The question that could make you THOUSANDS of dollars!

[KNau]

Hello, friends!

Before you resign this as just another long-winded quandry from a fellow developer, let me assure you that anyone who can successfully answer the question I am about to pose can easily make not just thousands but tens of thousands of dollars in just 2 weeks! But I will come back to that in a moment...

My goal for this post is to try and really understand the techniques being used for marketing our games on-line. I throw myself upon the mercy of the more experienced developers here and ask for your guidance!

From recent experience I am willing to accept that we do not compete on price. I also don't think we compete on "content" - that one game is inherently better than another. Accepting that as "true" I then look to see how almost all shareware games get marketed:

1) Host the nagging demo on your site and offer a reg service
2) List on shareware sites
3) Send out press releases
4) Have a mailing list / newsletter on your site
5) Offer a money back guarantee
6) Pay for download.com, banner ads or google adwords
7) Have an affiliate program

How are the above techniques advantageous since everyone else is doing them? Granted, few developers breakeven let alone profit, but even the successful "model" developers don't seem to be doing much different. What is missing from the above list?

I would love to hear from the more experienced marketeers because I keep seeing the same marketing questions pop up and the same answers given in reply. But since most developers aren't making money these "tried and true" techniques seem suspect to me. If press releases and google adwords were that effective then we should all be fighting off customers with a pointy stick! Your thoughts on marketing in our business are greatly appreciated, I must confess it still baffles me.

Now the point you were all waiting for...

The question that could make you THOUSANDS!

Borrowing a page from the book "Multiple Streams of Internet Income" by Robert G. Allen, I ask the following question of all of us.

"If your actual life depended upon selling 1000 copies of your game(s) in the next 2 weeks - how would you go about it?"

We know it's theoretically possible to sell 1000 copies over a 14 day period, there are lots of stories of this success rate. Would you pros out there do things differently on this timeframe or would you stand by adwords, shareware sites and press releases? I'm really curious about this.

Thanks for reading. Incidentally did the "question that makes you thousands" technique actually work and make you read all this?

[Lerc]

"If your actual life depended upon selling 1000 copies of your game(s) in the next 2 weeks - how would you go about it?"That's easy. There are all manner of ethical considerations I could put aside if my life was at stake.

Spamming would be a start.

[KNau]

Lol, true enough.

So far the best I could come up with is to offer some sort of super-deal to first time game buyers, like 50% off. Like I said, they don't generally buy on price (a $9.95 game won't sell more than $14.95) but a deal on a full priced game might entice buyers. That or some sort of affiliation scheme with a bigger non-game company and try to sell the whole 1,000 copies at once for a cross promotion.

[Anthony Flack]

I'd use the "my life is at stake" argument to convince people. I'd get all my extended family and friends to buy a copy, and get them to make all their family and friends buy a copy, and tell all their friends, with the knowledge that my life was at stake, so they had better buy it or else. I'd spam. I'd stop people in the street and sell them CDs at cost. I could probably get my parents to buy however many copies required to make up the difference.

That should save my life, but it's not much of a business plan, though.

You know, though, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the whole quality-of-game argument. The games that do well generally are the better ones. Rubbish games always fail, and the majority of indie games are still quite rubbish.

[Chris Evans]

"If your actual life depended upon selling 1000 copies of your game(s) in the next 2 weeks - how would you go about it?"

I would forget the Internet for advertising. I would take out a small loan against my house and produce a 30 second TV spot and then invest heavily in local cable TV advertising. Unlike network and national commercials, Cable TV ads for local markets are dirt cheap. Yet the local cable ads can still reach a huge audience. Also with all the the new specialized cable/digital stations, you can target your market pretty well.

In fact, I'd do this now but I currently don't have the money to produce a TV spot. That's the most expensive part, filming the commercial. Running the actual ads is cheap. That's why you'll see a lot of local businesses running the same old ad for years.

So if I was desperate and HAD to sell 1000 copies in two weeks, that's what I would do. I think sometimes we forget that we can extend our businesses beyond the Internet.

[Andy]

I also don't think we compete on "content" - that one game is inherently better than another.

Yeah? :) - 100% wrong. If so, how could you explain that some of our games (INVASION pinball Kyle - just for sure ;) ) sells 45 copies per month and another just 3? - with the same marketing techniques, efforts and developing team...

