How to Sell Your Game - Boot Camp

[Shaz]

i've sent you my game link but you did'nt even reply me or advise your opinion

send another email; check that you're using the right address. Amanda doesn't ignore emails, but she does have about a hundred things on her plate right now

[anikoy]

First of all, thank you Amaranth for this great guide. It's very usefull for beginners like me.

But I still have one question, not only for amaranth but to all developers.

It's about press releases for casual game:
do you write and send them by yourself or pay to other companies for this work?
If the last, then what companies do you prefer?

Thank you.

[Asvarduil]

This was a great read! You just helped a newb developer! I didn't know DRM existed!

In any case, while NSIS requires some scripting, it is a free Install generator that one can customize just as easily, and the NSIS website has some helpful tutorials on how to go about customizing the installers.

[tentons]

It's about press releases for casual game:
do you write and send them by yourself or pay to other companies for this work?

PRWeb is pretty well known and isn't over priced.

[Scurvy Lobster]

tentons: PRWeb looks pretty cool (I didn't know about them). Care to share your thoughts/opinion/experience about them?

[anikoy]

PRWeb is pretty well known and isn't over priced.

Thank you, it looks good enough.

[Hardcore]

Is there also a DRM solution for java games?

Maybe with launch4j?

Does anybody know if this would work?

[the gamer]

thanks! i know how to develop games, this guide will help me get paid for my work

[Xathia Vastar]

Wow, I just saw this thread! This was super helpful! ^_^ I printed out the PDF. Thanks, Amanda for your continued valued contribution to the indie community!

[amaranth]

@lingo1357

I don't think I've received your email. Can you email me w/o a link first? It could be that the email is getting deleted as spam.

@all

I've just updated the guide with a few big changes.

1) I've added Demo support. Let me know if you find anything buggy in my explanation.

2) I've removed GoDaddy. I initially added them because I couldn't find another web service that sets up everything for you. Instead, I've listed Nexcess.net, which is a very good and inexpensive hosting service.

3) I've added additional details in the beta testing section.

4) Fixed random grammar issues. There are probably more, but I'm too tired to hunt them down.

[prince_meo]

it's very interesting tutorial. I learned to much.

but there is no any information about, Copyright and trade mark reservation.

we don't need any Copyright to be done as officially?

every product, I have seen before has a Copyright mark.

do I just write: all rights reserved?

and it's all ?

[supershigi]

Thank-you for posting this Amanda, it's chock full of really helpful information.

[LajosNadasi]

This is a very useful thread!!!
Thank you!


Anybody can suggest me a DRM (and installer) solution for Mac?
We need DRM for Mac and for Win, too.

[LajosNadasi]

I found only One Mac DRM...
http://robosoftin.com/products/drmconnect.html

It seems ok, but I prefer when I can choose...

Any ideas?

[LajosNadasi]

Installer:

Today I used my first installer in my life...

I am a technical guy, but I don't like to waste my time especially nowadays...

Maybe I can help to somebody, who never used any installers before, like me.

So my choose:

Inno Setup

This is a free installer, really simple after 10 min. I used the first example script, and made very little modification for our beta demo.

This is the whole script file:

[Setup]
AppName='Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers'
AppVerName='Fiona Finch BETA'
DefaultDirName={pf}\Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers
DefaultGroupName=Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers
UninstallDisplayIcon={app}\FionaFinchBETA.exe
OutputDir=_InnoSetupOutput
OutputBaseFilename=FionaFinchBETAInstall

[Files]
Source: "FionaFinchBETA.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers"; Filename: "{app}\FionaFinchBETA.exe"; WorkingDir: "{app}"
Name: "{group}\Uninstall"; Filename: "{uninstallexe}"
Name: "{group}\Visit the Beta Testing forum at 1morebee.com"; Filename: "http://forum.1morebee.com/"

(...and yes, today I installed my first forum in my life..., it was a little bit slower process..., but this is an other story... )

[crestiksa]

um... c is free but Im not exactly sure what type of thing your talking about. If you mean a like simple game making engine then there are a couple free ones and a couple not free ones
torque game maker is not free
blitz basic is not free

game maker is free
and i think popcap games has one that is free

none of those are actually c though...

[amaranth]

Copyright is yours as soon as you create the object. For added legal protection, you can get a registered copyright. This costs a bit of money, but if someone tries to steal your object, you'll have extra protection if you go to court.

it's very interesting tutorial. I learned to much.

but there is no any information about, Copyright and trade mark reservation.

we don't need any Copyright to be done as officially?

every product, I have seen before has a Copyright mark.

do I just write: all rights reserved?

and it's all ?

[mrkwang]

It's about press releases for casual game:
do you write and send them by yourself or pay to other companies for this work?
If the last, then what companies do you prefer?

gamespress.com, UK based re-sender of video game press releases.
However you might build 'sending list' by yourself, using ymlp.com or some similar mailing service.

Some people in this forum offers press release writing / sending service, but can't remember exactly who they were. Maybe you could search for them.

But sending press release is just start, NOT the end.
You could check this writing, too.
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Micha...Indie_Game.php

[brawsome]

Just wanted to chime in and say thanks for this tutorial. It's really helped clear up some of those essential business questions I'm asking as I'm moving towards game completion.

