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Original post by I_Smell_Tuna I don't plan to go to retailers with just good intentions. I know it will require large sums of money, and I'm not going to approach retailers without serious financial backing, to do otherwise would be a folley for business. And if it does flop there is always the chance for another game, or other channels of distribution. Digital Distro: A video game (especially an MMO) isn't nearly the size of an audio file. In a few years it will be more feasable.

And yet, it is quite possible to make a more than comfortable living selling games as downloads.

I've been providing front-line support for Small Rockets since 2004. Small Rockets itself has been selling games online since 2000. They tried the publishing route too, but it damned-near killed the company. (And these were _licenses_!) Small Rockets switched to a "virtual company" setup -- exactly as you are planning to do -- but I can assure you that it is by no means as simple and as painless as it is often portrayed. Be prepared for some nasty surprises.

What is, perhaps, surprising is just how often I field requests from mid-list publishers -- the kind who populate those carousels full of $9.99 CDs in retail stores -- for permission to sell our games. Now, this may come as a shock, but Small Rockets now _refuses_ all such requests: the support issues alone will wipe out pretty much any profit we might have made. I'm still dealing with support requests from customers who bought older titles on CD way back when. ESD titles have a _long_ shelf-life; we're still supporting games that were released back in 1999!

ESD is not without its obstacles, but it _is_ a much better ROI than retail. That I can assure you from *first-hand* knowledge.

Tuna, not to poo poo your dreams of being a developer and a publisher, but it just isn't good economics. In the end you would make more money working with a publisher because they deal in volumes and have relationships that create savings for them (and you) that you could never achieve with a single product (first product). They also bring along a lot of experience. This is how business works, you do your job, they do theirs, creating a mutual benefit. When microsoft manufactured the xbox, they had intel create their cpu, nvidia made the gpu, etc. They didn't try to do everything themselves, they found the most cost effective and lowest risk way to maximize their profits.

You really can't take the national retail publishing market by storm. The costs are huge and realistically, you wouldn't find suitable investers willing to risk on that type of venture. VCs are typically pretty tight with their money. They go for lowest risk with the highest return. This is the type of thing you'd only pull off if you were an ex CEO of a large publisher.

I've thought about it time and time again, my mind runs a mile a minute all day long thinking about it. The game is going to be a hybrid of RPG, FPS, and RTS. A little strange but I'm pretty sure I can pull it off.

Bobv: Please read previous posts for answers.

'Pretty Sure', if I was thinking of risking the kind of money you are talking about and investors money at that 'Pretty Sure' just wouldn't cut it :)

Good thing I have 3-5 years to make up my mind then.

Nice genre, what time is this taking place? I.E. Knights /w swords, soilders /w guns, or robots /w lasers?

Really, though. If you think about it every night before you go to bed and make a list of all the pros and cons as well as the future obstacles, it will give you a clearer insight into you idea and what stands before you. Even though I think you will fail, I still wish you best of luck.

Also, you didn't answer what programming experience you have. Do you have any at all?

Probably knights with swords, although I want to stay away from the elves and dwarves, I believe those races have been exhausted. I know what stands before me but I keep my eyes on the prize. I have about 3 years of programming in VB and about 1 year programming in C/C++. I'm just now learning the OpenGL and SDL libraries.

Ok, since I'm just such a nice guy, I'm going to give you one more tip.
http://www.ztorm.com

Online distribution, on the grow, they handle everything for you, you'll only pay when you sell something.

From fastlane69's source

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Since this is a small team I hope to give each team member a fair percentage of the earnings based on time and content contributed to the project

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Development costs - Approx. $5000

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1.) Since the team is still being formed I do not know what kind of developer expenses will be required. If you require frequent compensation for your work then I will see to it that you get it. I would prefer freelance workers that can work for a percentage of the value of their work with royalties included once the game ships

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Let me explain again the financial agreement that I hope some of the developers will agree to. Do their development work for a fraction of their asking price 75% or so, in exchange for a percentage of the game royalties. I don't expect anyone to work for free.

Well, a lot can happen in 3-5 years - perhaps there will be less retail outlets to court if online distribution becomes more of the norm, or some other dynamic distribution methods come about not known at present, either way, good luck if you can manage to do it but, my main worry would be how much you could pay your team to carry out your project successfully.

Do you really expect people to work on low wages with the slim hope of getting a share of royalties once it's selling?. How do you expect to keep them interested for up to 5 years on a project which, at the moment, you have no idea whether it will be successful enough to warrant royalties in the first place?.

You should bear in mind that it's not only yourself you should be thinking of when masterminding your new project but your prospective fellow workers also imo, regardless of whether they're freelancers or not.

I'll be interested to see how you get on though..... :)

Plus Game Store won't say, yeah, hello, give me a game we'll sell it for you. There is no quarentee these stores will want to sell your games...