Hi. I almost finished my first home made game. This game style is something like "Super Collapse" or "Zuma". I mean it is 2D casual game. So i want to sell it. I'm just checked some game sites like "yahoo games" or "oberon media" there is a lot of such games. I want to sell my game trough this sites. I've start make my game not for commercial purposes. But now, as i see, it looks better that many other games i've just seen in 'Yahoo games' and such sites. And i've decided to make some money if it possible. Question: can someone tell be about market of this games. There is a reason to make such games for selling them? And what approx. income i can expect in such bussines? P.s. I know, better game you make, more money you get. But i want to know more about this bussines (2D casual games). Big thanks if any one answer me!

Quote: Original post by limpacp
Hi.

I almost finished my first home made game. This game style is something like "Super Collapse" or "Zuma". I mean it is 2D casual game.

Good job!

Quote: Original post by limpacp
So i want to sell it. I'm just checked some game sites like "yahoo games" or "oberon media" there is a lot of such games. I want to sell my game trough this sites.
I've start make my game not for commercial purposes. But now, as i see, it looks better that many other games i've just seen in 'Yahoo games' and such sites. And i've decided to make some money if it possible.
Question: can someone tell be about market of this games. There is a reason to make such games for selling them? And what approx. income i can expect in such bussines?

Market for the games:
There are lots of players out there. Most of them congregate to common free sites (popcap, yahoo games, pogo, etc), or to inexpensive shareware and download sites. If your game fits the style of one of those sites, contact them and ask about their requirements for hosting your game.

Most of these casual-style games are offered for free. Some have more levels or features with a pay version, but the game is both fun and winnable with the free version.

Although there are lots of players, there is lots of competition. That means that the market is generally not very good for an indie.

If you want a good market, pick something that everybody is interested in but no product is filling. If you happen to find one of those, let me know so I can cash in on it.

Reason to make the games and sell them:
Because you want to. It generally won't be because of the profit margin. [grin] You need to answer that for yourself.

If your goal is to just have fun, then make sure you are having fun. I've known people who have a very expensive game development hobby, and never care about making money. They just want to make a fun web site with fun games, and are happy with it.

If your goal is to show off to people, then make sure you show off. Make something flashy, and let your friends say "Oohhhhh, Ahhhh."

If your goal is profit, then make sure you are making a profit. If you aren't making a profit, change your strategy to ensure that you begin making a profit. Repeat until you meet the goal.

Approximate income:
This depends on your goals (see above), what you decide to do, and how you do it.

If your goal is to do casual development for fun, count on a negative cash flow. If you manage to get 15 minutes of fame, you might sell a few copies. But expect no significant income.

If your goal is profit, you need to act like a business. It's amazing how many people don't realize this.

Businesses generally don't make money out of the chute. They often spend months or even years refining products before they make any significant sales. If you intend to release once and make a fortune, you aren't being realistic.

You need to set business goals, make commitments, and follow through. You need to create high-quality products -- but a high quality program is not enough. You need to market your products continuously, which generally means spending money. You need to sell stuff, so become (or hire) a sales expert. If your web site is your salesperson, you better make sure that it knows the details of making sales.

You probably already know enough about programming for a business. You need to learn all the things you don't like about business. If you don't know about accounting, learn it. If you don't know about marketing, start learning.

You need to understand your target audience. To quote an article, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak. Product features do not equal customer benefits. ... A great place to learn about selling is your local WalMart-type store. Look at all the products on the shelves. How do they present themselves? Do you see the words "free" and "new" on any boxes? What is the sizzle that these products are using to entice you to buy? Let's take diapers for instance. ... These are products that collect your baby's waste, but they are selling you on the values of pampering, loving, and hugging your child. If you think you are selling a product, you are wrong. Your product is a string of millions of ones and zeros. You are selling values and feelings. If you sell games, you are selling fun. If you sell utilities, you may be selling time or power. If you sell an image editor, you may be selling creativity or beauty. Know what you are really selling."

Once you know your audience and what you will be selling, you need to figure out if there is a market for it. You might be selling something wonderful -- you might have developed a version of minesweeper or solitaire that brings tears to people's eyes because of the serene beauty, joy to their soul from its enjoyability, and have orgasmic fun. But you aren't going to sell very many because everybody and their dog has more versions of the program than they ever care to play.

Measure everything. Measure how many people visit, and where they come from. Measure what they look at. Measure what they like about your programs, and what they dislike. Make some of your goals to improve the quality of the product.

Luck plays a part. You might have made an incredible Texas Hold'em game right before they began broadcasting it on cable and it became popular. You might have made "Be a terrorist!", the greatest FPS ever written ... but released it on September 10 2001.

You can't just sell one product. Well, you might be able to, but it's generally not going to be successful. Most successful businesses have several products. How many successful game groups do you know of that only have a single game? I don't know of any. I know of a few that have had 15 minutes of fame, but that's not success.

Quote: Original post by limpacp
P.s. I know, better game you make, more money you get. But i want to know more about this bussines (2D casual games).

That's untrue. I've seen incredible games that fail because of the reasons above. There are games that are nothing more than polished crap that sell extremely well.

Just because it is a 'better game' doesn't mean that there will be a market for it. It doesn't mean the market will know about it. It doesn't mean people will like the better product. It doesn't mean people will want to pay that much for it. It doesn't mean your product will be unsuccessful because you chose to release it on the wrong day of the week. Even if you developed the perfect game, there is no assurance that you will even sell a single copy.

Hope that helps.

frob.

Also: go read the whitepaper here:
http://www.igda.org/casual/

Explains a lot of the questions you have.

Quote: Original post by frob
Approximate income:
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If your goal is profit, you need to act like a business. It's amazing how many people don't realize this.

Businesses generally don't make money out of the chute. They often spend months or even years refining products before they make any significant sales. If you intend to release once and make a fortune, you aren't being realistic.

Exactly. Back when I used to watch the stock market, it was suprising how many tech companies would announce that they were 'now making a profit' after existing for YEARS. I'm thinking I remember LastMinute.com as an example.

It's also worth asking questions and reading previous posts at indieGamer as they those boards have a lot of people who have actully written and sold casual games.

One thing that mentioned on indieGamer that stuck in my mind was a discussion around what is the best platform to sell on. Most people develop and write games for Windows, because there are millions of us out there. But, according to some people the best platform to sell on is Mac. This is because they have a very limited number of games to choose from and are effectively starved on entertainment, where as the Windows user has so many games to choose from that we can get buy on just playing demos.

Might be worth thinking about cross-platforming your game :)

Can we have a link to some screenshots or a demo of your title?

Thanks for your posts.
Specially thanks to __ODIN__ for great link.
Now i'm a little bit inspired to continue my work. But, actually, i need to redesign couple of things. Unfortunally my home pc is dead. Now i wating for the next week, then i will buy a new pc and will continue my work.

to 6.
I'm actually in the middle of making demo. I think, i will finish it in this year. Due the constant overtimes in my work, i almost haven't time to work on my game. When my pc will be ready, i will post some screenshots or even demo.

Thanks!