Where next for Indieproofing?

[Artinum]

Greetings to you all.

For a little over a year now I have been custodian of a proofreading service aimed at indie developers (www.indieproofing.co.uk). It started off with just a hideously purple website and a dream - I'm pleased to say that, thanks to the help of numerous posters here, the purple monstrosity has long since been replaced.

I've hit something of a block now. I want to attract some more customers and boost the range of services on offer, but I don't know what else to offer. Currently my services include checking the English of in-game text, websites and regular documentation (such as readmes, manuals etc) and I also offer a regular website check service that ensures all the links are working, etc.

Currently I have one idea for a new product - a manual writing service, where I take the basic information and screenshots for a game and create a simple HTML manual (ideal for both shipping with the game and holding on your website). Given my limited HTML coding abilities this would most effectively mean a few templates to choose from and I'd write the text.

So my first question is - how viable an idea is this? Would any developers be interested in this service, and how much should I charge for it? I'm expecting the majority of games would be smaller, simpler offerings and not RPGs requiring fifty page epics to explain them. Another question here is how indepth the manual should be - some elements of a game would be spoiled by detailed explanations, and should be discovered by the player.

My second question is far more open - is there any other service I can and should offer to the world at large?

[lennard]

I think you should adjust your business model.

If I was you I would look for mid-tier to high end games from the East that require a strong helping hand to make them satisfying for a western audience and work for a cut. Some of those games look pretty great but shoot themselves in the foot with little stuff that could easily be fixed with a useful western producer who was willing to patiently work with them. If you could then help those folks get deals then you might really make $.

I can't see how you can make a real living providing incidental services in an industry where many of the reported earnings are <5K per title. Most of those that are making real money are already at the point where they don't need an external service to proof their text anyhow.

[Greig]

I think you need to focus on countries that don't speak English as their first language. Eastern Europe and Asia are good examples. There are quite a few companies/developers in Eastern Europe that could do with a hand in proof reading their documents and in game text.

Have a look at Gamasutra there is a list of developers on there and the country they are located in. Perhaps emailing some of these companies/people will help you make contacts.

There are also a lot of mobile phone game developers in non English speaking countries that could do with some help translating their games. This probably wouldn't bring in much money though as in most of my games I have about 100 words, certain types of games have more, the RPG genre probably has more in game text.

[Slayerizer]

I think you should not only focus on indie developers but focus more on webmasters and designers.

If you take me as an example, my native tongue is not english but I must do my website in english to attract more visitors.

ie:
http://www.virtualshowcar.com

I will probably contact you soon, once my pages gets completed.

[electronicStar]

I think you should not only focus on indie developers but focus more on webmasters and designers.

Exactly, there are so many opportunities for that sort of service outside of videogames, not only online BTW...

[Artinum]

Thank you to all of you for your advice.

Indieproofing is not (and was never intended to be) my major source of income, but began largely as an experiment. I wanted to see if there would be any demand for a proofreading service and also to set up my own business, website, etc. Prior to this my online work has always been collaborative.

I'll abandon the manual writing idea (it seems a lot of work in every sense for little reward). Gamasutra is probably a very good place to start hunting for customers. As for attracting web designers, perhaps I need to revise my website's blurb...

And in the meantime, Indieproofing as is will remain open for business!

[cliffski]

how about product QA (testing)?
Most developers (including me) are terrible at bugtesting our products. A service where someone who was code-aware, and organised, and could run a debug build and provide detailed steps to reproduce bugs, as well as suggestions on game balance etc...
Is there such a service? an affordable, small-scale one aimed at the pro and semi-pro indie?
If not, someone should start one.

[chanon]

I'd suggest adding a "creative writing" service, since it is somewhat related to "proofing" and it is actually required in most indie games (as opposed to manuals).

Also I'm wondering (aloud) if anyone knows of someone who does that kind of service. Since I'm the only one with (almost) passable English skills here, it is pretty tiring to come up with creative dialogues/story text when I have to do loads of other things (project managment/coding/marketing etc.)

Or, if my team members do the thinking, I still have to translate it from Thai to English which is still a pain.

Also sometimes its hard for us foreigners to understand what is considered funny / acceptable in US/UK so that would be a real benefit for us.

[ChrisP]

how about product QA (testing)?
Most developers (including me) are terrible at bugtesting our products. A service where someone who was code-aware, and organised, and could run a debug build and provide detailed steps to reproduce bugs, as well as suggestions on game balance etc...
Seconded. Even I'd be interested in such a service - I am of the opinion that I'm good enough at proofreading to do it myself, and that's probably true for a lot of people. But after the first half hour of somebody else playing my game, I always get a list of new bugs as long as my arm, and a strange sinking feeling that there's a lot more where they came from... :)

Added value if you have a bunch of systems to test on, with lots of different hardware/OS combinations (including really old ones), unusual settings, restricted user accounts, and so on.

[VaderSB]

Seconded. Even I'd be interested in such a service - I am of the opinion that I'm good enough at proofreading to do it myself, and that's probably true for a lot of people. But after the first half hour of somebody else playing my game, I always get a list of new bugs as long as my arm, and a strange sinking feeling that there's a lot more where they came from... :)

Added value if you have a bunch of systems to test on, with lots of different hardware/OS combinations (including really old ones), unusual settings, restricted user accounts, and so on.

After more than 2 months of preparations we're close to release such service. Please check out a thread I've posted about it: http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=10130