I know for sure the same experience from the way higher developing houses.

REM. No, Kyle. Not your question has attracted my attention. But idea that you open another thread instead of sharing the results of your previous experiense guys are waiting two topics below. (About your previous "drop down the price" idea) :D

Thanks,

[Vectrex]

no cheap cable ads here (Australia). I'm pretty sure paytv ads here are super expensive. Why would making the ad cost much? Just capture snippets of your game, put some some pumping techno behind it and you're done :) Ok maybe some overlay text movie credits styleeee.

[Anthony Flack]

Don't advertise in Australia, man! Just because you're in Australia...

Run your ad on the cheap cable stations in the US.

I agree, making the ad shouldn't be expensive if you're a knowledgeable computer type.

[Reactor]

Aussie adds aren't too bad, providing you advertise after midnight ;)

Spend a few grand to get... well, who knows.

[Vectrex]

Aussie adds aren't too bad, providing you advertise after midnight ;)

Spend a few grand to get... well, who knows.


which is probably most of the the market for my game ;)

Anthony Flack: man I feel stupid, for some reason that didn't even occur to me!

[Chris Evans]

well, making an Ad is more than just editting clips together. Even if your commercial is 100% game footage, you'll probably need to hire voice talent for the voice over. You'll need to purchase good video editting software. Cuttng a TV Ad is different than cutting a blurry 320x200 mpeg for the Internet.

Though I do agree if your commercial is 100% game footage, then you could do it for less. However, the minute you decide to use live action, the prices can sky-rocket. The hourly rates for camera equipment/production crew can kill you if you don't know what you're doing.

[Chris Evans]

Don't advertise in Australia, man! Just because you're in Australia...

Run your ad on the cheap cable stations in the US.



Ditto for people in the US. You don't have to advertise in only your local market, especially if it's very small. You can advertise in other local markets as well.

[princec]

If my life depended on it, I'd for certain be too broke to spend money on TV commercials. I'd be out on the street with a plastic bag full of CDs pimping it directly outside of Game or Virgin and at car boot sales on the weekend. Charlotte would be too. And Chaz. I'm reasonably sure we'd sell quite a few copies every day doing this.

Cas :)

[stan]

Eh, I can imagine someone at a market with a box full of CDs, shouting "Only fiiiive dollars for my video game! Fresh and fun, for the whole familly! Fiiive dollars!" :)

[Jack Norton]

"If your actual life depended upon selling 1000 copies of your game(s) in the next 2 weeks - how would you go about it?"
well easy. I'd be already thinking about how to suicide... :eek:

[mahlzeit]

Every weekend in some part of this country (Holland) there is a computer show where you can get hardware and software really cheap. Ordinary people in the street may not be looking to buy computer stuff, but the people who visit these computer shows are. I'm sure you could sell some copies there.

[Anthony Flack]

I have worked in TV advertising for some years. The cheapest ads we'd do would start at about US$1000.

But equiptment costs are coming way down these days. I guess it depends on what gear you have access to... but I reckon I could get one made for next to nothing (For me, not for you. For you, a professional ad starts at about $1000 :D).

Computers are powerful enough to do video editing without the need for hardware decompressors any more (thank god). And DV handicams are good enough for broadcast (if you know what you're doing). TV stations generally even accept work on miniDV tapes these days, so you don't even have to do a BetaSP dub.

I guess you wouldn't want to buy all this stuff JUST to make a TV commercial. But hey, indie developers should know a thing or two about how to scrounge things together and get professional results from zero budget.

[Black Hydra]

I'm sure you've read dexterity's articles. As he said, remember, that all the critical success factors don't add, they multiply!

The difference between mass sucess and failure isn't substantial. If you have just one critical success factor that is not all it could be then you won't be making satisfactory money.

So if your game is great, you are offering a good price, have a convincing demo, you've been marketing your *ss off.... however, if, lets say, people don't feel secure with your purchasing process, no one will buy it.

The key thing is, aside from having a good game, those who are successful are just slightly better at all the different catagories. They aren't a lot better, but its that sliver that counts.

