Hi all, I''m developing a shareware game (who isn''t?) and have been looking around for publishers. So far i''ve found out about dexterity.com and spiderwebsoftware.com from these forums. People here have mentioned good things about dexterity, but what about spiderweb? Are there other publishers out there who are willing to take bets on shareware games? Any links/recommendations/experiences appreciated

You could always try self-publishing. It''s not as hard as it seems, and it''s a natural approach, if you''re thinking shareware.

DavidRM
Samu Games

Is self-publishing viable? I''m guessing that it requires some setting up (especially payment) and frankly I''d prefer to let someone handle the sales and marketing for me - especially if they have good distribution channels.

I''ve just been to your site; I like the look of Artifact. Good work! How much effort have you put into it? Is it hard to gain customers when self-publishing?

The game i''m working on is rather ambitious (it is my first game) in that it is a 3D game (NOT fps) and will sport some (hopefully) cool graphics. I don''t want to spend too much time on it, yet I don''t want to create a game which gives someone who sees it for the first time the impression that is the work of an amateaur who did it in 5 days in VB.

Brian Azzopardi

quote: Original post by arsenik

Is self-publishing viable? I'm guessing that it requires some setting up (especially payment) and frankly I'd prefer to let someone handle the sales and marketing for me - especially if they have good distribution channels.

You would generally use a third party payment service, such as regnow.com. The marketing you gotta do yourself, or you can try doing that third party too, but that'll cost you a few hundred dollars at least.

[edit] The argument is usually that while you'll probably sell less copies on your own, you get a lot more money per sale, since a publisher is likely to give you only 10-30% per unit. Thus it's possible to make more money on your own if you put some effort into marketing.

[edited by - FenixDown on September 15, 2002 7:23:23 PM]