Value Publishers?

[NothingLikeit]

Okay I don't have much experience with the real game development world. I'm still in school so every thing is theory to me. (Although I am practicing now) But at any rate. As I walk through a major computer retailer I notice lots of 'budget' games on the shelf. I know that there is a niche market that is underfilled. Walmart calls them "Impulse Buys". I guess they're hoping most people will pick up a cheap game toss it in the cart and not look at it..... But me being me I actually read the package look at the screen shots.... and here's what gets me:

What are the Value publishers looking for?

I mean to put a game in a store is a big investment in terms of cost of goods, actually development time, etc. But they stuff they stock the stores with seems to be well sub par....

How do they pick what games they will publish?

Has anyone had any experience with 'value publishers' or distribution agreements in retail?

I tried to submit a proposal to valuesoft. I got a terse, one sentence response:

"We only look for titles that are complete and those that the developer can fund itself".

[Hiro_Antagonist]

The truth is that you're not going to find *any* publisher that is willing to give you any money up-front, until you are a proven project manager with a proven team.

You say that the stuff they publish isn't very good, but an actual finished product within a marketable niche is worth infinitely more than an idea from someone with no published experience and who doesn't have a team, and certainly no product. A publisher can look at a finished product and do sales estimates with strongly reduced risk and relative certainty. And even then, it's hard for the publisher to make any real profits.

Who in their right mind would give an unproven leader of an unproven team (or worse yet, no team) money up-front? That's one of the riskiest investments anyone could possibly make, and the risk-to-reward ratio is practically 0. They'd be better off buying lottery tickets.

Sorry to come across as harsh, but the honest truth is that you have 2 options to getting your work published: 1) Get a job at a gaming company and implement someone else's vision for years, moving yourself onto a design/production track, and in 5-10 years, if you're highly skilled and lucky, you'll start to have real input on a product, or 2) Make damn sure you really can make a game on your own, and finance yourself.

I chose the latter approach, and it looks like it's going to pay off for me. But it could have just as easily not have.

Nooooobody is going to give you money up front, and honestly, the teams/companies that are proven enough to get investment dollars up front don't usually have much to show for it, because the the investor benefits from the investment, not the team who are essentially just contractors/employees at that point.

If you believe in yourself, then invest in yourself. And when you have a game that can sell, approach a publisher/distributor with it. If it's good and sellable, you won't have any problems. That's how it's done.

-Hiro_Antagonist

[NothingLikeit]

Yeah I came to that conclusion a long time ago. And everything I read and hear about the current state of the industry reinforces that.

Currently I'm focused on making my own games as independent because I don't want to be a part of a huge team without much creative input.

I guess you're right if those games are done and valusoft can make a profit from it, then they'll go with it no matter what i think.

But I'm going to pursue onoline publshing (maybe) wwhen the game is done.