Do you know of Budget Distributors paying more than $3.000 for a game ?

[VladR]

Hi,

We`re a small self-funded company (3 people+1 external musician) and have so far finished 2 games (3D) and are currently working on finishing another 3. We`ve sold our games to one distributor already and are currently negotiating with others. But generally, all of them are willing to pay max $5.000 for the game (non-exclusive license) if your previous games sold well, so at the start it`s still just $3.000.

Anyone knows of some budget distributor who is willing to pay more for non-exclusive license of the game ?
Or at least some budget distributor who is taking other titles than previous year`s AAA game.

Thanks
VladR Games
www.avenger.sk

[dypaul]

Your link for your game the good, the bad..., does not work. The screenshots look good and I wish I can check it out. Thanks.

[VladR]

oops, I must have accidentally erased some demo file while cleaning www directory two weeks ago. Thanks for reminding me. Today I`m planning on uploading a latest demo version for new distributors I`m currently contacting, so I might as well update the regular demo because the previous demo was about 2 months old which means I`ve fixed quite a lot of issues since then - especially graphics of the menu,HUD and loading screen.

I`ll post here the link as soon as I recompile the demo.

EDT : New correct link (2-levels demo):
http://www.avenger.sk/WesternDemo.exe

Let me know how it ran on your PC and what you think of it. Thanks

[OgreMaster]

Hi, the link to the demo, I couldn´t start the game, but what I saw was nice. What publisher pays $3000 for the full game? is a very small one? :eek:

[Bmc]

Valusoft and Globalstar, but I don't know how easy it would be to get your game published through. Probably not very easy.

[OgreMaster]

yes, it is not easy and that´s why Iam asking, I mean.. if you make a good indie game, good game design, graphics, programming, sound, etc it should worth more than $3000 don´t? well, looking at the Valusoft site I saw many games that they should have paid more than this, considering the quality of the game and GlobalStar sells only "A" games? I´m confused :confused:

[VladR]

Bmc: Thanks, I know of these, but haven`t yet contacted them. They`re on my to-do list. But I don`t think they`ll accept it. They have a pretty high bar now that I might be able to catch up by the end of the year, but not with current crop of our games.

Well, I`m not an expert on this (started this full-time business just a year ago ), but this is what I`ve experienced so far:

- Not all budget games are equal. Some distributors "mean" by budget game a game that was AAA title 2 years ago and now goes into budget label so it can be milked a little bit more. There`s no chance for a small studio (3 people) to compete with Unreal 2 and Splinter Cell.

- Some distributors "mean" by budget game a game that is from new studio but is of A quality. They are offering $10-$20.000 per game, BUT...
But the game has to be of at least two years ago A quality which is the same as AAA game just not published by anybody. So again, we`d have to create something like Unreal 2, just without the Big License/Brand Name and Big-Publisher Name behind us.

- third category is Distributors that sell 100s of budget games in hopes that at least half of them covers the $3.000 -$5.000 fee and pays for the rest of them. I still have to find a good number of them since so far I haven`t had much luck. But I`m still in the process of waiting for answer of about 10 other distrbutors.

But I gotta pay the rent and loan from bank I took for this, so if anybody has any other ideas as to whom should I contact, I`d love to hear them.


Ogremaster: The point is that you sign a non-exclusive license, i.e. you can sell it to 20 other distributors even in same country and that`s where it starts to be interesting. Now I need to find only 19 other...

[Jack Norton]

Ogremaster: The point is that you sign a non-exclusive license, i.e. you can sell it to 20 other distributors even in same country and that`s where it starts to be interesting. Now I need to find only 19 other...
I don't really think that you can have your game out in SAME country with different publishers... ;)

[VladR]

You can, however not under same name.
This means your game is named differently under each distributor.

Another issue is whether another distributor picks it up when it`s already being distributed, i.e. if you find someone else and he`ll want to do it.

Still, if it`s non-exclusive license, you are giving only rights to "Name of The Game" for respective distributor. It`s nowehere written that it`s forbidden to distribute it by someone else in same country. The distributor has only rights for given name, nothing else.

[Andrew Postnikov]

Hello VladR,

I've downloaded both demos and I think you can made a good indie game for "try then buy" distribution.
If you are interesting in, please contact me.

[Mark Sheeky]

You can, however not under same name.
This means your game is named differently under each distributor.


You have to be careful there. Most publishers would object to an exclusive deal if they think you'll just rename the game and resell it elsewhere. Generally a game is identified by the name and some publishing agreements might only mention the name as the game but a few agreements define the game as "the game known as xxx" and use other language to identify the same game irrespective of the name or label.

Mark

[VladR]

You have to be careful there. Most publishers would object to an exclusive deal if they think you'll just rename the game and resell it elsewhere. Generally a game is identified by the name and some publishing agreements might only mention the name as the game but a few agreements define the game as "the game known as xxx" and use other language to identify the same game irrespective of the name or label.

Mark
Yes, I know. I already mentioned that it`s possible only with non-exclusive licenses. However, I`d be happy to receive a exclusive license since they usually start on $10.000. I`d be happy to sell one territorry for such amount. Because if I did it with both of my current games and two games that shall be finished till the end of the year I could survive comfortably.