@ rinku -

!  man, i was concerned about whether or not the charityware rules would be clear.  i'll do my best to update them and clarify what's going on.  but, to answer your confusion directly:  after 100 people have paid for glum buster, i will add up those payments.  then, i'll calculate 51% of that sum (so, if $100.00 total is paid, then the calculation results in $51.00).  i then give the charity the value of that calculation (so, i give the charity $51.00 in the case mentioned).

it's complex, i know.  and i was concerned about that.  however, the model is designed with the intention of motivating people to pay in order to get more and more money to charity.  it's seemed that simple voluntary donations really don't encourage anyone but the most charitable folks to actually reach out.  though, i'm not sure if my model will remedy that.  but!  i figured i'd shake things up a bit in attempt to kick some fires into pants.  if this doesn't work out, at least it may lead to some interesting lessons that others and myself can glean from for future endeavors :)

secondly, nice find!  that is indeed a bug in your screen shot!
i'll see if i can't repro it and fix it up for a future updated build.  i appreciate you alerting me to that.

lastly, there is actually also a full-full screen mode.  the screen mode button is a triple toggle cycle.  click it the first time to set it to windowed, a second time to set it to 800x600 full screen, a third time to return to full screen black-boxed (haha!  nice GUI and feature design, eh? :P  definitely a lesson learned on that one for me...)

@cactus -

wow, dude, thanks for taking the time to articulate feeders like that!  all are completely justified and completely helpful for anything i create in the future :D

@ everyone -

i'm glad that you're enjoying the game.  i hope it doesn't cause too many headaches!
(and ChevyRay, i'd love it if you send me a list of all those "gripes" you put aside.  anything and everything like that is food for future fanstastification.)

Yum. Sorry for speaking with my mouth full but this is delicious. It's satisfying finding secret locations where you're actually brought into some place in the distance, like a small island with their unusual inhabitants. To be honest I like the "dark" mode better than the second half of the worlds, as it's more mysterious and less conventional than some of the puzzles, but that's not to say I disliked them. Far from it.

I think I found a bug through the third door-world though, I can turn into an electrical spark and fly into a broken cable, causing a small white spark to appear there, but my character turns invisible and falls to the floor. Only the glowing eyes are visible. I can repeat the process until there's tons of sparks by the cable, but nothing seems to happen. I think this is in the room immediately after the red elevators.

Sweet. Hopefully I get a chance to play this sometime soon *drools*

@rinku -

when you get some spares, would you mind checking out the subtly updated charityware rules outline?
i'd like to know if the little change i made makes it more clear.  (if not, then i'll keep plugging away to shine the light.)

http://www.glumbuster.com/?page_id=12

It looks clearer, but it's hard to say since I already know how it works since you mentioned it earlier -- I think the best way to check for clarity is to see people who don't know how it works and see if they can figure it out right-quick. I think the way I'd explain it would be shorter, since a lot of people are too impatient read 8+ sentences on how it works. Perhaps something like:

"I'll donate an amount equal to 51% of the first 100 donations to Starlight, 52% of the next 100, and so on, up to 99% if we get that far."

That doesn't spell out all the details but it hits the important info.

wow, thanks buddy!

i'll give that a shot (tomorrow, though - i'm about to pass out right now).  i always tend to over-explain things in text.  i appreciate the help :)

also, i was just musing on the potential of the future and it made me smile.  i really hope that enough payments come in to drive me to the 99% factor.
in that case, if payments reach, say, $100.00 in a round, then i'll be contributing $99.00 to starbright.  the thing is, i'm using paypal to accept payments.  and, there's a transaction fee for every payment.  if that weren't there, then i'd be personally earning $1.00 on the game at this point.  however, the transaction fees will add up to roughly $3.20.  therefore i will literally be paying that $1.00 income plus an out-of-pocket difference of $2.20 to cover the fee!  -$2.20 net for cosmind!  beautiful!  haha, the game will be costing me.  i actually am really interested and eager to see how high this gets driven up :)  (unless it makes me poor, of course, which i don't see happening considering the limited reach of the game.)

If it does reach that high it'd be great. Maybe I'll try a charityware model for a future game. I like the idea of experimental payment models like this.

(As an aside, I've been recording video footage of the game now that I know it has true full screen mode (which makes FRAPS actually record -- it had problems recording footage in windowed or black-surround modes), so maybe eventually I'll edit up an unofficial "trailer" to show people what the gameplay is like. I fear that'd ruin some of the surprise of discovering the game on one's own though, so it'd probably be best to make it show very short clips that don't reveal much but which increase interest in it.)

did some clean up to the charityware rules outline.
i rolled in rinku's advice (thanks, good sir!) while trying to still keep a little more detail for those who may need a bit more definition.  i hope it doesn't confuse any longer.
(if it still does, then i'll still keep honing it.)

This Charityware model is genius... might be something I'd like to try too. Much kudos for all your works, CosMind. Well-earned break next, or have you already got something else in the pipe?

I tried to start it up and it wouldn't work? Had a run time error of some sort. I'm thinking it's more to do with my computer then the actual game itself though. Have you heard of anyone else having this problem?