Sales Stats: Desperate Space

[Nexic]

Well it's the moment you've all been waiting for, Desperate Space's first month's sales! This is aimed at quenching new indie's thirst for sales data, but I also hope the rest of you will also find it useful :)

Direct Sales

*Note to new indie devs*
Bare in mind DS is currently windows only, so other games that are cross platform should expect a lot more sales from this as there is still a lot of free exposure available. Once I've ported it to I'll post mac sales.

Quantity: 18
Income: $360

Costs:
$100 for VGSMart Press Release *No idea how many sales*
$20 GameXtazy Advertising *No Sales*
$10 Free lunch games Advertising *No Sales*


Profit: $230!!!!!

Well that's not very impressive is it? Especially when we consider than even Xeno Assault II managed 29 direct sales in it's first month. So for all of this month I've not be the happiest person in the world as I was really wanting DS to outsell XA2.

One possible cause for the low direct sales could be a summer release. It's important to note that even though sales have been lower, download to sale conversion is higher, as I've had much less downloads. For example when I advertised on GameXtazy with XA2 I got roughly 3.5 times as many downloads in the sames period of time, in the same ad slot.

Another cause could be that the press release wasn't picked up so well. It's true I decided to use a different press-release service this time around, but I don't think it was Joseph's fault at all. I'm pretty certain it was just bad luck that not so many sites picked it up. As others have said, a press release can be hit or miss.

And the third possible cause could be that the icon for the DS executable, until now didn't show on desktops that were using less than 32 bit colour (I forgot to convert to 256 colours, thanks to Big Fish Games and ArcadeTown for catching that one), but I think thats pretty unlikely.

So overall direct sales have been horrible, and until recently I've been very disappointed.


Affiliate Sales

Quantity: 7
Income: $84

Again, totally pathetic when you consider XA2 managed 25 affiliate sales. The icon and summer sales can both be applied to this as possible causes.


Portal Sales

Now this is why I've cheered up in the last couple of days. I'm not really meant to post exact numbers, but suffice to say sales on Reflexive Arcade and ArcadeTown have been very good indeed, outselling Xeno Assault II by a large margin, with a much bigger conversion ratio. The game has not yet appeared on Big Fish Games and a few others, but I'm hoping it will do as well on the others as it is doing with Reflexive and ArcadeTown.

Just so you can gauge performace click the below link:
http://www.reflexive.net/index.php?CAT=Shooter&SORT=Conversion

This is a list of Reflexive Arcade shooters in order of highest conversion ratio first. At the time of writing Desperate Space is sitting a #7 just beating Crimsonland and Alien Shooter, and just below Jets N Guns. Since it's release a few days ago it has gradually been climbing up this list, so I'm hoping it might go up another few places before settling. This is a trend that I've noticed with a lot of games (including my own), as exposure decreases conversion increases. You will also notice it's way above Xeno Assault II, which is sitting at #16. DS is also one place above Wild West Wendy if you sort by conversion in the action category, which makes me very proud as WWW is a brilliant game :D. Although Reflexive audience does seem to be a little more into shooters than other sites, which is probably the only reason I've just managed to nudge ahead of WWW :)

Summary

Direct sales poor, portal sales extremely good (way better than XA2). It's a little odd, but I'm happy, as Portal Sales make up a much bigger slice of my overall profits than direct sales do for any game!

[Ricardo C]

Cheers, Nexic :) Nevermind not being able to post actual numbers, the enthusiasm in your post says enough :)

[prozero]

Thanks a lot for sharing such information.
Any number on the actual number of direct downloads (or the CR for the 18 direct sales)?

[Nexic]

Sorry forgot that, it's 2800. Also bare in mind there is bound to be some more from other sources that I can't count on top of that.

So thats a CR of only about 0.65% from the free download sites. But that's actually still higher than Xeno Assault IIs (which ended up more like 0.3). My previous CR calculations were wrong with XA2 (I didn't count downloads correctly back then).

[Black Hydra]

Nexic - I always like reading your sales data. Hopefully your games will continue to improve and your sales as well.

[arcadetown]

Too soon to say but DS's done nicely here since launch last Fri, hope it keeps up. Thanks for listening and implementing the nagging features, bet that has a lot to do with it. Wish more guys would do similar.

