice) job or at least enough donations to pay your food.

yes, don't be discouraged, we are with you!

> There are people out there who don't or can not work - but you're not one of those

That's an assumption, for example, you can't judge a person's state of health through the internet.
If the situation is hard to understand that's because i haven't shared the details. Although in a way i would like to explain i am someone who is very anxious about releasing personal information, i don't even like the fact my first name is known :]

i'm like you.i hate to display personnal things

TheReaperKing wrote:I'm going to be using minetest to teach at my job next year and I'm sure will be needing specific features

Sorry, my response as worded looked a little negative. Although i'm not interested in the education side of things i am always interested in mapgen stuff so can help out, answer questions, and if something inspires me could possibly be more deeply involved in the mapgen side of something. Feel free to email me or PM.

You could always put up an advert on Craigslist or something like that based on your skills etc. Back stateside a lot of people do it that way

paramat wrote:...
Here is the PayPal link to donate:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UW3E75K4ADGVE
You can use any debit or credit card, or if you have a PayPal account you can log in to use that.
Please don't consider any donation too small, i will appreciate any amount.

first sorry for my english,may i have the idea that how much GBP do you need for survive ever month?I hope I can give a little help.

we are with you!

I'll tell you what. There are a lot of people whom I would give if I could.

linushsao wrote:may i have the idea that how much GBP do you need for survive ever month?I hope I can give a little help.

Thank you.
There's no need for me to state how much i need, but it's not much, i live a very simple and low-cost life.

I would like to encourage small donations, after all, most people here are young and/or have very little money. Some may think 'i'd like to help but cannot give much' and might consider a very small donation offensive. The fact is Minetest is popular and has thousands of players, imagine if all these players gave very small donations, it would add up to large amounts. So i would deeply appreciate anything, for example 0.50 GBP is excellent.

paramat wrote:...most people here are young and/or have very little money. Some may think 'i'd like to help but cannot give much' and might consider a very small donation offensive. The fact is Minetest is popular and has thousands of players, imagine if all these players gave very small donations, it would add up to large amounts. So i would deeply appreciate anything, for example 0.50 GBP is excellent.

you are so kind. life is a struggle,but we are with you.

Thanks so much for the donations, i appreciate more than i can express.
The Paypal link in the first post is still the one to use.

Currently i have no income (although my rent will probably continue to be paid), and this will be the situation for the forseeable future.
I can honestly say donations for Minetest development work is the only way i can earn money at the moment.
I have worked on Minetest development roughly full time hours for 2 years and am not slowing down yet.
I am about to hit 200 commits in engine and in MTGame.

How long will you be needing donations?

I'm not familiar with UK welfare system, but they don't have any type of disability benefits program like we have in the U.S.? Here, for example, if you have a mental or physical disability (not sure if that's your case) that prevents you from maintaining a regular job, then you can qualify for a monthly stipend through Social Security Disability..

Is the paypal link still valid?

I feel for you paramat. I wish I were able to donate for the work you put into this, but I am in the same boat : /
Hang in there.

If you had it in $ instead of £ then I could donate some!

Joseph13 wrote:If you had it in $ instead of £ then I could donate some!

you can still donate, doesnt matter the currency should automatically convert...

crazy_baboon
The PayPal link is still valid yes.

sorcerykid
Without going into personal details i can say that the welfare system in the UK used to be generous. But since the economic collapse of 2008 and a right-wing government since 2010 it has changed a lot and a lot of people (especially those with health problems) are now falling through huge gaps in the system and have no income.

Dang man, I'm sorry about your situation. That has got to suck. i unfortunately don't have spare money just laying around either. Sorry i can't help, hope you pull through. :'(

Thank you for the great game btw

i will be happy to give you regular donations. i currently fund several of my favorite artists and game modders on a monthly basis on patreon. you have made many big contributions and hope to see more! if you ever use patreon let me know!

Relevant news:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/tech ... .html?_r=0

Matthew Haag wrote: The PayPal Giving Fund lists more than a million charitable organizations that can receive donations through its website. But a lawsuit alleges that many groups do not receive the gifts because they are required to have accounts with PayPal.