Would a quiz game sell?

[Shagwana]

As the title states, do you think a quiz game could sell online?

[papillon]

... depends on what it's about and whether it's any fun? :)

[Ryan Clark]

One thing to watch out for: The questions you ask in a quiz game are likely going to be area specific... people in the USA have quite a different knowledge base than people in Europe, or Asia.

That said, there are certainly some excellent quiz games out there. It's all in the implementation, really.

[maksum]

Boy, it would really have to be something different. You Don't Know Jack did well because it had a lot of humor and had the voice talent. However, since You Don't Know Jack already did that you'll have to think of something else :)

Isn't it funny when we analyze why something is successful, we can never repeat it because "something different" often seems to be key.

[george]

i can see a "You Don't Know Jack" clone succeeding... Especially for an indy game.

[Omega]

Acrophobia is a good game, that is now back! It is now at uproar.com. It's not really a quiz game, but it's made by the same people who made You Don't Know Jack, so I thought some people would be interested in hearing this news.

[Ryan Clark]

The problem with cloning "You don't know Jack" is the file size... the entire game was audio based. There's no way anyone would download it :)

[george]

use mp3 for the audio :-)

[joe]

or better: use ogg!

in germany you have to pay licence fess if you are using mp3s as far as i know. i don't know if you have to pay licence fees in other countries.

[Sirrus]

http://www.rtsoft.com/tlm/index.shtml

Trivia Machine - on front page of Real Arcade - from one of our own (HipSoft - Scorpio)

[papillon]

No problem, package a text-to-speech engine in it like that quiz show that comes on sometimes late night on (ITV? I forget) with the scary female-robot voice asking questions! :)

[dan]

or better: use ogg!

in germany you have to pay licence fess if you are using mp3s as far as i know. i don't know if you have to pay licence fees in other countries.

Ogg doesn't do speech very well. The Ogg website recommends Speex for a free speech codec.

[baegsi]

Why not? Since the game idea is nothing new it really depends on presentation and content. Try to make it somehow stick out, e.g. humourous or specialized questions. Personally I wouldn't do it because I'd need someone to create the content which means you need a good writer.

[DangerCode]

I just downloaded Trivia Machine. It's actually pretty cool. I wouldn't be surprised if it's selling well.

[Yossarian]

Make it online and multiplayer. Make it team or competition oriented. Give more points for answering sooner, etc etc.

A good example of this is the really popular bar trivia games where you get a little box and watch questions on a screen and answer them. Scores are tallied across the country (or world) and you compete to get the best point totals.

This could actually make a lot of money if you have enough content that questions don't repeat often, and you can figure a scheme where players pay a recurring monthly fee to play online.

[monco]

http://solarsystemgame.com

I've sold two copies in six months. I can't decide if the game blows, the marketing blows, or both. Probably both.

Good learning experience, though...

[EpicBoy]

http://gildedring.com/sun.htm

A spell checker would go quite a ways towards presenting a more professional image. Might help sales, who knows...

[Sirrus]

http://solarsystemgame.com

I've sold two copies in six months. I can't decide if the game blows, the marketing blows, or both. Probably both.

Good learning experience, though...

Why not sell to schools? Have you done edutainment/education marketing?

I don't know anyone that wants to play solar system trivia for fun, but there are plenty of alternate routes.

[monco]

EpicBoy - Thanks. I fired my editor (myself).

Sirrus - Done some of that - issued a press release to scores of educational rags and even did some direct emailings to school boards, to no avail so far. I need to do more market research here but have been tied up with my day job and working on my 2nd game.

[Bluecat]

I suggest doing a google with the words quiz game, and try and find some sites with forums and post a press release there, if it is appropriate of course. You dont want to get accused of spamming. I had a bit of a look at a couple of sites, and saw that one of them provided banner advertising.

http://www.actionquiz.com/e.php?ee=adv

I'd check to see how effective the banners would be, and how busy the site is before I placed an ad. But this sort of thing might get you some good exposure with the type of people who like playing these sort of games.