Development 90% complete - what now?

[Red27]

Hey all,

I've been a regular "lurker" on the site for quite a while now, and found it absolutely great (if sometimes a productivity thief.....) - there's some real personalities and talent on here.

Ok - so development is 90% complete in your latest and greatest title, and that last 10% seems to keep growing in size since you've turned into this insane perfectionist (the personality profile type "completer-finisher" is something that you can only dream of).

So what should someone do to keep the ball rolling? I'm thinking that the time would be better spent focusing on the "business" aspect, rather than changing a colour from FF5FE7 to FF5FE6, re-running, and seeing "how that looks"....

The main items on the list of things to do when in this situation would seem to be:


Purchase domain (or use company website subdomain) & create website
Create a PAD file
Create a YouTube video
Set up Plimus / BMTMicro (or similar payment processor)
Create a Press Release (is this really necessary - do people swear by it?)
???

So my question to the forum is, "what else"?

Cheers,

Red27.

[DrWilloughby]

Sounds like you're not actually 90% done ;)

Seriously, all this stuff takes time. Depending on the quality of your game, you may want to approach distributors. The easiest/best form of marketing, especially for a newcomer, is broad distribution. YouTube videos, a website, all this stuff pales in comparison to what youll get out of a good distributor (if the game is good). So I'd focus on your dist and your DRM first, and make sure the thing is BUG FREE, and then launch it. Everything else can come later.

[Red27]

:-) Well, I think I'm 90% anyway....

Yeah - I've done a lot of the miscellaneous stuff (like the DRM, authenticating registered user with server) etc, but I have no urgent deadline, so my time is dwindling away on micro (non) issues. Perhaps it's S.A.D or something in these winter months!!

So I just want to do other things (as much of the "other stuff" in preparation for D-Day, and would just appreciate the forumistas thoughts on what this "other stuff" actually is....)

Dr - when you say a good distributor, are you meaning a portal (I tread carefully re: saying this after the recent events on here :-), or something different? Who/what specifically would you recommend?

Cheers!

[luggage]

And don't forget the last 10% takes 90% of the time.

[Sharpfish]

And don't forget the last 10% takes 90% of the time.

In that case, the first 90% is actually only the first 10%.. scary! :)

[JoKa]

Release the game once you think it's well balanced and bug-free. Listen to the players to find last details to improve and erase final bugs which may show up. Once it's even better show it to publishers and send your press release :)

About press release: after release of my latest game I waited some time before sending out a PR. Wanted to check the value of traffic generated by a PAD file and advertising on a big download site. It wasn't impressive, so to me a PR seems to be much more important than this PAD-stuff. In the long run PAD is important, of course, especially regarding all the nice backlinks. Also, it's pretty cheap compared to most other ways of advertising :)

[Red27]

All - thanks for the advice - keep it coming! :-)

JoKa - re: the PAD submission aspect, it seems that there are a million and one sites to add the game to. Do people pay for submission via some kind of engine, or is there another/better way?

Also, people keep hinting at these mysterious "publisher" people...... who exactly are these?

Thanks!!

[Pogacha]

I have only released one game but I strongly recommend to finish the game before anything else.

[JoKa]

JoKa - re: the PAD submission aspect, it seems that there are a million and one sites to add the game to. Do people pay for submission via some kind of engine, or is there another/better way?
Also, people keep hinting at these mysterious "publisher" people...... who exactly are these?

There are a few people who will submit your PAD to the most important sites for a decent sum. Search for "PAD submission service" if your time is too valuable to spend for submitting manually.

Publishers/distributors can mean anything, from portals to retailers and from non-exclusive licensing to exclusive deals. Depends strongly on your game and your strategy which ones are most interesting for you.

[Red27]

JoKa - thanks for the advice - yeah I have done the google search in the past, but I'm very sceptical about what links come near the top - just which are the bonefide quality services, and which are poor - that's where I was hoping to pick the brains of the experienced members here.

With regards to completing the game, it seriously is in the bells and whistles stage (no seriously! - although I expect that this sentiment has been echoed a thousand times within the walls of this hallowed forum :-) I'm just recognising a "lull" period, where I'm sat at the IDE and tweaking rather than developing, so want to use my time as productively as possible (and this "extra" stuff will have to get done, surely?)

But again, this forums collective opinion really does mean something.

Thanks.

[DrWilloughby]

Search this forum for names of distributors that you can email. I'm talking about the true content distributors like Oberon, Trymedia, etc. Not individual portals, though you can approach them too. Depending on the title, approaching individual portals is prob only worth it for the big sites (yahoo, etc) many of which won't deal with you anyways, since this is your first title. THat's why I say go throught eh distributors. Alternatively, you could publish through Manifesto or GarageGames. You'll probably make less money that way though.

This is all assuming you have a game that people will buy. A BIG assumption. ;)

[JoKa]

JoKa - thanks for the advice - yeah I have done the google search in the past, but I'm very sceptical about what links come near the top
Sorry, didn't make this clear, I wanted you to search this forum. Here's a good thread about submissions:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=6255&highlight=PAD+submission+service

Same for publishers/distributors, search the board, you'll find tons of information/opinions.

[Red27]

Thanks for all the advice.

To pull on the distributer thread a little more if I may, what is the general deal re: choosing the one to go with (assuming they all don't think it's sucks ;-)?

