First title: promote company or make money?

[merc_fx]

The title of this thread is misleading and I don't know how to change it.

We are getting ready to launch our first title and are looking forward to going on to bigger and (hopefully) better projects. So my question lies in what your first title out of the game means for your development company. How do you make up for the fact you have no track record to show when you try to make sales/get reviews? What experiences and advice do you guys have for selling your first title and at the same time building up your company?

[Evak]

I'm kind of interested in seeing what people have to say. We havent made any money out of either of our games really, but it has helped a lot in getting contract work to do.

The offers have been good enough that I can pick and choose and only do 3d game art, rather than any old thing that came my way. And we may have gotten a small commercial project for a pretty well known company that will pay the equivalent of a lot of game sales...

Our games just don't sell. Havent put any money into advertising the game so that doesn't help. We have gotten more than 10,000 demo downloads from own website, but no one buys the game. Since neither of them are really my cup of tea either, I guess I shouldn't be to surprised :)

Maybe the next one will be a bigger success, and it's a game I like and multiplatform too so fingers crossed....

[Fry Crayola]

I say both, with the emphasis on building and promoting the company.

If the game is generic, (as in competent but trying nothing new) then why should people choose your title over the many others? But you can learn from it, you can learn marketing skills and techniques and put them immediately into practise, and the game will add to your portfolio and put your name in the business, as it were. Try to find the best ways to market it and sell it.

If the game's something special, the right placement should help it sell, and it's quality alone will be enough even though the company has no background. Again, you'll be learning marketing skills and making contacts, but you will also hopefully build a stronger financial base for your next title (which will certainly benefit from the success of the first).

It's mainly up to you. Some may prefer to get their company out there, get customers and then worry about making money, others like to see what they make from the off and build from there. And some may say the two are one and the same.

This post isn't helpful at all is it? I'll go away now...

[gamemaker]

If you have no track record your first game, ideally, should be of high quality as Fry has said previously. Your website should be up to scratch also, depicting screenshots and info of your game and a blurb about who you are (at the moment your w/site has nothing).

We began promoting our company first and once people started seeing what we were about, their interest took hold.

Networking is vital, particularly with your first title, and you should go to whatever you can, even if it's just to meet people in a similar situation to yourself as, you never know, someone there may know someone else who can help. We were fortunate in that we networked prior to developing our first title to get industry feedback on our ideas (we were never sure if they were crap or not) and contacts whom we could offer our first title to.

Now, our first title is out and we're almost finished our second but I wouldn't say we were 'off the gound' yet....there's still a long way to go before we can say we're an established games company.

Hope some of this has helped and good luck!

[mkovacic]

I'm kind of interested in seeing what people have to say. We havent made any money out of either of our games really, but it has helped a lot in getting contract work to do.
Evak, can you post a link to your games? I'm interested in seeing what they look like.

[merc_fx]

If you have no track record your first game, ideally, should be of high quality as Fry has said previously. Your website should be up to scratch also, depicting screenshots and info of your game and a blurb about who you are (at the moment your w/site has nothing).

Thanks for the advice. I am not worried about the quality of the game. The website thing, I see your point. We should get more up. I just hate going to indie game developer's sites that don't have any games and just a "under progress" page. I think we'll probably throw some screenshots up and whatnot with good discriptions. Maybe that'll get some interest out there. The big problem our web designer is also pounding away at the finishing touches of programming the game. Do you guys do your web design in house or hire someone? (I smell a new thread.)

[gamemaker]

ooo..a new thread?..I'll leave that to you!!

We have brilliant guys on the team, so our lead artist put the w/site together. Having said that though, there is a web-development team just next door to us who are great at w/site design (as are hundreds of others) but they tend to charge £200-£300 for it...if you can't find anyone else you can certainly let me know and I can put you onto them.

[Armsfeld]

Kudos to your lead artist gamemaker, it's a damn clever front page.

Outside of the indie industry, your reputation is used for funding. For us,the actual game and your experience with marketing and business is much more important than your reputation.

The value of having multiple games under your belt is mainly experience.

[Evak]

Evak, can you post a link to your games? I'm interested in seeing what they look like.

Yeah sure, you can see both of them at www.leadfootproductions.com

My URL should be in my sig now too :).

The Indie game I'm currently working on is a multiplatform Sports game with another coder which I think has more general appeal and should hopefully do a bit better.

@Gamemaker, decided to check out your page too,nice menu panel. Good thing most people are 800x600 and above these days. I don't use flash as I detest it and your guy did a pretty good job of not using flash and yet look interesting :)

[Ricardo C]

I know this isn't a review thread, but I'd like to make a quick comment about Aerial Antics, which I tried out last night, since the graphics looked great, and I couldn't understand why it's not doing well. Surely the vey attractive screenshots would earn a lot of downloads from curious people.

Well...

I loved the gameplay. The controls are great, very responsive, and maneuvering the character is very easy. The toon-like graphics are also excellent.

However...

There is practically nothing to do in the demo. Three of the five levels merely required me to land on target. That's it. When I got the rings level, that's when I had some (very brief) fun.

I think AA has a great concept, but you need to show the user just how fun the full version will be. The first few levels manage to make jetpacks boring, which is quite a feat. I would recommend reworking the demo, and giving players more goals.

[Evak]

Thanks Ricardo, Initially we were afraid to give too much away in the demo incase people found that having bought the game they didn't get their moneys worth. Perhaps we shouldn't have worried about that so much and crammed a ton of stuff in the demo to show the variety of gameplay that crops up in later levels.

Thanks for the insight, I might have to post the site and games in another part of the forum and see what the general response is. Most of our feedback has been from the blitzbasic community. For actual discussion on the independent games industry this place seems a lot better :)

[Ricardo C]

For me at least, a short but packed demo works better than a lenghtier, crippled one. Let the user have a blast for a bit, and then take it away. I'm not saying they should experience everything the game has to offer (i.e. every power-up, every enemy, every level type), but they should get a taste of what they'll have if the spend the money. Enough to hook them, anyway. AA has a Starfox-like feel (in terms of how just plain FUN it is to fly around) that could make it a hit, if it's marketed well. Best of luck :)

[gamemaker]

Thanks to Armsfeld and Evak for your comments on our site...I'll pass it on!. The original w/site was depicted as a cave with rock-carvings...very earthy and cool, but when we were almost ready with our first game we took on the current 'professional' look...much better for bringing contacts (and very nice comments!) our way. :)

[StormcloudCreations]

Our games just don't sell. Havent put any money into advertising the game so that doesn't help. We have gotten more than 10,000 demo downloads from own website, but no one buys the game....

It's so odd that many devs really don't know about this simple fact: if you put no time or money into exposure and advertising, no one will really know about your game no matter how good it is, and thus, no one will have the opportunity to buy it. This holds especially true for indie titles, where eyes on your product are at a premium and not a given (such as for a higher exposure company like EA, Microsoft, etc).

Many financially successful "shareware" products, whether they be games or apps, have strong and consistent advertising behind them, and they aren't always the best products out there either. :) I always notice a drof-off in sales when I stop promoting my products and get lazy, and when I pay more attention to it, sales respond accordingly.

[Gradscallion]

As an aspiring indie I'm curious what types of low cost promotions there are. StormcloudCreations, you sound like you've got some kind of promo routine going on? Is there an online circuit you visit?

Aside from industry events and online, what other media are accessible (at low cost)?