Hi, I am planning to make an indie game developers group. I would like to sell PC games. BUT I dont know how. I think of some ways to do this like: -STEAM -Create site that accepts money from credit cards and give the game by downloading -burn it in CD and sell(but how and where?) problems: -i dont know how steam works. i cant understand. -when creating a website that accepts money,will it need a permission. and how will i assure the customers that we will deduct the same amount from their credits cards? what are paypal and creditcard? i dont know anything about that. -where will i sell the CD? and how will it grow? im living in a country where piracy is often done. please,i need help..

My suggestion is to create a game first, then it's overall quality can be used to decide which distribution method you will use.

-Steam (what can't you understand??), just download it and see. There are tons of games, people browse, buy them and download them through the software and then play. A part of the profit goes back to you. If you want to add your game to the game list in Steam, visit http://www.valvesoftware.com/business/. Be sure that they probably have a pretty high quality standard and won't accept everything, so a demo, good videos, shinny screenshots is a must.

-There are other online game distribution network/software like Steam. I can think of http://www.direct2drive.com and another big one I don't remember the name. You should mostly check http://www.playgreenhouse.com/, they are there for helping indie developers do exactly that.

-Creating a website with your own credit card certification and everything can be complex and lot of user won't trust it. Using Paypal is perfect, it's like a bank, people will send money into your account and when you receive it you send them a e-mail with information on where to get your game.

-Selling CD need you to do business with an editor, create box art, manual, then do some business with a place to print tons of CD (and it cost a lot of money). Then your editor should make publicity and allow you to get your box in the shelves of wal-marts and ebgames around the world. Again, cost a lot of money.

You lives in a country where piracy is often done? Piracy is worldwide dude.

[Edited by - Dunge on March 22, 2009 4:19:23 PM]

am i required to have a registered company in order to put my games on a publisher? or i can just name me and my other teammate as (sample)-games company?

Quote: Original post by macmoyAm i required to have a registered company in order to put my games on a publisher?

No, but you probably should. If you'd not registered as a company, you will be signing contracts as an individual and you will become personally legally liable for anything which leads on from that. If your game makes someone's computer explode and they sue, they will be sueing you, and it will be your money and your house on the line. If, on the other hand, you had registered as a limited liability company (or whatever the equivalent in your country is) then the company would be sued and your house would not be at risk.

ouch!! that hurts!

is there any online registration for a ebusiness? coz we dont have any office and how can we pay tax? we still dont have income. and we still dont know if we will have an income.

Quote: Original post by macmoy
am i required to have a registered company in order to put my games on a publisher? or i can just name me and my other teammate as (sample)-games company?

Most publishers will require that you register a company for legal reasons. However, you can send them the game first and then if anyone is interested pay an accountant to set up the company for you.

Many people I know including me will not buy games that require steam.

Steam is a horrible piece of *$&*# and if you are without internet connection you cant play your game. Steam is why I do not buy anything Valve makes anymore.


A good way is to create a website and offer it there for download.

Quote: Original post by Chrono1081
Steam is a horrible piece of *$&*# and if you are without internet connection you cant play your game.

Could you give a concrete argument to why you believe Steam is so bad? Are you judging Steam by how it was first released?

Steam has flourished into quite possibly the best digital distrubition platform out today and a very large chunk of all PC digitally distributed games are actually done through Steam now. You CAN play your steam games offline, AND if you are an indie developer, the most cost effective method of getting your game out there is through digital distribution, which by its very definition means having an internet connection.

Quote: Original post by Chrono1081
Many people I know including me will not buy games that require steam.

Steam is a horrible piece of *$&*# and if you are without internet connection you cant play your game. Steam is why I do not buy anything Valve makes anymore.


A good way is to create a website and offer it there for download.

Its funny, steam is one of the few ways in which i still buy games, (The only other exception is completely DRM free games but those are rare). I find the ability to access my game(s) from anywhere (that has an internet connection) at any time without having to carry around and keep track of a bunch of plastic discs extremely valuable. (Oh, and offline mode works fairly well in my experience for those rare occasions when you don't have an internet connection)

And ofcourse its really nice to just buy some random indie games that take a few minutes to download for $5-$20 or so when you're bored.

Heres an example of when I bought Orange Box.

I installed the game, I could not play it because the game wanted to connect to steam. I work in a remote part of the world and cannot connect my personal computer to my work network, so I had to wait until I got home on R and R. So I go home, I connect to steam, do the updates and what not, play Orange Box, come back to work and a few months go by and even though none of my games have ever been connected to the internet since, they stop working and want updated on steam. Well, I cant update.

I go to steams website, shoot in a ticket, I get no response. A little bit later I reconnect my computer to the internet, and see that steam thinks my game is invalid. I can no longer play orange box. I shoot in another ticket, no response. I have a useless orange box that I paid money for when I could have easily gone and bought a working cracked version for $5 and not had to deal with the waiting and mess (but I dont because I'm not one for piracy in the least).

I complain about it to fellow coworkers who incidentally had similar issues with games that use steam. Maybe something has improved since then (this was roughly 6 months ago) but that is the reason I dont buy any game that requires steam. YMMV

EDIT: Offline mode does nothing in my situation :/ Already tried.