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[Jacob_]

I've been working on Buildsim just for personal enjoyment and experience. A couple of months ago, I realized that I might be able to make some money from it as well. I came up with this plan for the next few years, but I'm not sure if it's good or not... I'm just finishing up my junior year in high school and have no business experience, other than being "Jr. Administrator" at a profitable free web hosting company.

The plan:
-First, just keep working on the game until I could reasonably call it complete.
-Promote it somehow, reach a certain amount of registered users (100? 500? 1,000? 100,000? ) and a few people running servers.
-Continue releasing updates to keep people interested
-Start working on an enhanced version with additional features (advanced building tools, ability to save files to my server, customizable character for multiplayer, maybe a "gear" system like Roblox)
-Release the premium version, charge a small fee for it ($15? $20?)
-Release more updates, make some of them for members that have paid only
-Hope people buy it!

The main problems I foresee are promoting the game (besides word of mouth and forums like this one, I have no idea how) and getting people to pay for the premium version.

Obviously, this is over a period of time--I have no plans on getting rich this year

Any comments or suggestions?

[obscure]

The main problems I foresee are promoting the game (besides word of mouth and forums like this one, I have no idea how) and getting people to pay for the premium version.

Promoting the game is marketing. From the sounds of it you have plenty of time to read up on marketing and to look at what other indie developers do to promote their games.

The may ways are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc during development. Press releases, interviews, developer diaries and sometimes speaking at conferences.

[synapse]

Hell yes it's a good idea.  Throw your webgame up, give users incentives to invite other people (send email => get 100 game buxx or a free item, etc), get on Facebook, wear a chicken suit and hand out fliers.  Just make a sweet webgame (animations NOT required) and get it out there.  You will surprise yourself.

The only thing bad about it is calling it long-term.  You can make a profitable web-game business from scratch within a month.  Profitable meaning you make $11 in a single day, but it grows from there

[Blindsight]

I've been working on Buildsim just for personal enjoyment and experience. A couple of months ago, I realized that I might be able to make some money from it as well. I came up with this plan for the next few years, but I'm not sure if it's good or not...

Obviously, this is over a period of time--I have no plans on getting rich this year

Any comments or suggestions?

Go for it. You never know what will come of it until you actually do it. Worse case, it totally fails and you now have experience making, finishing and releasing a game. To add to that, you will likely know things you would do, and would want to avoid doing for your next game. Is that really a failure?

I wouldn't EXPECT money for a first project, but it doesn't mean it can't happen. Do what you love and make something you want to play. There ARE others out there like you.

[Notch]

The plan:
-First, just keep working on the game until I could reasonably call it complete.

I know where you're coming from, I think. I was terrified charging for my game before it was "complete", but I figured that the only way to make money was to actually ask people to pay for your work.

I took a "pre-purchase" route with a big discount if you bought the game during alpha, and a few premium only features for paid users. A year later, and the game is STILL in alpha (getting close to beta now, though), and had I not charged for it, I'd never had lasted this long.

My point, I think, is that "complete" is a bit of a slippery slope, and as long as people are enjoying your game, why not charge for it?

[BrianSlipBit]

I took a "pre-purchase" route with a big discount if you bought the game during alpha, and a few premium only features for paid users. A year later, and the game is STILL in alpha (getting close to beta now, though), and had I not charged for it, I'd never had lasted this long.

My point, I think, is that "complete" is a bit of a slippery slope, and as long as people are enjoying your game, why not charge for it?

So are you giving these "pre-purchase" customers something like access to weekly or monthly alpha builds?  I assume they're getting something "here and now" for choosing to pay money ahead of time for something that's not officially complete?

Just curious.

[BrianSlipBit]

Nevermind Notch.  I just followed some of your links and see that you do indeed give them early access.  I guess that's about the only way something like a "pre-order" system would work in indie-land.

However, I'm too conservative for that.  I wouldn't want the added expectations and pressure of knowing I now have to deliver, or else... 

[Notch]

At first, the benefits for pre-purchasing were extremely minor (optional custom skin in multiplayer). Even things like saving levels online was available for anyone who had registered (for free).
The conversion rate from register -> pay was like 3%.
Because of things like running out of server space, wanting to make money, and people wanting their paid statuses to mean something more, I made more and more features premium only, and the conversion rate is currently bobbing around near 10%, with the all time average being up to 8.55%.

But, yeah.. There's pressure. I'm currently taking a couple of weeks of because of stress related issues. I underestimated how important it is to keep regular hours, I think.

Anyway, I think your plan will work, but just remember that work is never finished, only abandoned.

[BrianSlipBit]

But, yeah.. There's pressure. I'm currently taking a couple of weeks of because of stress related issues. I underestimated how important it is to keep regular hours, I think.

Yeah, I read through some of your posts on your blog.  Some of the more recent comments are pretty "entertaining" to say the least.  Some people expect the world delivered to them--for little to nothing.

I've been in very stressful commercial (game)dev environments in the past, and done fine (fortunately).  However, having lived through those experiences, allows me to make the statement with 100% confidence that given the choice, I absolutely prefer to work without the stress.  But that's just me.   Some people actually prosper with stress.  I think it just depends.

Good luck with your break. 

[Jacob_]

The plan:
-First, just keep working on the game until I could reasonably call it complete.

I know where you're coming from, I think. I was terrified charging for my game before it was "complete", but I figured that the only way to make money was to actually ask people to pay for your work.

I took a "pre-purchase" route with a big discount if you bought the game during alpha, and a few premium only features for paid users. A year later, and the game is STILL in alpha (getting close to beta now, though), and had I not charged for it, I'd never had lasted this long.

My point, I think, is that "complete" is a bit of a slippery slope, and as long as people are enjoying your game, why not charge for it?

Not sure if prepurchasing would work for me; I'm not established as a good indie developer yet (other than a few small games, up to now I've mainly done PHP scripts), also, even though I like programming I'm not sure if I'd want to be legally obligated to "finish" my game.

My first post probably wasn't worded well, by "complete" I meant something that people were actually willing to play. Right now, I only have some buggy alpha test builds, due to my major procrastination problem :p