Heyas.. Here are some thoughts ive amassed since trying to fund my own project...Ill use my project in the examples. I mean some of this you may already know but its just info i have gathered and may help any of you guys working on something. Our team basically wants to stay away from publishers even they are good we really wanna make some money from OUR hard work. Sure publishers can promote your work and provide you with funds but they are there to make profit and only profit, there a company. So of course there going to take most % of your sales. This has led me to find our own ways of promoting our project within the public and finding funds privately. Our game is a car game..and we do want real life cars brands in it...this can cost alot of money to make happen. We have a approached a few car manufactuers with ideas like...We will provide there latest car brochure inside the box..they seem to like this...if game sales were big enough plus would provide international viewing. We can either work a deal involving funding or using there cars and parts in our game. Another one was having a 3d car brochure in game..so players can look at 3d models of their cars and info , prices etc etc..they didnt seem so rosy on this one but it was worth a shot. Our game is also named after a movie about car too..which at first seemd to infinge on copyrights etc etc so it worried us..and still does. But we have confronted the copyright ownder of the movie...This particular movie is from the 80s and sales would be low and it sells for $15 AUS. We put to them that we would package a copy of this movie in the game...Thus we can ask for either some kind of funding or atleast to use that movie name. This way they get more movie sales and also once again international viewing of a movie that hardly sells. As for advertising our game with out a publisher, our biggest way is by having adverts in street car magazines...They have a huge subscriber base and most of them just love anything to do with cars so your instantly gaining views through them. And its well within a teams own pocket to advertise through these kinds of things. Another one which may seem easy but is to just advertise on every damned gaming site and forum u know on the net. Simple but effective. Alot of this may already be known or being done..this was just a little insite into how we are going about it. Although we dont have a commitement from anyone yet for funds it certainly gives you hope when they reply to you and are interested. The biggest thing is...you have to sell your game to them and they wanna know what they are going to get for investing into your project. Another thing is there not interested in games as such they want "their" products to be seen by as many people. Which means u have to provide them with enough information and statistical data you can aquire and put it all to them. This wasnt meant to be an end all way of getting things done just a way we are going about things to try by pass the publishers. Thanks Guys Adam !

Interesting idea, but how are you going to sell the game? How are you going to get it on store shelves, or will you only sell it online from your Web site? Your idea of advertising for cars within the game isn''t too bad, but is this wisely targetted advertising? Is the video game player demographic the same one these car manufacturers are concentrating on? These are a few things I think you might want to look into.

R.

I had a similiar idea, but I lacked the time to find advertisers.

At first thought we had planned to sell online but realistically looking your not gonna sell a whole lot are you, unless you get yourself out there and known. And even then sales i presume would be extremly high..Thats just my guess tho.
Which is a reason a publisher is handy it has the distribution resources.

As for advertising within the game maybe i worded it wrong but what i meant was the player can choose the car brochure from within the menu system. Just like an extra feature. So it isnt really within the playing of the game.

I think its wisely targeted advertising as the type that buys this game would have an interest in cars. And i think car manuactures do point there advertising at the younger group of people in readyness for them to buy cars. Influence there minds early.

I think like i said they want numbers...They want as many of these kids and older to be seeing their cars.

The only downfall is the fact that we wouldnt be selling within stores and that does worry me to some point depending on how good our final product ends up being.


Thanks
Adam

Well, one thing to keep in mind is that advertisers spend money to get results. Immediate results if possible. They don''t typically put ads or brochures out to get people to buy something 5 years in the future. Perhaps another option you haven''t considered is the possibility of licensing or affiliating yourself with a particular association, like you often see games that are sponsored by NASCAR or whatever. The only problem with this is the license probably costs a fair bit of cashola.

Even though the demographic of gamers is changing, I think you''ll find that the market is still made up largely of 15-18 year olds that don''t necessarily have the means to purchase a car, or even hold a driver''s permit for that matter. So, whatever merchandising opportunities you want to offer your investors should target the people who will likely buy the game. Right?

R.

Tacit your points are well recieved and have gone through my head in the past as well. Very true that people want instant results from advertising might have to change my ways there.

Well our game isnt a car racing game as such its a story driven street car racing game so we really only need to license specific cars from the manufacturer. And from what i have read lately Codemasters has brought up the rights to alot of racing associations (sly) lol. And i dont think its cheap like u said.

Cheers

Are there perhaps other merchandising opportunities that you could explore? I would have to know more about your game to suggest any specifics, but I would imagine even a modest endorsement from a soft drink vendor could help you out a lot, for example.

Well so far what i have said is all i have looked into thanks for your advice tacit im welcome to any other ideas towards this topic not just for me but for others too.

Hrmm drink vendor now thats an idea i shall look into. Now that i think about maybe even large food vendors too.

Well without going into full detail the best way to describe the game is as a recent version of the old game street and similar to Motor City Online BUT its a story driven single player game.

We have gone for a bit of uniqueness as the game is set in Australia with aussie muscle cars etc etc because most of the team is from Australia and there are no games with these things in it so to speak, whether or not this setting pays of well have to wait and see.

But there will be a huge scale city for the driver to explore and free drive to everywhere as there are no restraints on where to go as the story unfolds as the player does things.
So tacit your idea of drinks vendors and such could work with us advertising them in the city like real cities with billboards and such. Damn you got my mind thinking overtime now.

Basically u arent locked into the story as the game is aimed at street drag racing so there is plenty to do while not having to worry about the story line as a primary goal, as it just unfolds.

We have our own built car engine which looks very good and mataches graphics with anything similar available to date. Right now our game tools are in construction meaning things like a in team map editor and car designer for examples. Once there complete we can begin construction of the city as actual car model construction is under way.

Mind you we are only hobbyist but we work together well and hopefully this will head us in the right direction for jobs somewhere in the game industry.

Thanks
Adam

Well, this is how it all starts. Good luck with your project.

R.