Hello everyone!

This will just be a rant, probably, so you'll just have to excuse me (being new to the forum at all).

Just wanted to tell you all that I've seen the light! I really have!
And it's all due to to the vast documentation presented by mr Pavlina.
Thank you Steve!
Unfortunately I don't have the funds to support you at the moment, but when (not if) that moment comes you will be given a personal reward from me.
(I can't even afford a ASP membership, that's how bad it is...it's one of my set goals to get one ASAP)

I considered myself fairly pro, before reading all of the articles. Now I can clearly see that this wasn't the case at all. Infact, I'm sub-amateur!

Having released 4 products in 18 month I'm still having dismal sells.

No wonder, I didn't even now that there were existing factors like "registration incentive" and "order system".
And now seeing that most of these factors are very weak with me, I finally understand why I have dismal sales.
And, to me, that was a huge step forward.

No, I don't think that my products are that bad, infact I've gotten a lot of in-depth feedback about them all saying how good they think the games are.
Despite of the above I've been looking into how to make my next game better instead of focusing my energy on all the other factors and to improve the existing product.
So, instead of adding that cool pixel-shader to my next product, I won't even start doing my next product until I've made my latest product into a hit.

On top of this realisation I've now sat up a few "crystal-clear" goals to be reached before christmas and a few "quite-foggy" ones to be reached before the next summer.
The reason for the latter ones being foggy is because they haven't been cleared-up yet.

Ok, so what's the point of this rant then?
Well, I just felt in a good mood after having read the articles and to have started to form a real plan for what I want to do and to expect with "my shareware-bussiness" so I wanted to write something about it...

To summarize the most important realisations into one sence:
"I'm not stupid, I just don't know enough at this time"

Here's my page:
http://www.akatora.com
Feel free to give me feedback on it (and the products). Would be highly appreciated!

Now I'm off to picking all of the "factors of selling" into pieces and improving each of them with delight.
I've lost valuable time just writing this... :)

So, a big thank you to you all!
-Mikael

hrm, just vague off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts...

Some of your games have very strange titles. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, weird titles can be helpful in making people remember your games, but... "Cunyngas" confuses me, I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean, how to pronounce it, not likely to remember how it was spelled, and it feels like it ought to be a rude word in an obscure language.

"Moral Minus" immediately makes me think I must be playing someone evil and amoral.

And as for the rose garden... well, all you've got on the front page is a rose picture and a girl's name. Is this a cute non-violent game? I'm guessing not, but that's the second thing that comes into my head... (The first being "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden", which is a novel about schizophrenia.) Looking at that one in more depth...

When I click on the 'more info' for a title, I expect more info right away. Not system information, which really doesn't tell me anything about the game. I want a fuller explanation of the game, preferably with screenshots, *immediately*. Yes, I know there's links on the side, but I already clicked more info, I want my info. :)

I'm not sure I understand some of the breakdown on the sidebar anyway... What exactly do you mean by 'System'? I thought it would be the system information that was already shown, but it wasn't, it was something about bonuses.

As an anti-javascript nutcase, I can't easily see your screenshots. :)

"Genre: Shmup, STG" - Is the usage of 'shmup' really that common in the gaming world? I know there are genre fans who'll respond to it, but I'd never HEARD the term until I came to this board, despite having played those games. Also not really sure what strategy elements there are in this title. I don't see any, poking around. To me, "Arcade Action" would make more sense as a genre listing.

A few small grammar/spelling flubs here and there but not anything too big.

Anyway, these are just my ramblings.

I've seen your site in the past, you have pretty cool games :)

Your (c) 2002 let the user on the impression that your site hasn't been updated for a long time... ( would i buy a game if I can't get support anymore ? )

Might be a little change that could bring you some sales...
pat.

Thanks a lot to both of you!

There's definately a lack of info and even wrong info on the page that needs to be fixed asap.

I actually had a english-teacher to look it through for spelling mistakes and stuff...I think I have to fire her a***... :)

Thanks again!
-Mikael

a big problem in your game.
You say "press any key to continue", if i press space bar nothing happens. ( need to press X )

That might be a big problem for a lot of people if they can't get into the game.

pat

Well, I must say im interested to see how things will change for you. Many (most?) of the develoeprs who come here after reading Steve's articles decide to start on their first project, or "get serious".

You have the unique perspective of having already produced a few games. I havn't played them but from looking at the screenshots, they look to be of good quality. I'm very curious to see how much of an improvement you'll be able to see with a new perspective on selling shareware.