Noticed the Reflexive version doesn't include your built in nagging features. I'd highly suggest incorporating Reflexive api to do that, if technically possible.

My honest prediction, given type of game AT will long run be your #1 sales outlet even if gets on BFG, RA, etc.

[joe]

first of all: sorry for being offtopic

@brian:

i have sent you a "private message" trough this board some time ago. did you have recieved my message? if so, it would be nice if you sent me a short answer either trough this board or to my mail address info --AT-- intermediaware --DOT-- de.

Thank you!

@Nexic: I also only got 19 direct sales in the first month of Absolute Blue, but then I got more sales month by month. I'm sure you will make the same (or even better) experience with Desperate Space, because your game definitly rocks! ;)

[tentons]

Nexic, bravo for posting your numbers. I'm the disappointed you right now. My game has been out only a couple weeks, but sales are horrid (6 copies on 2 platforms and I'm too embarrassed to mention the CR!!) and I'm diligently working on big changes to make it simpler/more structured/more intuitive. So your post gives me hope that if I can get my game onto a portal it might do better after some good input from them.

It's very hard to put your low numbers out there and let everyone judge you (mine are much worse than yours so I know!), so I applaud your willingness to share. Thank you!

[Nexic]

My honest prediction, given type of game AT will long run be your #1 sales outlet even if gets on BFG, RA, etc

Yeh, that's what happened with XA2. The reason being you still give good exposure today, even though it's been there for 8 months ish :)

Thanks for everyone else's kind words :)

[arcadetown]

XA2 gets exposure because it still sells here. Reason it sells is our visitors like action and shooting games. I could be wrong but think we're also the top generator for ClashNSlash for example. I plan to increase that going forward. Wish had more good action & shooting games available, and hope quality levels keep going up. There's a real dearth of good games in this genre, while supply of match 3 games seems endless.

[Pyabo]

Nexic... now for more good news: You're still selling Xeno Assault II, right? These things accumulate over time. Just think how many units you'll be selling when you've got 3 or 4 more games out there! :)

[svero]

I can't say Im surprised that xeno2 outsells DS. I think even though DS is a technically better game Xeno2 is more accessible to an average audience. DS has rotation and thrusting and radars and all those complicated sorts of things.

So now what you have to do is combine the two. Make a game with DS's level of polish but with Xeno's accessibility.

I think you might want to consider brightening up the scenarios/graphics a bit. Space theme is kind of cliched now. Would be nice to see something a little more original. A ship under water or flying through an alien forest etc..

- S

[tentons]

DS has rotation and thrusting and radars and all those complicated sorts of things.

Stating this, of course, relative to the "casual" audience. Because certainly from the viewpoint of a more seasoned gamer those are not complicated at all. Core elements of DS seem geared more toward a hardcore audience.

I point this out only because too many times "indie" is used synonymously with "match-3" and "casual," and there's more of a spectrum than that, even if the markets aren't consolidated and bursting at the seams (yet).

Sorry, I'm going OT.

[arcadetown]

Totally agree as XA2 is one of my favorites, it's flat out fun. If the graphics were more polished and it included those great buy nagging techniques that DS has think it would have easily been a top seller here instead of an ok seller.

So far our users are voting for DS with their wallets. Honestly I wasn't very sure about this game, glad to see it doing good. Think the biggest part is the upgrade system, flat out upgrades sell. For example, once we got ClashNSlash's online flash version to include the upgrade system of the download version, we saw it's sales atleast double.

[berserker]

I have to agree with Steve - I felt like DS is too complicated and too fast paced for me. It was hard to fly, aim and shoot the way I wanted to. I've played on easy and I've got killed at level 3 or so. I think the difficulty and accessibility should be adjusted somehow. Perhaps you should decrease movement speed (at least at easier difficulty levels)?

About space theme - yes, it's a bit fishy, been used so many times but I don't think this is that fatal. However I would like to see something more original. Hell, I've made Clash'N Slash space-themed only because I was doing graphics by myself and it was easier to draw space stuff ;)

Brian pointed out right about upgrades in CNS web version - it helped alot. I noticed you have upgrades in DS, but seems like you don't give them much. So far I was playing I've got only one extra gun. I suggest you give more stuff to players earlier to hook them right from the start and not to wait until you bore them and they quit before trying your super-cool mega-gun that was just few levels away.