More specifically, is it common practise to submit to quite a few (say to all on the list DrWilloughby mentioned), and wait for the offers to come flooding in....or conversely sit by your email inbox in abject misery realising you've wasted a year of your life...

Do they allow you to distribute via numerous channels (I wouldn't want to give up the IP rights), or is there always a clause which limits you to one?

Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times - just wanted the current standpoint / position...

[JoKa]

Do they allow you to distribute via numerous channels (I wouldn't want to give up the IP rights), or is there always a clause which limits you to one?


I never gave all rights to a publisher, so I don't know how valuable these deals can be. Giving up the IP is inacceptable (search for Platypus for a bad story about that).

Personally, I prefer to have multiple sales channels. Selling on my own is most rewarding. Granting non-exclusive rights and selling through portals is another option. Retail deals usually require exclusive rights. Try to limit them by time, to the retail channel only, eventually to a specific territory and make sure a nice guarantee payment is offered front up. This ensures the publisher really tries to sell the game.

[Applewood]

Finish off the other 90% that's still to go!

[gosub]

Ditto on the above post.

[Red27]

Why don't you believe me when I say 90%........was it something I said?

;-)

To be quite frank, I'm more daunted by the commercial aspect and fearful of messing up that, more so than I am of not finishing the game (I have invested too much time not to).

It's a lull that I want to try and be productive during (it's not only my lethargy, amongst other things due to waiting for completion of final artwork etc).

Keep it coming though! Thanks...

[Applewood]

That wasn't meant to be sarcastic. How much you've got left to do is always more than you think it is. Way more.

Have you given a zip to someone yet and asked them to install and run it ? It's only then that all these other horrible things come to light.

If you really are nearly done, then what happens next is down to you. Looks like you've been given good advice on the sort of people to contact.

Personally I'd finish it to 100% and start punting it out from my own website, get a round of feedback in from the users and tweak accordingly. Only then would I approach a portal or professional reseller/distributor. I want to be in a no-excuses frame of mind when negotiating anything and I'm not dropping two percent because they found a bug or playability issue that would take 10 minutes to address!

[Emmanuel]

I'd second giving an installer to someone. Give it to a non-technical person, most preferably your intended public, who's never seen the game and knows nothing about it, sit behind the person and say nothing at all, even if they run into problems, get stuck in the game, get bored, or ask you what they're supposed to do. Just take stock of why the person stops playing your game and where. If they really gave up and the test session is dead, then do help out and start the process again. Once you're sure you've fixed what you saw stumped or annoyed the person, try it again on someone else. It's a hair-pulling experience for me every time, but it is five orders of magnitude more important than what payment processor you're going to use.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[gosub]

Why don't you believe me when I say 90%
I'm sorry. It's been my experience that the last 10% is more like 60%. Until the game is done, you don't really have anything. So #1 on my list of things to do is finish the game. The web site is part of the game, so that would be a good thing to work on while waiting for art work.

Ok, I haven't released a game in 15 years, so take what I say with a grain of salt. My plan is to have the game completely done, then announce the beta here, then release it publicly from my own web site. When all that is done, then I'll worry about marketing.

It's been my experience that no one cares about (or even wants to see) an unfinished game.

-Jeremy

[Red27]

Perhaps my wink smiley is being missed - I'm not offended - quite the contrary, I think it's a normal reaction to the cliched statement "90% complete".

I also genuinely agree with everything that's being said about ensuring thorough testing, a beta audience etc, and that the main thing (above everything else) is to finish the game, and to throw in yet another cliche "it will be done, my word is my bond!" :-)

I've released games in the past (some a very long time ago), so I'm not totally naive re: the pitfalls of that last 10% - but the world has moved on (or it certainly feels that way) with Indie Dev - it seems that unless you're commercially savvy and prepared, your game will dissapear or simply never reach the wider audience that might love it. Hence, my interest in this "other stuff" - especially anything that has a long lead time. Cliche #3 - Failure to prepare.....yada yada

Sorry if this thread is draining peoples will to live - but this forum is the only place to really ask this type of question...

[Emmanuel]

Okay, then I'll add a release item: do make a press release, for your Mac version. Unless you're in a niche, and even then, a PC press release will be ignored by 99% of the customers that may buy your game. A PR that gets published in major outlets (like most Mac game PRs will, if they are properly worded and you are actually releasing a product) will bootstrap your business and let you start acquiring customers that you can eventually repeat sales to. Nothing else that we ever did as funpause had as much immediate impact as this, not even close, although of course everything else (reviews, PADs, etc.) compounded eventually. Once you build a sufficient customer base that way then you'll start building your pc traffic as well.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[James C. Smith]

We always talk about the "first 90%" which is always fallowed by the "seconds 90%". In other words, when you think you are 90% done, you are almost certainly only half done. The second 90% is always the hardest because it is fixing lots of little crap, tying up loose ends, and doing boring stuff like installers and screen shots. The first 90% is much more fun because you are creating something new.

[KNau]

Since you're taking the marketing into your own hands I'm assuming you're not going "the portal route". If that's the case...

If you're 90% done then fire a demo out the door right now, even before it's available to sell. That last 90% crap doesn't have to be done before you release, it can be done while you do it. Work fast and don't wait for things to be "perfect".