Anybody want to make a list of common, funny, or dumb mistakes you've seen or done in the shareware/indie marketplace? It could be helpful so the rest of us don't do the same things.

Here's some mistakes I've made.
1. Not user-friendly enough. Not a great interface.
2. Virtually no marketing. Falling into the "I wrote a great game, why aren't people lining up to buy it?" trap. (and then coming back after a while away from the game and seeing maybe it wasn't so earth-shattering after all.)
3. Not deciding on a marketing strategy and how to package a demo until after the game is written. I wrote a game that is IMO fun and has good graphics and sounds, but it occurred to me after I wrote it that there really wasn't any way to seperate it into demo and full versions. I ended up releasing it as freeware. ( if anyone's interested it's at http://www.jncsoftware.com/space_champ.htm )

And now for a funny mistake someone else made. A shareware game using the theme music from A-Team, and sound effects obviously recorded from the TV. To 'borrow' copyrighted material for freeware can land you in enough trouble, to do so in an attempt to make a a profit is really stupid.

Jack

I think a common mistake is to attempt a huge project without really realizing how much work and 'skill' it requires to be finished.
This often leads to giving up, hence the masses of unfinished and abandoned games.

It is sad to see how much work, sweat, enthusiasm and good ideas are wasted into never-to-be-finished products.

And now for a different sort of mistake....picking a bad company name. It's something I'm going through right now, dealing with my name. I have used Kronos Software unofficially for about 5 or 6 years now (just tagging it onto everything I wrote). When I went to officially register a name a few years back, I was a lot less marketing savvy than I am now, so I just stuck with it at the time. Someone had already snatched up kronossoftware.com and was just sitting on it (no web site there) so I stubbornly looked for variations I could get my hands on. Instead of picking a better company name, I picked the URL www.kronos-software.com and now I'm stuck with the stupid hyphen. If someone forgets the hyphen, they get a blank site. Not only that, but there is also another company called Kronos Incorporated that makes some timekeeping apps, and I get an email about once a month asking me to help them with the timecard system they ordered or whatever (I just got one of those this morning). In addition, I failed to discover there is already a Kronos Digital Entertainment that makes games. No one has bugged me about anything yet, but I'm now afraid if I get too big I might wind up with some trademark infringement lawsuit or something.

So needless to say, I'm working on picking a new company name now...before I get too big and it's more difficult to change. I'm looking for a name that is unique, has no trademarks, nothing game related going on, and gets me little or no existing results with a google search.

To others just getting started, be sure to pick your company name more wisely.

Well the biggest I made was having too much people initially involved in a project and I have realised the lesser the programmers and people the better the program.

Right now we are only 2 of us. Both of us program, I take up most of the programming/designing while my freind does the artwork and sound.

Of course we are not that good artist but we make do with what we can.

My biggest mistake so far has been being way too concerned with the quality of the game itself. I start over-focusing on all the details and stat seeing 'past' whatever contents might exist in a design document; I implement dozens of features in the code ahead-of-time which may or may not be useful for the particular project in hand. I focus time on every little facet of the game and try to think how I can improve it: a score to me will seem too lack something, so I'll end up adding a particle system to flair it up.

The results of my compulsiveness are usually good, but it takes way too much of my time.

- Air

Originally posted by Jake Stine
My biggest mistake so far has been being way too concerned with the quality of the game itself. I start over-focusing on all the details and stat seeing 'past' whatever contents might exist in a design document; I implement dozens of features in the code ahead-of-time which may or may not be useful for the particular project in hand. I focus time on every little facet of the game and try to think how I can improve it: a score to me will seem too lack something, so I'll end up adding a particle system to flair it up.

The results of my compulsiveness are usually good, but it takes way too much of my time.

- Air

i dont think that's investing in the game's quality,
thats over-featuring without quality control.

adding a feature doesnt make the game quality higher

Let's see. Is there a limit on how many we can post? =)

1) Thinking that I could take a retail designed project (read: Champion Board Games) and change it into a viable online project. (I do sell copies, but the registration percentage is pretty weak...see next point...)

2) Poor registration incentives. It's hard not to give too much away and leave out enough worth paying for. This one is really difficult in non-level based games.

3) Picking a flooded market. (Don't ever write a traditional board game to sell online. Or any game that's got 100 competitors for that matter)

4) Not planning with a demo in mind. I've corrected this by writing what I like to think of as "Demo enabled full version" (see: Kooshie). In other words, writing the full game with all the demo buy/register screens and limitations from the start. