Hi. I have a few business questions. I''m looking for resources on the profitability of games online. I''m not actually talking about complete games though. I''m referring to game demos that get downloaded off of sites where the user makes $.50 a download or something. Resources that I''m looking for are some of the most popular game demo download sites, finacial data about games of this sort, and personal expereince. If you have any suggestions, please. Secondly,on the salary side. Our business is into multi-media. We are a C corporation based out of Charlotte North Carolina. Currently we have grant applications on teh table to help expand our small business. Developing small time game demos is something that we want append to our products/services. We are looking to hire programmers and animators with a low-level to mid-level of exp. In your opinion, what is a good salary range for these persons based on their exp. We''re obviously working from a growing state. We won''t start off making the next Square RPG or Great fighting game. We want to make modest demos to be distributed online and work our way up through time to conferences and shows such as the GDC. Once we turn our a reasonable demo we will seek publishing, but since our main goal is making game demos or very small projects, publishing and distribution will be (at first ) in the local area and on the internet. thanx in advance for any info peace -Sage13

Hey, Is anybody qualified to answer these questions? I see some good information on surrounding posts, and I have used some of that as a foundation for some of the answers but I''m still missing some direct information. If any one could assist, please.

peace

-Sage13

quote: Original post by Sage13
Hey, Is anybody qualified to answer these questions? I see some good information on surrounding posts, and I have used some of that as a foundation for some of the answers but I''m still missing some direct information. If any one could assist, please.

peace

-Sage13

Maybe if you wait more than an hour or two you''ll get some good responses.

Check www.salary.com for general programmer salaries (You''re looking at around 50K depending on experiences)

You can find some information on game development and artist salaries in an article over at gamasutra.

It seems kind of strange to try to make money off of game demos. I''m not sure where you''d find information on that, but if you have a download site in mind, you should contact their customer service and ask them.

quote: Original post by CheeseGrater


Maybe if you wait more than an hour or two you''ll get some good responses.

heh, sorry.

Thanx for the leads though.

Sage, I''ve never heard of a pay-to-download model... ??? What the heck are you talking about? Who is paying? Who is getting the money? If it''s not a complete game who is going to pay for that? Who is writing the game? You have confused me.

I too am puzzled by this concept. I know of no sites that pay people to download demos. A demo is a demonstration version of a full product. They are given away free to promote a full game/application. Users don''t pay or get paid to download them and the download sites that host them don''t pay the developers for them either. They are a promotional tool given away for free.

I am further confussed by your suggestion that you are going to make money from writing demos. There are two forms of demo and neither make money directly. Firstly Developers make demos in order to get funding from a publisher for a full title. They cost money to create and it is the developer that stumps up that money in order to get a contract. secondly when a game or application is finished a demo is produced as a promotional tool to help sell the full product. As mentioned above it is created as a promotional tool. People don''t pay you to make them.

I''m sorry, I guess the best thing to call it is shareware. What we''ll probably do is make serveral game episodes that add up to a complete game. Each episode, which might be a whole segment of the game, may cost a modest amount for players to download. The total game however wouldn''t be developed at once and so I''m think of them as Demos.

It's only shareware if people can get something for nothing. If, for example, your first (fully functional) episode was downloadable for free while the rest had to be purchased, then you'ld be in the world of shareware.

If each every episode has to be purchased though, then you're purely in the comercial realm regardless of the game format.

[edited by - sorrow on April 17, 2002 11:12:46 AM]

Sorrow,

Shareware is not "something for nothing." It''s "try it before you buy it."

There''s a rather large difference.


DavidRM
Samu Games

Maybe I was too general, but in the episodic forumla he''s outlining they often end up being equivalent. First episode free as a hook... if you want to play the rest you have to open up your wallet.