Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/02/02/15:30:58
In article <32E425C1 DOT 3FFA AT cam DOT org>,
tudor AT cam DOT org wrote:
>
> jonklipp AT freenet DOT edmonton DOT ab DOT ca wrote:
> > Should be, but it ain't :) It kinda sucks actually, the publishers
> > usually make lotsa money and the author doens't get that much. Think
> > about this: If your 10% (for example) is $50,000, then the publisher has
> > made $450,000. Ouch. :)
> Do you know any ways to get ridd of this shit ?
> I'm not making any games yet :) but I would consider creating games as a
> hobby(i.e. 3D or real time strategies).
> I wouldn't like workin my butt on that game then takin a shitty 10% when
> the publisher gets 90% and 100% of the work is myne!!
> How do companies like lets say Origin stand this ??
>
> --
> tudor 'at' cam 'dot' org
> yoda69 'at' hotmail 'dot' com
> http://www.cam.org/~tudor
>
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I agree that the author's royalties for codewriting are generally
terrible.
You put in a tremendous amount of work coming up with a cool idea,
designing it, programming it, debugging it, and then you have to share
your
money with some big software publisher who has very little to do with
the
creation of the game--yet they get the lion's share of the money from
it.
Why? Because they *are* the lion. It doesn't matter how cool your
new
game is if no one ever hears of it or can't find it anywhere to buy
it. The
publisher takes a risk in printing a few thousand copies of a game,
selling
them to distributors, and putting them into stores and advertising
them in
catalogues, magazines, and on tv. If the public for some reason is
not
interested in your game--and this can often be the result of nothing
more
than lousy a portrayal of the game in advertising--your game won't
sell,
and it's game over. The giants of the industry can hype their games
well,
which virtually guarantees that they'll do well in the market, but
this
hype costs money. Then, if they can, they'll make sequels of the
game,
relying on the name of the original to serve as advertising
endorsement of
the new game. Having an established fan base makes it easier to sell.
So what can you as an author do about it? Not very much, and quite
a
bit. If you're talking about indirect markets (ie printing up copies
of a
game, manual, etc, advertising for it, shipping the copies off to
distributors who then sell them to retailers, who sell them to
consumers)
there's pretty much no way you can out-do the giant publishers unless
you're already well-funded. You also will have a hard time
negotiating a
bigger royalty percentage, not with hordes of people clamoring for
attention to their own game, which might be just as good as your game
or
might be crap. I'd be in favor of seeing the really good
programmers/authors forming an union of some kind--they would then
have at
least SOME negotiating leverage that way. Often, rather than doing
that,
it's been easier for the established veteran game designer to go out
on his
own and found his own company--which, again, requires a fair amount of
initial outlay of personal resources.
Probably the best option for you if you want to stay independant is
the
internet. Already, for the past few years companies have become
increasingly aware of the internet's potential for cheap, direct
advertising. If you're hocking something information based, such as a
computer program, you can even do sales directly. Set up a webpage
for
your game, and allow people to download it over the net. Post to the
appropriate newsgroups and announce the game's availability (and don't
forget to mention how cool it is). Allow the game to be put up on FTP
sites all over the world for public anonymous download, free--this
allows
you to expand your market. All of this takes place through word of
mouth.
You won't see huge sales right away from it, but, if your game really
has
what people are looking for, you will gain a following, which will
remain
loyal if you offer good customer support for your product. (One
really
neat thing to offer is the capability for the user to modify or
customize
the game through ad-ons and plug ins, a la Marathon's physics models
and
map-making--this virtually guarantees continued customer interest,
especially if the games are networkable.) By directly marketing your
product to the consumer, you'll save tons of money that the publishers
would take from you and put into advertising which is usually of
questionable effectiveness. Best of all, your advertising is
extremely
low-cost (most of it is free, the rest can be handled by the average
working joe's paycheck). You won't have to pay to produce your game
either, just to develop it. Instead of having truckloads of CD-ROMs,
booklets, boxes, mail-in cards, cardboard displays, you have a
dedicated
computer in your house running a FTP server or a webpage, a copy of
your
game (and the documentation for it in electric format), and that's
about
it. All you have to pay for is electricity. There are only two real
pitfalls of this kind of approach: 1) if you make a really big game,
the
download time for it can become unfeasible, and 2) collecting your
income
via shareware fees can be a headache. Probably the safest way is to
allow
customers to download a test version of the game, or a disabled
full-version, which they can evaluate, and then if they wish to play
the
full game they have to pay you. Since your costs are low, you can
undercut
the big companies and sell your games at very attractive prices--and
this
just makes you look good.
Meanwhile, continue to produce new games. Advertise your new products
next
to the established ones. In a year or two, you should be fairly
established and known in the internet community. You may well receive
offers to produce larger games from the big companies. Take the jobs,
if
you feel like it, but make sure the terms of your contract allow you
to do
your own work on the side.
These ideas aren't anything new, but they're workable, and IMO being
independant is better than working through a large company that takes
the
fruit of your labors. If you could sell 50,000 copies of a game for
$10
per download, that's a half million dollars gross (assuming you can
collect
all the shareware fees). With your marketing prices so low, with a
few
successes you should be set for life. Development costs on the other
hand,
might not be so low, but if you're creative you'll find ways to cap
them or
avoid them.
----chris sanyk
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