Do publishers ever advance money to developers to complete a game demo given to them? Or is this practically unheard of unless the company has a known track record of making games that sell?

Of course, what do you think?

Advances are nearly always paid, either when you sign or as milestone payments. The you can get paid on completion, Beta, whatever variation they may come up with.

Track records are important; non-budget publishers will likely want to know which titles you''ve completed before or even want to meet your team/company before paying you.

Now, if you are talking about budget publishers (which I assume), things are different.

Budget publishers will likely only accept your game if its (near) finished. Then they will likely pay you something like half on contract and the rest within a certain time or as royalties. You will be hard pressed to find any budget publisher who will actually finance the rest of development unless they contracted your company to develop their game or its really, really good. They will likely not visit your company, then on the other hand they won''t pay you nearly as much as ''real'' publishers.

HTH

Mark

In budget it''s practically never the case. Like any sensible businessman would see it he''ll never put money into something he won''t make at least twice the invested amount from. Financing development of a budget game demo is pointless because instead of your product he can take 100 other products without the hassle. Budget titles are 13 in a dozen so to speak. Nobody cares about technology as the customer doesn''t care either. What do you expect for $5? Talking about NDAs, advances on royalties or any other nonsense will immediately cause them to drop your game and take the next best thing instead from a developer without an "attitude".

I do agree with Mark Tanner by the way about "real" publishers paying for a good game. But if you don''t happen to own a well financed development studio already it''s a tough chance you''ll ever get to speak to someone at EA or Activision.What you are left with are marginal publishers with limited budgets who in turn have to make due with second and third choice products which were addordable due to them being produced on a shoestring budget. It''s two different worlds really. I think the guys on this board who work for a professional studio will be able to tell you the exact differences.

There''s however nothing wrong with being creative and making your own homegrown game. As long as you don''t try to copy Quake 3 or C&C. It''s a level of perfection you''ll never beat. Try a puzzle game or another non-violent type of product. It''s usually what still sells nowadays...

If this is a budget game then you wont get an advance.

If it is full price the publisher would only sign the game if the developer had industry experience or the game was already 95% complete.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

quote: Original post by Obscure

If it is full price the publisher would only sign the game if the developer had industry experience or the game was already 95% complete.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

I thought publishers prefer demos to nearly finished games so that they could tell the developers what changes to make in the design? I don''t think most developers would want to rewrite 50% of their 95% finished game.

quote: Original post by FenixDown
I thought publishers prefer demos to nearly finished games so that they could tell the developers what changes to make in the design? I don''t think most developers would want to rewrite 50% of their 95% finished game.

No, no, it all works out. Remember that saying...something like once you finish the first 90%, then you have the last 90% left to do. So a game that''s 95% complete is a little bit more than halfway finished.

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me Hehe.

FenixDown,

What I said was "if the developer had industry experience or the game was already 95% complete."

OR is the important part. If you are an experinced developer they will sign the game early as they trust you to finish it, then interfere in the design/development in order to stop you finishing it.

If you are not experienced then they wont sign you UNLESS you have a 95% finished game.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

>>If this is a budget game then you wont get an advance.

Says who? I have gotten several advances for games that were published budget. Now, it is true that they are harder to get (especially in the US), but I know of several programmers (myself included) that don''t even do a deal without an advance.

If a budget company is not willing to put up an advance, for whatever reason, I don''t think it''s worth going with them.

Agree. You cannot generalize. It's the same for the 'real' publishers. If your game kicks ass, they'll buy it and pay you even if you've never done a game before. If you cannot get them to pay an advance, they just don't want your game badly enough or they don't think your team is professional enough. (i.e. do you have a studio they can visit, etc.)

Experience is a plus, but by no means always necessary to land a deal or get an advance. Budget titles are easier so publishers will make fewer demands on you.

>>If you are not experienced then they wont sign you UNLESS you have a 95% finished game.<<

That's true in most cases, but not all. Again, if your game rocks, it doesn't need to be 95% complete. If its playable and shows off the cool stuff without bugs, plus if you have your graphic style done so they know in which direction its heading, they may sign you. Sure, its not easy (playable demo means at least most of the engine must be completed) but its very possible.


Mark

[edited by - Mark Tanner on June 21, 2002 12:36:54 PM]