Hello, EMC! I'm supereskimo, creator of Igloo Inc. Map Art (read more about it here: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/18381). If you don't know what map art is, it's basically a way to get pictures into Minecraft using maps. These pictures have limited colors, but they have a 128x128 pixel resolution (the dots making up the picture are split into 128 rows and 128 columns). Just to give you an idea of what these look like, here's a picture of John Lennon: Remember that this is actually IN-GAME - you don't need a special texture pack or mod to see it. You can hold it and look at it, or you can hang it on a wall and make it visible to everyone who looks at it. The reason I'm writing this thread is that I want to know how much I should start charging for these maps. Based on the feedback I get, I'll try to come up with the best way to sell my products and hire employees. You don't have to answer all of them, but here are the questions I want answers to: 1) How much would you be willing to pay for a rare map art? Imagine there is only one copy, and it belongs to you - nobody else can get a copy unless you give (or sell) it to them. Pretend it's a picture that you really, really like. 2) How much would you pay for a map if you knew that other people had copies? (This is tricky, since people will probably try to make copies and resell them, or give them to friends.) But pretend you are a good person, and you're willing to pay the artist in order to own a copy. 3) How much would you pay to have a map custom made for you? In other words, you tell me what you want, I build it, and then you pay me for it. Like with question 1, you would be the only person who owned a copy, and you would have the right to re-sell copies to other players. Keep in mind that some maps are more difficult/expensive to make than others. 4) If you ordered a map to be custom made, how long would you expect it to take? Keep in mind that most players on EMC have school or a job, and that their play schedules change often. 5) If you were my employee, and you helped make a map art, how much would you expect to be paid? Would you be willing to let someone else own the map, meaning that you never get a copy? You can answer these questions however you want, and you can give any other comments/feedback you can think of. In the past, I really had trouble figuring out how much to charge people. Also, here are some things to keep in mind about maps: 1) Map art is made by first making a big 128x128 block "build" in the wild, and then using a map to view it. The in-game map will probably look very different from LiveMap. 2) If you have a map, you can make copies of it. This means that if someone decides to resell copies of something I made, I can't really do anything but ask them not to. 3) Once I make the first copy of the map, it's impossible for other players to "grief" it. In other words, the original map will stay unchanged unless someone looks at the same map (it must have the same number) at the location where the "build" was made. Looking at the map from the location of the build will update the map, but looking at the map while you're far away from the location will not update it. 4) In order to keep people from making copies of the map from the build itself, I have to destroy it. This does not harm the map, but it means you won't be able to see the build from LiveMap. 5) Maps have a very limited range of colors. I can't guarantee that any given picture is possible. However, black-and-white pictures usually turn out pretty well. 6) Maps have a resolution of EXACTLY 128x128 pixels - no more, no less. That is a square. That means that if you want a rectangular image made into a map, I'll either have to crop the image or stretch it. 7) You can't put maps into the vault. This means that a map can only be seen on the server it was made on. [\spoiler] P.S. I'm not making any promises about what services I will/won't offer. For now I just want to get an idea of how much demand there is for map art.
I think you should charge for the blocks required plus a bit extra. Might answer some other questions later...
Holy cow man! That is awesome. If it was just something small then I would say not to worry but that is like...big and takes time and effort. I'd probably charge for it, but not an outrageous price unless it depended on the size.
Thanks for being the first to answer You bring up a good point I forgot to mention: When I destroy the build (to keep people from copying it), I get most of the blocks back. The customer is paying for the map; the build is just a step required to make the map. For the few custom maps I've made, I did indeed charge mostly for the blocks. Perhaps I could charge based on the complexity of the image (which I can actually do, thanks to Paint.Net). Good input. Anyone else?
Thats a good point, charging on the complexity of the map sounds like a much better idea. Though, you are bound to lose a some of the blocks unless you have silk touch.
Bump. Any and all answers are appreciated Edit: In retrospect, having one thread called "Please Take This Map Art Survey!" directly above another thread called "I Need YOUR Help With a Project!" makes me seem pretty demanding
I would pay about 10k for a custom made map just for me, and I would expect that it would take no longer than six weeks. If you ever start the business up again let me know. I think I might have a project for you.
This is awesome. I want one. A picture of myself in Minecraft would be over the top epic. 1) 30k? 2) 15k? 3) 30k? 4) 1 or 2 weeks? 5) 25%? Just some thinking.
that certainly puts a damper on how much someone would pay for them, but not entirely... because if they made them on the server you wanted.. there wouldn't be a problem. 1) for a rare map that no one else has a copy of, i'd probably say i'd pay close to 1k to 3k depending on how satisfied with how it looked. 2) if other people had copies of that same map, i'd probably only want to pay for what the map was worth itself, so not very much, as its just a picture... i don't know how hard it is to make pictures in maps, but i have seen many people do it, so i would assume it isn't that hard. lol 3) i would pay 2k to 3k to have a map custom made for just me, and it would more than likely be batman.... because well, everyone knows me. 5) i wouldn't assume making digital copies of a folder should take more than an hour or two, depending on what you have to do to get it into the map file area.. but i'd assume it wouldn't take long (then again i don't know the process in making them)
Yes, but I'm not taking orders at the moment, unless it's for single player. Sorry I think there's a slight misunderstanding. Because I don't have access to EMC's files, I can't simply upload a map file and have it in-game. I have to actually build what you see in the map, block by block, and then use a map to capture the image. It takes at least several hours to do. As far as I know, nobody but me has done this in EMC; if you can find map art on EMC that wasn't made by me, I'll literally pay you a thousand rupees. Now, if you want a custom map on single player, that's a different story entirely - like you said, it can be done in less than an hour. If you want a batman map to put in your personal single player world, I can just send you the file and have you put it in your world save folder.
ah... i did not think about that. also, technically, you can take my batman pixel arts that are above my battcave lol, they all are not complete but soon they will be.