To quote steve: "If you have all of your critical success factors at 60% (i.e. better than average) then you would be making approx. 0.6% of your total possible sales. Even if you keep all catagories at 90% (i.e. almost perfect) your still only going to get about 35% of your maximum possible sales." Now assuming that your 'maximum possible sales' would be this godly shareware amount of money, perhaps you can be happy with 35%. However, .6% will probably be incredibly little by most peoples standards.

Its not that your not on the right track, you just need to get a little better to be making what you want.

Sorry to steal from dexterity, but I think he basically answers this question.

[GBGames]

There is a quote that shows up on the main page of gamedev.net that goes something like this:

Successful people aren't 20% better in one area. They are one percent better in 20 areas.

If I needed to sell 1000 copies in two weeks, I believe a marketing blitz would probably make sense. Advertise on websites where gamers go. Advertise on websites where my target market goes. Basically if I have reason to believe that a certain technique would attract my target audience's eyeballs, I think I would have to do it.

Would all this advertising eat up the profits from 1000 copies in two weeks? That's all going to have to be taken into account.

[svero]

From recent experience I am willing to accept that we do not compete on price. I also don't think we compete on "content" - that one game is inherently better than another. Accepting that as "true" I then look to see how almost all shareware games get marketed:


Both these assertions are false.

[James C. Smith]

If my life depended on selling 1,00 copies in 14 days I would do standard stuff like put it on my web site and buy some google ads or some other standard form of driving web traffic. Then I would got my friends and extended family to buy some. Next, to grantee I made my life saving quota, I could probably do it buy simply going door to door selling copies on CD-ROM. I think it could work for the theoretical life saving question. But if my time is worth much, I don’t think it would be a good return on investment. And I couldn’t sustain it because the third time I tried to sell my neighbors another new game he would stop believing my life depended on it.

[Coyote]

Nice, catchy title...

And yeah. I'd do an awful lot of things for 1,000 in 14 days that I'd NOT do if I ever intended to work again in this business.

And I'd probably LOSE money selling those 1,000. ("We take a loss on every unit sold, but we make up for it in volume...")

[James C. Smith]

...I also don't think we compete on "content" - that one game is inherently better than another....
Content is VERY important. It is true that you could have the best content and not sell any because you had a horribly wrong price or very bad marketing. But you are never going to be hugely successful without great contents. I don’t care how fancy you marketing is, content matters. Just look at sites that sell tones of games and ask why some games sell more than others on the same site. Why does Big Fish Games sell so many copies of Jewel Quest, Magic Inlay, and Feeding Frenzy. Those are really good games. That is what makes them sell. When I say really good games I don’t just mean the production values of the game or the game play itself. It’s the whole package that worls. They are all great games because they are fun, they speaks to the right audience, is simple (or complex) enough for the target audience, and they have good production values.

I believe it is mostly about content and eyeballs. You have to have a game good enough that people want to buy it (content) and you have to get it in front of people to let them know it exists (eyeballs). I will leave it up to you to create great contents. But if you want eyeballs one simple way is to leverage the existing distribution points that already have plenty of eyeballs. In other words, allow another web site to sell you game. I also understand that there is tremendous value in building your own web site and build a loyal customer base. But it is hard to build every thing from scratch all at once. (making a game and building a web site with lots of traffic). How will you know which one isn’t working? If you game stinks how would you know? You may blame slow sales on not enough traffic. You are trying to test an unproven game in an unproven distribution system and then trying to improve both. While you are working the kinks out of your own distribution system, you should also put your game into some proven systems. This will give you more helpful feedback about your game and generate some additional revenue to help you afford to finish developing the other parts of your business.

[cliffski]

I think the question is interesting. not because you get helpful answers by answering it seriously, but because it puts into perspective your attitude to sales.
For me, I have a full time job, so selling 1,000 games isn't THAT neccesary for me. I'll still be able to pay the bills. heck I probably could anyway, because my wife works.
Whats interesting for me is to think what I would do if I needed to sell 1,000 copies to pay for my rent and food. THAT puts it in perspective as to how casually I treat my sales techniques at the moment.
And I guess this is what I'm up against, the marketing guys at bigger companies who really DO have to shift 1,000 units per day/week otherwise they lose their jobs. No wonder they do a better job at generating sales than me.

