Hmm, Amazon is $30 a month, is there an advantage other than the fact that people are comfortable buying through Amazon?

I suppose Paypal is an option too, but you would have to setup your own web site and just give instructions for emailing "money" via Paypal.



Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.
email: grhodes@sed.ara.com

quote: Original post by BigCarlito

Hmm, Amazon is $30 a month, is there an advantage other than the fact that people are comfortable buying through Amazon?

Good point but this could be less than the $1000 taken from sales on Digital River. Also as your mentioned, if the user already has the credit card info stored on Amazon it would make purchasing that much easier.

I can''t be sure that Amazon is the best way to go, but my game ways in at over 160 megs so downloading is not practical for non-broadband users. Small downloadable games might benefit from Digital-River. It is to bad that there is not an MP3.com like site for independant game developers.


Glen Martin
Dynamic Adventures Inc.
http://www.zenfar.com

So how do you fulfill your orders, do you just create a CD at home and send it out? I would definitely like to offer the CD option.

Does anyone want to share their success (or lack of success) stories about selling their game over the internet? Anyone??


Zeus Interactive

Anyone??

For small orders, samples, etc. you could just burn them yourself. For larger orders you may want to try: Disc Makers at http://www.discmakers.com/

Glen Martin
Zenfar

Cool, thanks for the response GlenRM, hope you are successful selling your game. To me, it will be worth it if even one person buys one of my games and writes back to say they had fun.

It would be nice if there was a service that could fulfill smaller orders (maybe 10 to 50 a week) rather than buying a machine. Or maybe I should just buy one and start my own mini-Zomax! Unless anyone knows of such a service already...

I''m still looking for someone to share their success (or lack of success) story about selling their game on the internet! Come on guys, let''s all share! :-)

Well the story is still being written. But so far the first few chapters are done. I''ve worked by myself for at least 2 years teaching myself what I need to know. I''ve written two fairly decent (yet simple) games that I''m proud of. I''ve yet to design "The Big One" that will hopefully complete the story of my stuggle to create a stable and profitable (doesn''t have to be millions but enough to support myself would be nice) software developement company.

I''ve sold a handfull of copies of one of my games. I once thought selling ONE copy would be enough. I was told that selling one would not be enough. The person that told me that was right.

I am now stuggling to understand and complete all the little bussiness aspects of the game. I wish all I had to do was program and not worry about marketing, taxes, legal mumbo jumbo, and all the other worries that come around when you want to work for yourself. But it must be done eh?

I''m also checking into other opportunities that will allow me to sell more of my games to a wilder market. I''m excited yet terrified of those plans.

There are many more chapters that will be written in my book. Hopefully, they will be filled with success stories and not failure.

Good luck to you!

-Tasm
Tams11 Software

Alright! Thanks Tams, now I don''t feel so alone. I would love it if more people gave their stories about being a lone wolf, I am so impressed with the stuff I''ve seen from the people that have responded to this.

Here''s another question, the try before you buy approach helps alot, but can someone give me an estimate of how much customer service effort might be required?

Thanks again to everyone who''s posted already! Please, post your story about selling your game on the internet if you have one!



Zeus Interactive

Here''s some more info...

I am making a game (http://www.elmerproductions.com/igor). I''ve been at it for four years now (spare time) so it''s about time it is finished ;-)

In any case, I have not sold it yet (as it''s not finished) but I am also investigating options (CD printers, distributors, internet sales, etc.)

I am also running another site for a golden-oldie game (Supaplex - http://www.stack.nl/~ep/sp/index.html) which generates about 100 visits a day (it has been that way for almost 5 years now). To give you an indication, on average I get about 2-3 emails a day (I estimate). Usually people asking stupid questions (and they get worse by the month ;-) so if you make a website, be sure to put links to the FAQ (''RTFM!'') everywhere, and links to your email address only in the FAQ (or something like that anyway).

It also depends on how easy your game is to install/start/play/use/etc.

Anyway, I''ve set up a mailinglist for my new game, and it has about 1000 people registered on it (if only they would all buy my game when it''s out!) Mainly I get visitors there because they have been on my other (Supaplex) site, so that has helped.

I am still considering options for ads (and how much money I should spend on it) and other related things...

If I end up doing the distribution myself, I will most likely get about 1000 CD''s printed as a start (call it an investment). At less than $5 per CD (fully boxed) it''s a hard, but possible investment...

If I get a publisher to do ''all the work'' for me, I might sleep easier though ;-))

Regards,
Maarten Egmond
(and check out the website at http://www.elmerproductions.com/igor ;-)