some advice?

[world_creator]

hello all, im new to the boards and im also new to the business. ive been programming a game for a while now and the whole thing is starting to wind down so im starting to consider what i can do with it. i don't know how it stands in regards to all the other games and how publishers will like it or not, and i don't exactly know what i should do with it. i know i have the options of a publisher or doing it shareware or maybe both if the publisher would be willing. maybe you all can give me some advice to head me off in the right direction? heres the game:

http://betablocker.budfish.com/

thanks.

[Wayward]

I really liked the your website design (fonts were small though) and the screenshots piqued my interest enough to try the game.

The game itself was very impressive. It had a stylish user-interface, but sometimes I got confused when the back button moved changed places. I had a short play and got battered. I could fly around and shoot things, but I sensed there was a lot more to do and learn which I didn't have the time for. I'm sure that for someone less busy than myself there's a lot there to keep a player enthralled.

Well done on a pro job.

[Reactor]

Yep, similar thoughts from me too, but I there were a few things that seemed to need refinement. For some reason I was getting graphical glitches after upping my graphics level, and the sound seemed to crackle every now and then as well. Also, the game didn't seem to fair, since I was quickly destroyed every time a guy shot at me. I had to explore other places in oder to complete my first mission, but couldn't seem to avoid dying.

Otherwise, I think you could do quite well with what you have :)

[world_creator]

thanks. so anyone know where i should go now? look around for publishers? anyone recommend anyone in particular? in regards to the game, the sound crackles because the engine sound i got in there is basically a proxy, the changes in frequency causes it to crackle every now and then for some reason. and the game is fairly difficult in the beginning stages because you have such a crappy ship. just make sure you dont attack people in the beginning because you cant do much with a shuttle. do some missions and give it another go when you get a better ship. for the graphical glitches, what settings were you using and what gfx card are you using? i havent had problems yet but i havent tested it on other rigs yet. again, thanks.

[Nemesis]

You seem to be considering publishers as your ownly option. Haven't you given a thought to self publishing? You'll find plenty of threads (don't have time to look them up right now, sorry) that will basically tell you that publishers are usually a raw deal.. they'll typically want the IP rights to the game and will only give you a small royalty (10-20%) per sale. With self publishing you could get ~ 80% out of every sale and retain the IP rights, e.g. to do sequels, expansion packs etc.

[Reactor]

I was running the game on an Athlon 1800+ with a Geforce FX5600. The glitch was in the top right hand of the screen. I'm not sure what the thing was because it got all messed up.

[world_creator]

oh, the distortion in that little box? thats intended as 'interference' when from far distances. if you are closer to the target NPC then the interference will clear up.

self-publishing would be basically setting up a site and selling it through channels such as shareit, righto? the only downfall i can see from this is having to do self-marketing but i would like to keep the rights to my product and maybe get a little more than 20%... it is possible to negotiate a deal where i keep the IP rights (what does IP stand for anyway) and possibly be able to sell it online as well, right? or not? ill look for some threads, thanks.

[Sybixsus]

IP = Intellectual Property. Basically anything which is a product of your mind and has commercial value.

Yes, it's possible to self-publish and have non-exclusive deals with publishers. There are publishers like Garage Games who publish online but let you sell it online yourself as well, and other publishers who may be interested in a non-exclusive deal to sell it as a retail product in their territories. This could be practically anywhere, but in practice, Germany is a very common and quite lucrative territory.

Self publishing is good, but you have to be willing to put in the work on it. Just creating a website, setting up a ShareIt account and waiting for the money to come flooding in won't get you very far ( well it might, but you'd be incredibly fortunate if it did. ) It really depends if you're prepared and able to put in the extra work for the much larger share of the profits.

[Chaster]

(DISCLAIMER: I have no relationship with GarageGames - although I did license Torque, and subsequently did nothing with it)..

GarageGames I think might be someone you should consider... Their royalty rates are much more reasonable, and I think they are honestly trying to be better than the "typical" publisher..

Chaster

[Morphecy]

www.alawar.com could be one possibility - and I think you can get 30% share of the profits from almost any publisher. The truth is that if you self-publish the game it requires lots of marketing & customer care (maybe 50% of time?) and then your ecommerce partner will take about 10% and website expenses will also cost some money (let's make it 10%) so that leaves you the 30% anyway ;)

Okay - that was a exaggeration... but maybe it added some light why publishers take 50%-80% of the pie.

But - by self-publishing and focusing to a some small niche and building a decent customer base you can stop working some day (like Steve Pavlina at dexterity.com) and do games or play games or anything fun stuff you like and the business will take care itself.

[world_creator]

im still leaning towards go thru a publisher but hopefully keeping IP rights. i really want to get rid of this game, make some money off of it and get going on my next. thanks for all of the advice!