Need advice on how to proceed

[Aisle5]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and also new at making games. I've been reading the message boards for a while but this is my first time posting. I have questions about how to proceed with our first commercial game.

We have a playable game that we are in the final stages of tweaking. My question is... what do I need to do (besides polishing the game) to get it ready for distribution? The game was made with the Torque 2D game engine which has a packaging utility. We are able to package the game into a downloadable "exe" file that will install the game on the user's computer. However, we have no "demo" time limit programmed into the game, we have no window that pops up with a link to buy the game, we have no way of knowing if the user bought the game or if they are still in the trial version, etc, etc. I've read some posts about wrappers for games and I was wondering if the wrapper handles all of this?

We plan on proceeding with two paths to distribute our game. First, we want to submit it to portals. From what I gather from the posts that I have read, each portal will use their own wrapper. Is this correct? If so, do I submit a playable game, and if accepted by the portal, they will take care of the security end of it that includes registration, trial period time limits etc?

Secondly, we want to sell the game from our website (which is not created yet). I've read all the discussions about services like BMT Micro, Plimus, Regnow etc, and I think we will go with BMT Micro. I've been to their website and it is basically over whelming for me. My question is, will their service provide a wrapper for the game that will support all the features I have mentioned above? Also, is there any programming involved with using a wrapper for a game or is it a pretty easy task to use one?

If I am way off on this, please excuse me. I am new to this and I am just trying to figure out all the issues involved with getting our game ready for sale.

Thanks for any help.

[Emmanuel]

You can wrap your first party version with tools like armadillo software passport (http://siliconrealms.com/index.shtml) or asprotect (http://www.aspack.com/asprotect.html). You're correct that portals will wrap your games with their own DRM, which handles the trial period and the purchasing experience. You only need to supply a full, unlocked version of the game to each channel.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Aisle5]

Thanks Emmanuel! I appreciate the info. Knowing that the portals take care of the wrapper is a big relief for me.

I plan on using BMT Micro to handle the point of sale process. If I use them, do I still need to use a program like armadillo software passport to wrap my first party version? Or does BMT offer the same type of tools with their service?

Thanks,
Mike

[Nexic]

For BMT you will have to sort out the wrapper yourself (Ie armadillo). You don't HAVE to use a wrapper, you could program your own solution. For example can just make a limited demo version and a full version and set it up so the customer is sent a full version download linke rather than an unlock code.

[GameFoolsjs]

Trymedia has a system where you can wrap your game with their free drm and they will handle your sales, as well as put your game in their affiliate program where people will be able to sell your game as an affiliate.