[berserker]

Oh, and about 18 vs 29 sales first month - you shouldn't make any conclusions on this numbers - there are too many random factors involved. I guess you will see better from portals perfomance and the game being at your web-site for a longer term.

[svero]

Stating this, of course, relative to the "casual" audience. Because certainly from the viewpoint of a more seasoned gamer those are not complicated at all. Core elements of DS seem geared more toward a hardcore audience.


Actually no. I didn't really mean to say anything about how casual players might receive it. I think rotation and thrusting limits your audience within the sub-category of people who like playing shooting games. Some people will just never "get" asteroids or gravitar etc... and it's not because they're only fans of matching games. In fact I doubt the matching audience plays a big factor in either xa2 or this game. It's just not their thing.

[Nexic]

I can't say Im surprised that xeno2 outsells DS.

Well it doesn't! Dunno if you missed the little bit about portal sales but it's selling very much better than XA2 overall.

So now what you have to do is combine the two. Make a game with DS's level of polish but with Xeno's accessibility.

That is exactly what I'm doing funnily enough, I've already taken the plunge into my next shooter that will combine the two :)

I have to agree with Steve - I felt like DS is too complicated and too fast paced for me. It was hard to fly, aim and shoot the way I wanted to. I've played on easy and I've got killed at level 3 or so. I think the difficulty and accessibility should be adjusted somehow. Perhaps you should decrease movement speed (at least at easier difficulty levels)?

Yes I think you are totally right. The whole 360 movement is not very easy to control. I'm planning on making another version that will make it easier overall, however there isn't much I can do about the controls.

[svero]

Well it doesn't! Dunno if you missed the little bit about portal sales but it's selling very much better than XA2 overall.


Ah... well.. yes I did miss that, but I am a little surprised by it. Still that's good if it keeps up.

[jankoM]

yes, I am not stay-at-home-mom, and when I tried DS it was hard, and I couldn't do much. If I remember correctly there where fellow ships in game and I was just trying to get some alien and shoot it but it either escaped me (because I was lame at flying around) or my fellows shoot it for me. (this was a while ago so my memmory could have stretch things here and there). I will try it again. XA2 was very accessible and I tried it many times and enjoyed much.

and it included those great buy nagging techniques that DS has think it would have easily been a top seller here instead of an ok seller.

You mentioned these "great buy nagging" techniques twice.... so can I ask what are they, if it is not a secret?

[Nexic]

He means that I use techniques to increase my games sales, by marketing the game from within the game, if you follow.

So I every so often you might see a screen saying "Enjoying the game? If so you should get the full version as it's even better!". The main thing it does is show a cutscene of heavy action gameplay just before the exit the game, this is a technique that many games use and it usually helps sales a lot.

[Black Hydra]

Do you still use the system of a key to thrust in addition to cursor for rotation and another key for shooting?

Personally I much prefer the style of movement used in Swarm where the cursor controlled direction AND speed. Then all you technically needed was another button for shooting (and alternate buttons for more infrequent commands). I don't know whether anyone has tested this on a casual audience but this method seems the most intuitive and easiest.

[Omega]

I think that's the method he uses.

[Nexic]

Yeh I do use that method.

[NothingLikeit]

Ok first let me say thanks for posting the numbers. I wasn't sure what to expect when I release my first game within the next month or so. That said are there any sales tips you can offer a newbie like me? :D

What is a good affiliate site to hook up with?

I'm thinking of using regnow since it's the only one I Know

Also how were first months sales for your last game compared to this one?

How much did you give away for free?

[Nexic]

Do a forum search for Xeno Assault II sales report.

Use RegNow's affiliate system (but that doesn't mean you need to use them for direct sales). Get in touch with Fenomen Games and GameXzone, they are fairly good standard affilites (should make you a few sales as opposed to zero like most). After that you should try to get in touch with all the portals and show them your game to see if they would be interested in selling it. Here is a quick list of some of them:

ArcadeTown
Reflexive Arcade
BigFish Games
Real Arcade
Oberon Media
Alawar (though these days they will only really want exclusive deals)

Also remember to send out a press release, they can work wonders for direct sales. I recommend either VGSMart or SoftPressRelease.com. VGSMart will write and send for about $100, where as SoftPressRelease will just send one out.