[princec]

Indeed. But on the other hand, I've practically tried to hire people on commission to sell Alien Flux and no-one took it seriously. At 50% net commission on a $20 game you'd have thought some aspiring salesperson would have seen an opportunity to make some money, but apparently not. So it would seem that those people who make a living as salespersons are largely in control of their stocks still; in other words, games production is a commodity market to them and they can pick the best ones they want and negotiate the commission they want from it, much like the supermarkets do.

If I found a Phillipino guy earning $1000 a year and told him, sell this game and you'll get $8 for every one sold, what do you think he'd do?

Cas :)

[Davaris]

If my life depeneded on selling 1000 copies in 2 weeks, the first thing I'd do is generate a large amount of publicity fast. I'd buy 14 puppies and execute one online every day until a 1000 copies of my game were sold.

[James Gwertzman]

I still fail to understand the attitude on these boards against using the large portals as an effective distribution mechanism.

I'm surprised that no one above answered the question by saying "I'd do whatever it took to get the game onto the front page of Yahoo, Shockwave, etc".

I realize that the portals won't take every game - they have limited promotional space and want to maximize their sales per promotional slot - but their quality bar is still achievable. Feeding Frenzy has sold over 100,000 copies at this point and we would NEVER have achieved that if we relied on sales from our own website.

Furthermore, getting your game out there via the portals is one of the best ways of driving traffic back to your own site. Yes, it's true that you can't put links in your own games directly back to your site, but if people like your game then they will find you through Google, etc. Our traffic to www.sproutgames.com has consistently risen 20-30% month-over-month with absolutely no advertising or marketing other than our games themselves.

[Dan MacDonald]

A lot of interesting points made in this game. This answer to this question is different for everyone. If I had finished game with great content, like one from Spout or Reflexive and I had to sell 1000 copies in two weeks. I would immediately hit up one of the publishers. Heck I'd give them my IP if it meant they could release the game inside of a week and drive 1000 sales. What James C. Smith says is right, it's about content and eyeballs. Increasing the amount of potential customers eyeballing any product will increase sales. But the content determines how efficiently you will convert them. If you have to have 1000 downloads to sell 1 copy then you aren't being very efficient. If however you only need 50 downloads to sell one copy then you are being much more efficient.

One of the reasons the mass market games do well is that they have a large audience, and with the proper content they convert pretty well. So ya, if I had the content I would pimp it to a major site that has a ton of eyeballs and easily sell 1000 copies, giving up my IP in the process if I had to. This is life and death remember. But as cliffski points out, this isn't life and death for me, It's more about being passionate about what I do and enjoying the freedom I have to do it. Making money as a side affect of these things is great but it's not a necessity for me.

[moonpxi]

Oh, easy one!! I would create a marketing website of the most perfect, full featured and FAKE game ever. Of course, I would really sell a photo collection of stray dogs, and would take no refund...

[Davaris]

>I still fail to understand the attitude on these boards against using the large portals as an effective distribution mechanism.

Its probably because Indies have an inherent distrust of "The Man". I would consider submitting to the portals myself but my game is too hard core for them.

[ggambett]

Hello, friends! Before you resign this as just another long-winded quandry from a fellow developer, let me assure you that anyone who can successfully answer the question I am about to pose can easily make not just thousands but tens of thousands of dollars in just 2 weeks! But I will come back to that in a moment...
MY NAME IS KYLE NAU, OWNER OF THE DECEASED MY BRAIN PLAY.COM. I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE FOR A MOST CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS. UNFORTUNATELY MY BRAIN PLAY.COM DIED AND ITS ASSETS ARE FROZEN BY THE NIGERIAN MWUNGUBUTU BANK. BEFORE ITS SAD DEMISE, MY BRAIN PLAY.COM HAD MADE NOT ONLY 1000S (THOUSANDS) BUT 10.000S (TENS OF THOUSANDS) OF SALES IN JUST 2 (TWO) WEEKS. I CAN'T MAKE THE SALES MYSELF BUT MY LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS. I'M ASKING YOU TO MAKE THESE SALES FOR ME, IN EXCHANGE FOR 25% (TWENTY-FIVE PER CENT) OF THE EARNINGS. BE ASSURED THIS IS PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE BUSINESS. PLEASE KEEP THIS VERY CONFIDENTIAL. YOUR BROTHER IN GOD, KNAU

Sorry, couldn't resist

[ggambett]

(sorry, double post)