next »

[Derek]

"What do I need to think about as an indie game developer who wants to sell some games?"

Alright, this is the mega-thread that will consolidate and summarize all the information from all the other threads into a nice, neat package.  Essentially a guidebook for anyone who wants to sell games... I think I speak for everyone when I say that it seems like there's a lot to think about.  Kind of a quick run-through of all the basic topics and what your options are.  It will also link to really good business threads that pop up as time goes on, so that they don't get lost.

I'm also going to be attending a lot of the indie lectures at GDC and will hopefully be taking notes.  I will try to gleam as many good nuggets from there and will paraphrase them here.

But for now, a quick "table of contents" summary of what I'd like to talk about in this thread. Now being worked on more actively.

Finishing Your Game

My father always says that the last 10% of a project is the most difficult.  And it's true!  Getting the core gameplay up and running ends up being the quickest part.  But polishing that into a diamond ends up being the tough part  - tough enough that I think finishing a game is a skill in and of itself.  It doesn't help that by the end you're exhausted and possibly a bit tired of your own work.

Here are some resources to help you with getting through that last 10%.

• Why I Can't Finish Anything - a thread for people to discuss the fine art of finishing!

• Beta Testing

Starting a Company
Creating an LLC, articles of organization, etc.

• Starting a Company - a full-time indie developer relays his experience on starting a company (sole proprietorship, taxes, health insurance)

• Business Cards - Good for networking.  Also, just fun to have!  Matthew Wegner (Flashbang Studios) recommends Overnight Prints.  Good quality and easy to set up online.  $15 for 100 double-sided cards.  For some examples of cards made by TIGers, go here.

Websites
Where to find hosting, what to think about when setting up a site.

Copyrights and Trademarks
And other general legal issues.

• Open-Source, Copyleft, etc.
• EULAs (End-User License Agreements)
• Under Development Law - Mona Ibrahim's legal blog covers a wide variety of legal issues for indie developers.

Copy Protection / DRM
Straddling the fine line between protecting your ass and making it too hard for people to play your game.

• Discussion of Copy Protection / DRM Solutions

Publishers and Distributors
How not to get screwed by a giant company.

• Publisher Experiences

Selling

Eventually, if you're planning on selling your game yourself on the web, you're going to have to use an e-commerce service.  These are services that handle secure money transactions and downloads for you over the web.

Otherwise, you'll want to find a publisher for your game.  There are various ways of going about this.  Having a good game is a start!

• A Rundown of the Best E-Commerce Services
• Pricing Tips
• Indie Game Sales Statistics
• How to Get a Publisher's Attention

Marketing
How to get people to find out about your game!

• Press Release Distribution Services

Packaging your game
Creating installers, CD's, etc.

Financing your game
So you can pay for your ramen right now and also your BMW in a few years.

• Donation Figures
• E-Shop for Selling Merchandise

For now, if you want to discuss a particular topic on this list, start a new thread for it.  Keep the discussion in this thread related only to this guide.  Suggestions for other topics much appreciated!

[Matthew]

I'm working on coalescing the same information for one of my talks at the Independent Games Summit:

The Indie Bootstrap Kit (Matthew Wegner, Flashbang Studios)
Tuesday - 10.45am - 11.00am
In this whirlwind lecture, Wegner (IGF finalist with Glow Worm) will talk about everything you need to take a hobby or personal project and release it as a bona fide for-sale indie product. This includes elements such as company setup, installers, DRM, payment processing, website setup, and so on - the specific but sometimes tantalizingly hard to trace information on how you actually sell games online.

The focus on my talk is how to transition from a "team with a project" to a "company with a product".  I'll post my notes later this week, but I'd love to get some good discussion going in the next two weeks (so it'll make it into the handout/talk for the IGS attendees).

[Derek]

Ah man, I'm definitely going to attend that talk!  Would to see your notes, also!  Is it really only 15 minutes long?

[Albert Lai]

15 minutes! You guys must be really punctual. Usually it takes 15 minutes for everyone to arrive!

On a more relevant note, however, I'd like to see some stuff about 'breaking into' the industry or, failing that, how to create, maintain and keep a group that is focused on 'working for free' until the alpha comes how.

[Icedemon]

well, i recently did a lot of looking stuff up in a lot of those subject, and the site that trumped all others was garagegames. I didn't even have to use their forums. (i signed up anyways though) while they were naturally marketing their products, there was also a lot of useful info there about publishing and the different levels of rights and such. I'll try to provide a more specific link and sum up some of the stuff when i get a chance. 

-ice

[narasu]

I seem to have done it the wrong way around.


I became so excited about my indie game business thing that I made a very pretty website and never even came near to finish a game.

[Massena]

• Why I Can't Finish Anything - a thread for people to discuss the fine art of finishing!

The link is broken!
Sounds like a great thread! Indie Game Guide Part 3?

[Derek]

Oi, that typo has been there for months.  Thanks!  I think I'm going to start working on expanding this section, creating some new Business threads, etc.

[Nonsuch Games]

Even though I won't be needing this info for a while, it's all very helpfull so far.

[partymetroid]

http://www.copyright.gov/

Can't believe you didn't have THAT website on your list yet... .

[christine88]

Time for another update. Did a significant overhaul of the rasterization alg. and I am pretty pleased with the results. Before, the frame was being built using 1 byte palette indices which placed into a byteArray one pixel at a time. The byteArray was then pushed into a bitmapData and promoted to a 32-bit image using paletteMap. The real problem with that is you can never reach high resolution images, because the pixel fill rate is just too slow.

==========================

christine

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

^ Thats some pretty creative spam, you probably would have got away with it if you chose a better thread... :S

[moi]

^ Thats some pretty creative spam, you probably would have got away with it if you chose a better thread... :S

no probably wouldn't have gotten away with it ever, but still deserves some respect

[cloudy]

My husband is making a game and I am sure he will find this quite helpful. He wants me to do some marketing for him as I have a college degree in that field but I really don't know much about the world of indie gamers...this thread will be very helpful, thanks a lot!!

[Derek]

And thank you for reminding me that this thread needs a serious update!