For direct sales I limited the demo to 30 minutes plus limited them to only 5/30 levels. For portals the standard 60 minute play time was used.

[NothingLikeit]

Thanks for the info it honestly was exactly what I was looking for.

I'm not sure how receptive the protals will be to an FPS. Personally I havent seen too many. Shockwave is definately geared towards the casual audience. Are there any portals tht cater to a more 'traditional' gaming audience. eg 15-30 year old males?

[Nexic]

Reflexive's audience is much more hardcore (I think) than others, so they would be your best bet to accept it. But really overall I think an FPS is a bad choice of game from a sales point of view.

[NothingLikeit]

well i'm doing it because thats what i begun with. And I want to finish it. also i'm a big doing the game's I love. I noticed that a lot of the games on those sites are stuff I don't want to play. No offense. All the old school remakes are great but I want to play shooters and Strategy games and since they type I'm imagining hasn't been made yet. I have to do it myself.

[Nexic]

That's cool, and I certainly respect your descision to make the games you like. But I'm just saying that FPS don't do so well online, that's all :)

[Black Hydra]

I personally find this information to be very useful aswell. My game (after countless shifts and revisions) has a control scheme similar to this (took some notes from Swarm) so its interesting to hear feedback about it.

[NothingLikeit]

im not really sure what's realistic to expect since this is my first title. Have you always made the types of games you're making now? or have you dabbled in other genres? You seem to have experience since you actually have a title that's done. (well 2 actually :-)

[Nexic]

Actually I have 6, though I only sell 4 of them. But yes, I've never made anything other than space themed shooters.

I couldn't tell you what to expect even if I saw your game, but don't *plan* on making loads of money. That's all. For my first game I planned on getting rich, and I didn't even come close, which made me pretty depressed. As you can probably tell, my 6th game is still a long way from making me rich!

[NothingLikeit]

ha for my first title I expected to become rich right off the bat too. but then my comp crashed and all i could do was read about the business of this industry. Now my goals are a little more simplistic. I just want to finish a title. If I sell two copies hey at least I finished And I'll get more money next time. at least that's the MO now.

[Black Hydra]

I think that the idea of making a bunch of money right from the get go is a flawed idea. My goal is to spend at least the first game as an "education" in game development and an online business. Most educations cost thousands of dollars so if I can get mine in a fraction of that I consider myself lucky.

[arcadetown]

I'm not sure how receptive the protals will be to an FPS.
If the game's good quality we might be interested in giving it a whirl and see if it sells. Our users love action games, and could really love a 3D FPS. Trick is the bar is pretty high in that genre so I'm guessing your game's gotta be pretty darn good to sell. However never ran an FPS so really no idea. Come to think of it, can't even think of an FPS in the entire downloadable try/buy scene.

[Nexic]

I've seen a couple, but were of pretty poor quality (at least when compared to old retail FPS's) and they obviously didn't make it onto the mainstream portals, so it's hard to tell how they sold.

[NothingLikeit]

i don't quite know what it is but FPS and portal doesnt seem to mesh. I think shockwave tried a few 3d 'action titles' (Betty Bad Anyone?) but for whatever reason they just weren't that appealing. I'm not sure why they don't but I haven't seen one. I'm not sure if my game will be appealling this first game is kind of a dry run for my game company. I'll be glad to get 2 sales. I can at least count on my parents to buy it

[Black Hydra]

Nexic - I got a chance to play the release version of DS and it was very impressive (far more so than the beta you had showed a little earlier). One thing that I have to ask (and so far is the only main reason I didn't really like the game)

Why does the screen suddenly jump you off into a corner at seemingly random times in the game? This happened several times and if I had damaged ships attatched to mine the long green "leashes" that attatch them to me would appear to just jump off in a far off direction. If this is a bug then I can help, but if this is something that was intentional then I would suggest scrapping it (each time it happened I felt like shutting the thing off).