To be honest I think that you should raise your prices, as someone said earlier on this board, people may hesitate to bring out their creditcard for $5-$10.

I also think that your website needs a few improvements, as papilion said, when you click more info, you want more info and maybe 1-3 screenshots (thumbnails).

I didn´t like the fact that when I clicked on a link for a specific game, "more info", "download" or something like that, then the menu on the left was exchanged for a game-menu, I think that the main-menu should always be visible.

In my opinion the feedback page looked really messy, I think it has something to do with the fact that everything is black. If I remember correct people has said something about having a bright background color is better than a black, maybe you can do a search on this forum for some old posts about that?!?

On the product page I would rather see some in-game screenshot (thumbnail, with a link to the full-size picture) than a picture of the game name.

Your shop-page feels a bit redundant, I think that you could move the size and price to the products page and then remove the shop-page.

Just a few thoughts from the top of my head... ignore the parts that you don´t like... :)

I had kind of positive feeling about these pages. Instead having same old style contact info page for example you have a nice questbook there - I think that's nice difference from many sites.

Also those game pages are different from others: I think it's quite a cool to have changing top banner in each game. Very refreshing (altough there certainly must be a clearer link to "back to main" or clearer "akatora" logo placed in certain place... now I couldn't find a way back in those pages - I had to use my browser's back button)

and definetely add "updated then and then" here and there.

and even more definetely: double (a least ;)) those prices - and make it fast :)

oh, and one minus ;) (already mentioned by papillon): I too can't see javascript launcher screenshots...

Summa summarum: very nice looking site, I wonder if it would be possible to see your old site? :)

Just played Rosegarden and it's cool! BUT ;) like it was mentioned 'press fire' when the user has no idea what button fire is is bad. 'X' wasn't the slightest bit obvious. The speech things with the characters needed to stay up longer (i'm a slow reader :) but also be skipable by pressing fire. The demo needs another level. What I played was way too short to get a feeling for the game, but I could tell that another level wouldve got me 'into it'. The soundfx are kinda lame, with no shooting sound and that weird sound for things exploding. The character gfx aren't to good. Other than that the game gfx were great and I loved the nutty weapon especially with the hold fire thing (maybe in the demo you should flash up a quick dialogue about that functionallity). Overall I can see why this doesn't sell depite being a high quality game.

nice.

enough said.

Just played the other games and their really cool, but again the demo levels are way too short and this gives a bad impression on how much gameplay the full version has (like in plop I got through it very quick and since there only 3 game levels I wouldn't buy it (even if they are longer). Escape doesn't quit on Moral miner. You're installer when you click 'browse' and you select a directory it gets rid of the game name, which I hate :)
THe shootemups are flipping cool and they felt just like the cool old japanese shooters. But these types of games need LOADS of levels, far more than what is offered in the full version. I wouldn't buy them based purely on this fact, even though I thought they were great. Plop is a cool idea and I had fun playing it, but the levels are over too quick and there isn't any real strategy. The levels need to be larger and more segmented by walls etc. It'd be cool if the levels changed height as well. Maybe some other weapons like a bombs you could place etc. Overall more tight strategic elements and less random chaos (like balls that have specific obviously different properties). But cool games with a few minor flaws stopping sales.

I just tried moral minus. It's a perfect example of the kind of thing I was discussing in the in game sales article in the last indie gamer. When I finished the demo (which was pretty cool by the way..) I had absolutely no idea what I'd seen. Very little incentive to register. (for the article check indiegamer.com) At least in that one game, you need to make your registration incentives much clearer.

- Steve

Once again, thanks to everyone for their replies.
I've been reading your replies all week and am trying to take in what you all have said.

I've mainly spent this week cathing up on old posts, reading interesting articles, made small changes here and there to the home page and stuff like that.

Tomorrow the real work will begin.
I've sat up two plans. One is for reaching the 120-day goal I've sat up. And the other plan is a more down-to-earth kind of thing, telling me what exactly to do and when, trying to get my laziness pounded to the back of my head... This plan is to be a continous one week wrap up, to be set at the start of every week.

This is where I will start and "selling incentives"-improvements are more or less what I will concentrate on this week.
And with a lot of "measure and improve" halts along the way, I think I will nail this bussiness in the end...act like a beliver and you will become a beliver. :)

Thanks again!!
-Mikael

Your games are really nice! I wish you the best of luck getting this sales things down if anything so that we can see you make more games :)

Have you marketed these games to the standard places like download.com and RealArcade?