I released my game back in mid-September as shareware and now (early December) have not gotten a registration yet. My game not being the most revolutionary thing in the world since Ginger (*ahem*) I definitely didn''t expect registrations after day 1, week 1, month 1, nor even year 1. I''m just curious on other people''s experiences on the timeframe on receiving a game''s first registration (and subsequent registrations). I did go through the trouble of submitting to many shareware list sites (good for hits only while your game is "new" to their list), signing up with banner exchanges (actually quite a good source of hits and downloads to my surprise), and the occasional news item on a gaming site so I think I''ve covered most of the ground in terms of self-promotion. My website''s daily statistics show a good number of attempted downloads of my game but only show a small number of clicks on my order form page. I originally was afraid that the e-commerce site I had signed up with was possibly screwing up orders but then I figured that if orders were being screwed up I''d have received lots of angry e-mail by now. On a semi-related note, anybody have good experiences with BMT Micro? I initially signed up with them mostly because they handled software like Opera and games by Longbow Digital Arts so I figured they''d be pretty good. When I released my game, I started getting a number of registrations almost immediately and I began to think "hot damn!". Unfortunately, every single one of them turned out to be fradulent orders :-( I''ve since moved to RegNow (mainly for a better web interface, customizable order pages, and to keep my reputation in good standing) and have heard nary a peep from anybody -- not even fraudulent orders :-/ although test orders have gone through just fine. Actually if I play the numbers/statistics game, then I could justify being in good shape even now. That is, so many hits on website lead to downloads; so many d/l lead to people curious about ordering (hits on order form); so many hits on order form lead to actual orders. That means I''m still waiting for step 4 to achieve some critical mass. Of course then I''d be waiting probably another year for the statistics game to pull through :-D So again, what kind of timeframes have you guys gone through before receiving steady registrations after a game''s release? *shamless plug* -- http://www.amorphous-productions.com If there''s some glaring faux pas in web design, game design, etc. please do tell.

I think it took us about 6 weeks to get our first payment for our first online game, Paintball NET. It took less than a week for my The Journal software. I think it was the same day when we started selling Artifact Citizenship.

A lot of it has to do with your level of exposure and penetration. And having an established base of players.

The most important things to remember about shareware are:
1. Be obvious. Make the payment process OBVIOUS. Don''t hide the "Buy the Game" button on a sub-menu. Put it right up front and when they click on that button take them directly to the payment web page or help topic.

2. Be easy. Streamline the payment process as much as you can. Any unnecessary step risks the potential buyer getting frustrated and finding other things to do.

For more information about marketing software via shareware, check out the Association of Shareware Proffesionals:
http://www.asp-shareware.org

Best of luck!

-David


DavidRM
Samu Games

Yes after posting I did further digging in the Business of GD section and found your old posts about making it ultra-easy for the user to register. It''s something I didn''t think about too much and it''s something I''ll definitely try to get into the shareware version of my game.

borngamer -- I''m definitely writing other games to bundle, sell with, cross-advertise, etc. Out of the budget publishers I''ve contacted atleast one said my first game was good but not strong enough to be a standalone product (which I do agree with) but writing a few more similar games to be in a 4-5 title game pack would be quite sellable. And adding a few more smart titles to your site''s lineup can only make you more legit eh? :-D

For distribution of Smugglers 2 (www.smugglers2.net) I used mostly download sites. I got the first sales hours after the game was released. But serious sales started about 4 weeks later. At Thanksgiving I sold for example 8 games a day online. Average now is 4 games (estimated). Although I need to pay a certain percentage to my partners, I can all in all (adding other revenues for the game like covermounts) live now from the game. At least if you break it down to the two months I worked on it. I am very proud of that.
(Disclaimer: For sure I feel greatly in debt for all the talented people that helped me with the game. ).

Take care,
Niels

Edited by - Jester101 on December 3, 2001 4:36:41 PM

Its very hard to predict what will work. If you look at my games you will find that Rocky Racers is by far the mroe proffesional game compared with Asteroid Miner/Star Miner, but the latter has sold about 5 times as many copies.
It helps to have a game with some depth, people are willing to play little fun games, but not generally prepared to pay money for them unless they see lasting gameplay. My best selling game (StarLines INC) is by far the deepest and most complex, and I dont think thats a coincidence.
Treat game 1 as an experience, and make your next game twice (or more) ambitious. And don''t be dissapointed, you might get a few sales of that first game over the years, I still get (small) roaylty chek=cks for 2 year old games.

http://www.positech.co.uk

Niels, you talk about revenue from covermounts and other sources...
About the covermounts, I assume you had the free version on there, which people then registered?
How did you get your game on there?
Also, what other sources of revenue would there be?

Sorry for all the questions. I''ve just released my first self-produced puzzle game. It''s called Penguin Puzzle, and it''s a game for casual players. Of course, I''d be happy with feedback from people here...

Cheers,

--Luc

Nuclide.com : Independent Game Development

Ok I added an "Order" button that takes the user to the order page on my website. Hopefully that''ll help things along. If not, then I guess I''ll just blame it on shoddy game design/content and move on to another game project. :-D

Thanks a lot for all the advice.

No I sold them the license to publish the fullversion on the game to three magazines. The lead editor liked Smugglers 1 a lot, so this might have helped.

Other sources would be retail sales & possible royalty advances in case I sign up with a retail publisher. The last one I haven't calculated in the above though.

Edited by - Jester101 on December 4, 2001 3:29:24 PM