Also wanted to say Inno Setup is great for a PC installer. For Mac I stumbled across Iceberg to make a .pkg, which I then zip to make ready for delivery.

Now I'm set for sales on PC, but not yet sure if this will translate to Mac, maybe it will but I haven't started digging into it yet.

Thanks,
Andrew

[Musenik]

On Macintosh, if your product fits into a single application file, just zip the file. No need for installers in this case.

[GolfHacker]

Actually, .dmg files are pretty standard on Mac. I haven't seen many games packaged as .zip for Mac.

Here are a few good links for building .dmg files:

Good step-by-step tutorial of the overall process (but with older version of Mac OS):
http://murphymac.com/slib/customized-dmg-container.htm

How to add a background image:
http://el-tramo.be/guides/fancy-dmg

How to add a shortcut to the application folder that you can drop on:
http://www.ploem.be/blog/?page_id=26

[Jack Norton]

Actually, .dmg files are pretty standard on Mac. I haven't seen many games packaged as .zip for Mac.

I use .zip for all my mac games, they are much more common than dmg I'd say. I used .dmg or .sit (long time ago) and some users had problems. With zip, nothing.
Just checked apple: a top/big games like Virtual Villager 4 for example uses .zip
I'd say dmg is only "nicer" to see from the user point of view

[hippocoder]

Hi Amanda,

I visited your site and I took a look at your games and I found myself being drawn into the world. I'm a red blooded guy but I really loved the whole "minature world" vibe. Do you think its possible to market beyond your expected audiance?

I think I'm a romantic deep down (some guys must be surely?) and I enjoyed the games.

Some thoughts:

You say switching to the one-hour model increased sales dramatically from the limited demo model. However, have you considered a limited demo model which cuts off exactly at a very exciting moment, ie at a cliffhanger point where the player simply MUST know what happened next?

Perhaps designing in "cliffhangers" for demos would be wildly successful in story-driven games.

The one hour model works for you IMHO because you're story driven. Players need extra time to get hooked into the world.

So I can't help but wonder if you'd give them that hour + a little bit of time till the next "cliffhanger" moment. ie it could be an hour and 20 mins, but to stop them just short of a great revelation is a massive tease ...

[Vino]

Maybe this isn't the proper thread for asking this but:

I hear a lot of talk on this forum about affiliates and portals. These are concepts that I'm not familiar with, is there anywhere I can find a better explanation and definitions of these terms? Everybody seems to say BFG is a portal, but is Steam? What are affiliates, how do they work, why are they important?

[Jack Norton]

I'll try: both BFG and Steam are portals. Portals=big site that carries many games AND has already established traffic. Usually they do discounts so be ready to have your game sells for low prices (under $10).
For BFG is regular pricing, for Steam varies case by case and they do time-limited sales.

As for affiliates: if you have a "generic" casual game you can almost ignore them since they won't bring you any sale.
If you have a niche game, affiliates are VERY valuable depending if you can figure out a developer with similar target/traffic willing to affiliate your game (and you can do the opposite too).
For example Amanda has a big following of RPG fans (in particular JRPG) so if you make a RPG and it's good you can expect to make LOT of sales only from her site (there are others).
Unfortunately is also true that developers selling directly are rare, so you won't have much chances of finding good/matching affiliates.

[Vino]

Okay Portals makes sense.

I had a bunch more questions about affiliates, but after I looked at Amaranth's website I got a better clue. Is this a good affiliates example? I see that the "Buy now" link goes to the Plimus website, so does Plimus website (but branded to look like Amaranth) so Plimus gives Amanda a royalty on the sale of Jeff Vogel's game?

So the difference between a portal and an affiliate is that portals sell your game and give you some of the money, but affiliates link back to your plimus/BMT and receive a bit of royalty from the sale?

[Indinera]

so Plimus gives Amanda a royalty on the sale of Jeff Vogel's game?

usually 30% of the price

[Jack Norton]

So the difference between a portal and an affiliate is that portals sell your game and give you some of the money, but affiliates link back to your plimus/BMT and receive a bit of royalty from the sale?

The biggest difference is that you retain brand awareness (on portal the players barely know who made which game unless they read credits) and the MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER in indie marketing: customer email
(When someone buys your game from portal you don't know who it is)

[Vino]

I take it then that you get the email with an affiliate.

Isn't there a standard method of collecting emails from the game itself? "Put your email here and we'll send you info on updates and shit."

TF2 does something neat, the loading page has a button that says "New blog post!" so everybody who opens the game can see what's been going on in the website.

edit: anyway that helps a lot, thanks!

[GolfHacker]

Portal contracts are very limiting. You cannot put any links or references in the game back to your site (the portal wants to direct customers to their site), and I don't think you'll be allowed to collect any info at all from the customer.

With a Plimus/BMT affiliate, on the other hand, the affiliate drives customers to your Plimus/BMT buy page. So from your standpoint, it looks like any other direct sale. You get the customer e-mail and purchase information, as well as the full sale price (minus the affiliate commission).