I was searching download.com for "racing" and found a game called "Elasto Mania" to be the fourth most downloaded game among the top professinal racing games of EA, Eidos and other giants. It has got 412,829 downloads! I downloaded the demo and found the game great. But I still cannot explain 412,829!

Is there a scientific survey on the factors and main effects on game downloads and game sales? What are the effects seperately and in combination? Main effects can be:

* Price
* Download size
* Announcement frequency
* Advertisement frequency
* Game overall rating (Can be extended as: gameplay, graphics, sound, game idea, concept popularity ...)
* Publishing method
* Minimum requirements

What are the other main effects?

What would 412,829 become if Elasto Mania was 20$ or 5$ instead of 10$?

There is a track editor in the game which unites global communities of Elasto Mania fans. What would happen if the track editor was not provided?

Can anybody explain with objective evidence with focusing on diverse cases such as Elasto Mania?

Can we (as the forum members of Dexterity) conduct a cooperate survey on this subject?

ergas

Just tried it...

Exploded my desktop ( it changed the colors of my windows scheme to black so i could barely see anything )
And the game didn't launch at all.
I'd be lucky that it didn't install any spyware ! ( let's run the spy-check now ! )

0 stars.


412000 downloads is not that much, you have to see on how long.( on 2 years - 5 years ? ). I also know several people who use bots to fake the download counters so they appear in the top listings...

pat.

I've always really enjoyed the game. It's difficult, but not impossible. The physics are a real hoot, and the levels are fun to play around in.

Sorry I don't have much to add to the topic at hand, just my 2 cents on the game :)

Originally posted by ergas
I was searching download.com for "racing" and found a game called "Elasto Mania" to be the fourth most downloaded game among the top professinal racing games of EA, Eidos and other giants. It has got 412,829 downloads! I downloaded the demo and found the game great. But I still cannot explain 412,829!
Elastomania has been out for a long time. At least 4 years. So that 400,000 downloads is spread out over a long time. Don't forget every time you update a listing on download.com it updates the games release date, so it wasn't actually released on 08/07/2003 as download.com suggests.

Secondly, unfortunately, elastomania was cracked very soon after release. So a lot of those downloads are from people who just want the demo so that they can run the crack and get the full game for free (I'm sure half of all download.com's traffic is for this reason...)

Lastly, it's a good, unique game so it gets a lot of word of mouth advertising. It's the kind of game that you play, then tell a few friends about because it was so cool. That really brings in the downloads.

Elastomania is a brilliant and innovative game.

Just some comments on some of the factors you've listed..

> * Download size

Everyone seems to agree that this is a biggie. I've heard/read several people say that a 2mb game demo of the same game will outsell the 4mb version by 2-1

> * Price

It think this is important past certain thresholds but probably not as important as people think. My pricing experiments showed rather small differences in sales between 10$ and 20$ -- In terms of profit aiming high seems to be a bit better.

> * Announcement frequency

I think this is fairly important. Re-releasing new versions gives you another chance to be in the limelight. Without being in a what's new list? or on the front page of download sites how do people spot your game and download it?

> * Advertisement frequency

Advertising is very tricky and successful advertising is hard to come by. I've lost tons of money advertising and I'm much more reticent to spend money on ads nowdays.. although clearly a good ad can pay for itself. Advertising can be used as a tool though in some cases. For instance a site that lists by number of downloads could list your title on the first page if you advertise enough and beyond that the advertising may have served it's purpose.

>* Game overall rating (Can be extended as: gameplay, graphics,
>sound, game idea, concept popularity ...)

I don't think stars etc.. listed on download sites have much effect generally because most of the sites that use ratings systems nowdays do so very poorly. They're not consistent and people who download have discovered that a 5 star or 4 star rating is not necessarily a guage of quality. A good review always helps though.

Aside from what you mention here other important factors off the top of my head include searchability (willl targeted people find your title by searching for it?), technical quality (will it run when people get it?), server reliability and speed, and word of mouth.

One thing to consider is that word of mouth is potentially explosive. If, on average, a user of the game convinces 0.5 or more people to download and play the game, the download count is doubled due to word of mouth. If the number is 0.75, it is quadrupled. At 1.0 or higher there is a chain reaction on the loose, which doesn't stop until it all the people are touched (or at least all the people in the 1.0 or higher category).

I would add to the list:
lack of cracks
easy and secure ordering + money back guarantee option
marketing targeted at right people
description that makes people wonder what the game is about

Originally posted by RedClaw
[...]
Lastly, it's a good, unique game so it gets a lot of word of mouth advertising. It's the kind of game that you play, then tell a few friends about because it was so cool. That really brings in the downloads.

Yes, exactly.

Heard about it, played it and talked about it with others.

