After a couple of months of work, I''ve made a decent little game that a few people around the computer lab (here at UIUC) have said "now, you can sell that." A modest price for a modest game; $10, I''m thinking. For ten bucks you get the game, 40 levels, extra ships, a level editor and the full 8 song soundtrack. The shareware version would have only 4 levels, no level editor, only two ships and two songs. Given a rough pebble of a marketable game, it would take me another full month of work to polish what I''ve got into something of a gem, or, at least, a cubic zirconia. An extra day of work would net me a Mac OSX port to boot. So then; what now? How does one go about selling these things, after we''ve graduated from the "wouldn''t it be cool if X" world of teenaged game industry hopefulls? Do I simply make a really flashy website for the game, and a phpbb forum with a techno theme? Do I buy ads on Penny Arcade, Slashdot and Megatokyo to "announce" the "release"? Do I rely entirely on online sales with Paypal and the like, or do I put up a few thousand for retail boxes that I try to hustle into Electronics Boutique on consigment? Basically, I''m looking for war stories here. Have you got any interesting scars or sales figures to share with a rookie cadet?

I say it depends on a lot of factors as to how you go about selling this thing. Lets start with the basics though:

1) Create a website - This gets your name out there atleast somewhat. It helps sales, gives the viewer a sense that your real (ie not going to rip them off), helps give name recognition, and helps market any future games. However make sure it looks professional. ( I do freeware mostly, so I don''t care about appearence of my website )

2) Register a domain name and find a cheap server - Places like Brinkster are free with no ads. However bandwidth is rather small. You can register a domain name rather cheap (around $30 a year if you want an email address along with it...) This helps once again with getting your name out, etc. The main reason to do this though is so that people trust you more.

3) Find a seperate server with a lot of bandwidth to place the shareware version (as a last resort you can always put it on someplace like tripod...)

You need to do these things to boost sales above, well, zero. Its very difficult to get people to buy your stuff online if you don''t. Oh and don''t spend thousands to get your software into EB or anything like that. Its not worth it, especially considering a lot of those stores will just laugh at you. If you want to, you can always go around to smaller stores in your area and try there. Just make a cover for a jewel case and sell it on their cheap rack. This still wont work that well though for most people. Depends on your area though.

The only optional thing to think about is getting a forum. Depending on how popular you think it will be, this can help sales, cause you to have a greater following, etc.. I''d forget about it at first though. (oh and no techno beat, music on websites can get annoying to some people. You don''t want to make your potential sales run for the hills. So make the website and everything else rather neutral but still have a theme based on the games that you make .)

After that comes advertising. You need to get your name out there right? Well I''d forget about Penny Arcade, etc. They charge and you want cheap advertising. First submit your new wonderful website to search engines (this is free and may net you one or two people a month...). This isn''t that effective though but it WILL help in the long term (once your name is out there it does, I''ve had people search for me because of word of mouth). Past that you need to submit the shareware version to websites. Everything from Tucows to CNet. The question though is how much are you willing to spend. CNet charges I think $79, Tucows charges for reviews (actually they changed since I last used them so I can''t remember), etc. However there a lot of them out there that are free. (as a side note though, CNet will give you the most downloads by far but little turnover, percentage wise. It still gives me about 30-50 hits a week though.)

Also you need to figure out how you want to do the sales. If you don''t plan on going on vacation much, plan on checking your email every day, and have a post office near you then consider selling yourself. If you choose this route, go with Paypal sellers account. It allows you to accept credit cards, paypal, etc. and its cheap (no startup cost, but they take about 5% of anything you sell). If you don''t want to handle this portion yourself (And if your like the average person I wouldn''t), you can always hire a company to do it for you. Look into www.RegSoft.com (they seem to be good, though I''ve never used them.). It gives you a lot more free time and is probably better for most people (so you only haved to worry about making more games, addons, etc.).

After all of that don''t expect tons of sales off your first game. Most people are lucky to sell one (usually because they''re games are TERRIBLE). But view it as a learning experience even if it doesn''t do well. Oh and never lose hope, once you do that you can forget about everything else.

xing interactive migth publish your game. they sell low budget games.

Fez: thanks for the advice! I also do a little freelance web design work on the side, so I know a thing or two about putting together a cool & navigable website. I wouldn''t mind spending $25 a month (at least) for a decent webspace with lots of bandwidth for this game. Adding advertising fees, it would be a good guess that I''d need around $300-$400 at a minimum to start up nicely.

As far as sales numbers go, I did take a look at Xing Interactive and saw that the game "Krackout" is listed as having 1,000 units sold.

I''m not one to sling around insults or brag; but by the inductive hypothesis I should also be able to sell at least 1,000 units, all things being equal.

I''ll definetly give both angles a try, not before sumbitting the game to two MAJOR developers near my hometown. It never hurts to try...

You should really check out any claims made by a publisher before signing anything. If the publisher claims they can sell X units or make Y amount of money for a developer, ask the publisher for reference contact details of an independent developer they have done this for. Then check with the developer that the sales figures are true, that the developer has been paid, and that they are happy with the publisher.

also read the relevant and interesting articles at:

www.dexterity.com/articles

To able to handle credits cards without much fuss, check out companies like Kagi (http://www.kagi.com).

Before you sign anything, ask if it is a non-exclusive, or exclusive contract. If you sign an exclusive contract, the publisher will have total control over your game. They may decide that it doesn''t fit their "market stratagy", and trash it. A non-exclusive agreement is much less binding. All you are doing is giving the publisher a right to sell your game. In my experience, most value-ware falls under the non-exclusive contracts. I''m not saying exclusive contracts are bad, just that it will be much harder to get out of a bad deal with it.

If you plan to self-publish, be prepared to spend quite a bit of time doing non-gaming activities. Without a publisher, you are completely responsible for burning your game on to the CDs, mailing it in a timely manner, and filing paperwork. If you go on a vacation for a week, you''ll have to get someone to cover for you, ect. Of couse, you get to keep 100% of the money minus cost of stamps and CDs. Before you start your company, look into getting liablity protection via a LLC company (or something like it).

Couldn''t help to overhear your conversation about Krakout Unlimited selling 1000 units only. It''s a sales figure coming from 2001 ;-) By now we have shipped close to 10.000 units. Still not much but then again some products will sell and some won''t. I just felt I had to set the record straight since people still seem to view our not-been-updated-since-2001 website at http://www.xinginteractive.com while our new website is at http://www.xinginteractive.nl as from the start of this year.

Oh and no publisher in his right mind will sign a non-exclusive with you unless they A) intend to only use your game of a "100 games for a dollar" type of collection, B) intend to rip you off, or C) Know that nobody else will take your game anyway since a non-exclusive devalues your game.

Imagine closing 3 small deals or 1 big one. You have 3 companies not pushing your game or 1 that does. Choice is easy.