3 min read | May 20, 2015
Hello HaxeFlixel enthusiast, gamedevsam here!
I have some big news to share with the HaxeFlixel community: HaxeFlixel is now on Patreon.
Patreon is a crowd-funding platform that collects monthly donations to support artists and projects that people love. HaxeFlixel has joined Patreon to collect funds in order to reward contributions to the project, and give back to other open source projects that we think are awesome and deserve our support.
Asking the community to give us money wasn't an easy decision. HaxeFlixel is a free, open source project, and every single one of our developers loves working on the engine, no one expects to get paid. We don't want our users to think we might some day charge for features or platforms. Every aspect of HaxeFlixel is free, and will always be free, that's the nature of open source projects.
The main reason we are now accepting donations is because some members of our community asked us if they could give us money instead of contributing code to the engine (maybe because they've had success with the engine and want to give back, or maybe they don't have time to contribute code). For some time I was worried that dealing with money could lead to tensions within the community, but after thinking long and hard about it, I realized that this could be an opportunity to attract new talent to the project, an opportunity to help other open source projects that are also seeking funding, and an opportunity to reward long term members of this community that made all of this possible in the first place.
Dealing with distribution of the funds will likely involve some trial and error. Most well funded open source projects rely on a company that charges for support. We don't have that luxury, so I had to come up with a fair way to distribute the funds.
Here's how the money will be distributed:
The first two points are pretty straight forward. Since I live in the US, I have to pay taxes on any money I receive in exchange for a service (in my case 25%). Another 25% will be sent to Chris (impaler) to cover the expense he incurs from hosting HaxeFlixel.com website. This might seem high to some of you, but keep in mind Chris has been hosting the website out of his own pocket for the last 2 years. This percentage might change with time (depending on how much money is raised, or if Chris wishes to receive a lesser amount).
The final point is a bit vague, and that is on purpose. Instead of me deciding what to do with all the money, I'd like the community to have the power to decide who should get money and for what reason. If you think HaxeFlixel should reward someone monetarily for a contribution he/she made to the project, or if you know of a great open source project that could use our funding, send me an email with the subject line HaxeFlixel Funding Request, and include a description or a link to a web page that explains why this person or project deserves funding. If you think a person deserves funding for a contribution he/she made, don't forget to include their contact, or PayPal information in your request.
At this point I'm the one responsible for making decisions how the money will be spent, and I will have the final say on whether to distribute the funds (and how much). Obviously if the person making the request is a long time supporter of the project, their request will be more likely to be fulfilled.
As a final note, anyone within the owners team has access to the Patreon account, so if I don't do this properly, or something happens to me, someone else can easily take over this role.
If you have any questions or concerns please get in touch with me via my website's contact form.
Thanks for using HaxeFlixel, and please consider supporting the project on Patreon!