But I'm still wondering why they have such a crappy page... well... maybe they don't need a better one ;)

Originally posted by oNyx
But I'm still wondering why they have such a crappy page... well... maybe they don't need a better one ;)

Yeah! Maybe they became so rich that they founded a new game development company or they got a project and released Motocross Madness. ;)

ergas

Last time I spoke to the developer (which was actually quite a while ago now) sales of elastomania were'nt enough to go full time. Therefore perhaps he thinks creating a more fancy website would be a waste of time.

then again, I have a theory that if a game is really good, it doesn't matter how awful the website looks because people want to buy it regardless.

Hmm... strange.

Well several people told me, that that game rocks. I visited the page and was still absolutly clueless... I was even unable to spot screenshots or any useful information. Nevertheless I downloaded the game - just because "it si teh rawk!" and indeed - it is. Without that information I won't have downloaded it, in the case I' been stumbled upon that page.

Ugly, painfull to navigate and no screenshots at all. IMO a little redesign could pay off. 2-3 hours of work and it would look at least 10 times better.

Yeah. I have no sympathy for anyone who refuses to even put a screenshot on the site. Despite the boring site, I downloaded it anyway since everyone had such good things to say. I guess I just don't get it. It's interesting and unique, sure, but it just doesn't seem any fun to me.

Originally posted by Diodor
One thing to consider is that word of mouth is potentially explosive.
It is more than just explosive. Recent research undertaken on behalf of ELSPA (European Software Publishers Association) shows that word of mouth is the single biggest factor in software purchasing decisions.

If, on average, a user of the game convinces 0.5 or more people to download and play the game, the download count is doubled due to word of mouth. If the number is 0.75, it is quadrupled. At 1.0 or higher there is a chain reaction on the loose, which doesn't stop until it all the people are touched (or at least all the people in the 1.0 or higher category).
I think you need to take another look at your maths ;)

Originally posted by obscure
I think you need to take another look at your maths ;)
Actually, from a mathematical standpoint, he is correct.

At 0.5: 100 people download. They convince 100*0.5=50 people more to download. Those 50 people convince 50*0.5=25 more people to download, who in turn convince 25*0.5=12 more people to download, etc...100 original downloader resulting in 100+50+25+12+6+3+1=196 people to download. Roughly twice the original 100 (with larger numbers and without rounding, the math will converge on exactly 2X)

At 0.75: 100 + 75 + 56 + 42 + 31 + 23 + 17 + 12 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 381, or approx 4 times

A1 1.0: 100 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 100 ...... + 100 = Everyone and their mother.


Of course, what a realistic figure for word of mouth factor would be, I can't say.

Last time I spoke to the developer (which was actually quite a while ago now) sales of elastomania were'nt enough to go full time.
Well this is another example of the LUCK factor in indie dev...! since everyone agree that is a good game, and had ton of downloads, why the author says that???

(unless he consider going full-time as having a Ferrari in the garage :D)

I played the demo of this game when it was called Action SuperCross and I think it's a bit too difficult to be enjoyable. It's more frustrating than fun, and that only appeals to some people (I think). I remeber a lot of people playing this game in my school, but I don't think anyone bought the game since the first levels were rather difficult and as the game progressed it had to become more difficult which was a bit much for most people (not many of them (I think) ever completed the demo). And I somehow feel like the purpose of the game is fighting with the controls which destroys the sense immersion for me.

Originally posted by Jack_Norton
Well this is another example of the LUCK factor in indie dev...! since everyone agree that is a good game, and had ton of downloads, why the author says that???
Not everyone :) I tried playing the game again, and just got even more frustrated by it. Funny what dreeze said, because it was exactly what I was thinking as I quit the game just a few minutes ago. It belongs to a category of games I really hate: games whose entire "fun" factor is derived from being difficult to play/control. I'm trying to remember the last game I played like that (it was about 6 months ago), but I guess the experience was so traumatic I erased it from my mind. To me, it's like ripping out my chest hair with pliers for fun, but I suppose some people do find it fun. :)

I'm not so sure about the luck factor on this one. Looking at the site, it doesn't even look like the developer made a convincing effort to try and sell the game. Even by 4 or 5 year old standards, that site is pretty pathetic. There's no real effort made at showing off the game. Now, as a consumer, I've become accustomed to most businesses putting 95% of their effort into getting my money and 5% into making me happy. However, it doesn't even look as if he wants my money that bad. How could I help but have terrible expectations about the level of satisfaction I'll receive if I buy. I wouldn't call it "bad luck" as much as "a lack of apparent effort"

Also, the game may have received a lot of downloads, but I wonder how many people were disappointed and felt misled after downloading the game. The website calls the game "a motorbike simulation game based on a real physical model". I can't quite remember the last time I rode a motorcycle that felt like that. It doesn't simulate anything I know of, and there is nothing realistic about a fantasy scenario. Call the game what it is and you might attract the type of audience that will be interested.

Hard to know what some people will like.

I downloaded it, poked at it for a few moments, said "Huh? What am I supposed to do here?" and was about to close it, when my other half took over the computer ("Let me try.") and played through several levels, being amused by his repeated slow-head-crunches.

Different strokes. (Or maybe it's the appeal of watching your wife look clueless that somehow kicks in and makes the game appealing.) :)