Oh, and kudos on the excellent ending nag-screen. Really ramps up the cool factor!

[Nexic]

Why does the screen suddenly jump you off into a corner at seemingly random times in the game? This happened several times and if I had damaged ships attatched to mine the long green "leashes" that attatch them to me would appear to just jump off in a far off direction. If this is a bug then I can help, but if this is something that was intentional then I would suggest scrapping it (each time it happened I felt like shutting the thing off).


This seems like a bug, can you give me screenshots or more detailed explanation? get me on: contact at jaggedbladesoft dot com

[soniCron]

...get me on: contact at jaggedbladesoft dot com Does everyone seem to think it's more than trivial for a spambot to read a page looking for "at" and "dot" in addition to "@" and "."? :)

[papillon]

I would go for "contact@ my very obvious domain name" since we tend to own domains and said domains are easily apparent to fellow forum posters :)

[Black Hydra]

I'll run through and grab some screenshots when I get a chance maybe later today.

[Davaris]

Hi Nexic,
I just played Desperate Space. Here's some feedback:

One problem that jumped out at me was the text is hard to read. The dark shading on the fonts is the problem.

The other thing that occurs to me is its much harder to play than Xeno Assault II. I don't think you can do anything to make it easier though. The game play is more hard core.

The end boss in the first planet is really tough. I went through all the other stages first go. The last stage I was not able to complete after many tries. Very frustrating.

If you click the buy now button in the game the game shuts down which at first I thought was a crash. It might be better to pause the game so you can alt-tab back from the buy web page and continue playing.

[Nexic]

Hi and thanks for the comments :) I will probably be releasing a much easier version of the game soon, if you have the time be sure to give it a look.

[Davaris]

Here's another one for you Nexic:

When the demo timer has run down to zero, the box appears with the buy or continue option. If I hit the continue option (most of the time) the screen fades to black and stays that way. The music keeps playing so it isn't a crash.

[Nexic]

Yeh I know about that one, and I've fixed it ready for the next version. Hehe so you actually played for 30 minutes? Can't be all bad then ;)

[Black Hydra]

I played for 30 minutes too. Definitely looks impressive. I remember your XAII beta when you posted it here. You've even come a long way from then in such a short time. The next game you make will be even better :D

[Nexic]

Yeh my next shooter is going to be in the RA top ten for no less than 10 weeks. That's my (totally serious) goal.

Although that would mean making a game better than Platypus, which won't be easy :P

[ManuelFLara]

Although that would mean making a game better than Platypus, which won't be easy :P
Although Platypus was a good game, I think its success is due mostly to its graphic style. While I don't consider myself bad at playing games, I'm not a hardcore shooter player either, and I found Platypus very hard. Actually I didn't get to see the second world, which ruined the experience for me since the biggest incentive to keep playing for me was seeing new clay-made stuff.

[Black Hydra]

Don't forget style people!

Having a style that resonates with the audience is a big factor in success. It is what gives the game life. If you play Platypus you could almost just lie back and watch the game in progress. With the great background tracks and the beautiful visuals it is fun just for the experience!

The game itself was pretty basic, and IMO way too friggin' hard. But the gameplay, I felt, was only part of the experience, not the experience itself. Hell, I could have sit back and played through Platypus for a long time and I don't usually even like those kind of scrolling shooter games normally...

[Nexic]

I agree, if playpus has the same graphics as lets say, Astrobatics, and music that was just 'random techno piece x' then it would be a lot less interesting game. I've finally realised this, and thats why I've hired a decent artist for my latest project.

[Davaris]

Hehe so you actually played for 30 minutes? Can't be all bad then

Yeah and for 20 of those 30 minutes I was trying to get past that last cursed level. :)

[Black Hydra]

The first time I played the boss I died and I felt it was impossibly hard. But I ended up spending my entire time trying to get all the gold medals (damn! bonus level is only in full version :D ). I found the dual minigun option to be the most effective against the boss. The dual rockets defeated him faster but I couldn't kill the little guys so I couldn't grab any health power ups to get the gold. All in all, a very fun game. There are some noticable pauses that seem to occur randomly when playing which is a real drawback, however...