Help with game pitch & biz model

[Maurice Wheeler]

Hi All

I have been reading these forums for a bit and they have been extremely useful! We are looking at developing a few games, some will be just for promotional purposes (i.e. free web games) but we would also like to develop a few casual games for purchase and download.

Although we have a very good design and development studio I have little or no idea about the business behind making a successful game and so I call on you guys for a little help.

Firstly I was wondering if there was an industry standard template that you use to describe your game to potential publishers, distributors and funding partners.

Secondly I am trying desperately to do some business modelling and I have NO idea what volume to expect so here is my question. If I made an averagely successful game how many downloads could I expect over what period. I appreciate that specific numbers about specific games is confidential but a rough steer would be very useful, I don;t know if it is 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000.

Thank you all so much in advance for your help.


Maurice
www.digital-outlook.com

[terin]

You aren't gonna like this post! I'll post it anyway, but the first thing I have to say is (shameless plug) hire someone involved in business and marketing who can better predict these factors and knows the answers. You can learn all of these things yourself but how many lost or mis-negotiated products is that worth?

Firstly I was wondering if there was an industry standard template that you use to describe your game to potential publishers, distributors and funding partners.


This is called a design document. There's no standard template but the golden rule here is clarity above all. You can add in all the technical BS you want but in the end everyone wants to know the bottom line. What is your game, what are your objectives, and how do you intend to achieve them. If the answer is "Some casual game," "To sell 10,000 copies," and "Through investments and partnerships" then you are doomed :-).

Your second question is a great question that gets asked frequently. Its flawed.

Volume is inconsiquential to conversion rate. You can have 1,000,000 downloads of a game and make less money than one with 10,000. It is a misnomer to say "If my game can convert at 1% then I need 100,000 downloads to make a profit." That is trying to climb a tree backwards. What you need to say is "If my game can convert at X% then I can provide enough funds and resources to fuel the downloads."

Second on this issue: Volume is determined by a lot of factors, such as how you layout your website, what media coverage you attain, where your item is distributed, ect.

Yes, if you get on the #1 spot on Real Arcade you will literally have a million downloads. Don't count on it. Don't count on the portals at all to do your work.

So, in conclusion, with a new site: Expect minimal downloads. Expect less than 10,000 on your first game. Maybe even less than 5,000. If your game is a hit how many downloads you have is not going to be an issue. Anyone who is reading your business proposal and asks you to give some expected numbers knows very little about this business.

My feelings are a failure, which consitutes probably 75% of indie games, brings in less than 1,000 dollars total revenue.

A moderate game, which consitutes probably 20% of indie releases brings in about 10,000 in revenue.

A moderate success, which consitutes 4% of releases brings in about 35,000+.

A successful game, which constitutes 1% or less of the industry brings in 80,000+

I just made those up but hey, its a start if that is really the information you want to put in a report.

-Joe

-Joe

[Maurice Wheeler]

Thanks Terin, all really useful stuff!! When I say "10,000 downloads" I did actually mean fully paid for converted sales and not just free trial downloads, apologies for the wrong wording (first lesson learnt!)

Maurice
www.digital-outlook.com

[yanuart]

it's been awhile since my last post but if you want to pitch your game I just found a good link http://www.jowood.com/gamers/?lang=en&site=15

It has good description of what you need to say in front of publishers and from there maybe you can see how publishers make their business plan and learn from them.

[Nexic]

Secondly I am trying desperately to do some business modelling and I have NO idea what volume to expect so here is my question. If I made an averagely successful game how many downloads could I expect over what period. I appreciate that specific numbers about specific games is confidential but a rough steer would be very useful, I don;t know if it is 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000.



Thanks Terin, all really useful stuff!! When I say "10,000 downloads" I did actually mean fully paid for converted sales and not just free trial downloads, apologies for the wrong wording (first lesson learnt!)

Maurice
www.digital-outlook.com

If the average number of sales was even 1/10 of the lowest figure in your list we'd all be much, much richer. Unfortunately in this business sucess is almost exponetially proportional to how good your game is, so it is totally impossible to model unless you already know exactly how good your game is.

[baegsi]

...it is totally impossible to model unless you already know exactly how good your game is.To make it more difficult: please define "good"

[Black Hydra]

As Nexic and others pointed out, the disparagies between so-so and even good games compared to great ones in terms of sales are huge.

Most developers will make an incredibly small amount even for a decent product.

The fact that you said "How much can I expect to make with a good game" shows that you don't know too much about how this is going to work. It's okay, most of us are still learning too, but the word 'expect' and 'good' aren't going to work. You won't be able to expect anything and the word 'good' implies an average to slightly above average game which generally makes close to nothing.