Jinxx, I''d be really interested to hear your thoughts on avoiding the pitfalls you mentioned in your previous post. That was an eye opening insightful read.

I guess I am a glutton for punishment. The game industry is still a very fun and exciting industry to work for, I would rather fight to exist in this field than to get stabbed in the back trying to sell wedge-o-matics. My point was that this is a business like any other and you just need to know the pitfalls.


There are ways around the problems they are just hard to acomplish.


The key is getting as much done on the project before shopping it around. You will avoid a lot of tampering from a publisher if the game is already "done-ish". You will also get better royalties since there is less risk to the publisher.

There are also second line publishers out there that may give you a better deal if they think you have a quality product.

There are also Angel investors and venture capitalists. They will take a portion of your company to fund you but then you can finish your game before shopping it around. A small percentage of a large amount of money is a lot better then a small percentage on a large amount of money. These guys will want a lot to documentation and a solid business plan so be prepared. They may also want collateral on there investment which can be a problem.

Then there is self publishing. The internet is powerful these days. If you can somehow finish your game and market it on a website you can suceed. The makers of Combat Mission are my favorite example of sucess in this arena. You will sell a fraction of the units you would in stores (in most cases) but you will get almost all the profits!

The point is that the further you can get your project along the more leverage you have. The odds and possiblities increase the longer you can afford to work on a project on your own.

I will be using a combonation of the above methods to look for the best deal for me. We will find out if I am right.

Josh

Game Designer/Producer -(unannounced project)
Former Designer and Producer of Starfleet Command II and Orion Pirates

Jinxx,
You have the same discussion going on here in 2 threads. Perhaps we could consolidate it to a single thread?

quote: Original post by LordKronos
Care to say which game. While I cant say I''ve been keeping up with any of the statistics, I dont recall any launch titles that I would expect to sell that poorly.

That''s exactly my point -- you''d be surprised to see some of the sales numbers in the industry. And no, I would prefer not to say which game for fear of harming the developer''s reputation. Also, the information was given to me by a trusted source who worked with the developer, and I wouldn''t betray his confidence. It wasn''t Halo...that''s for sure.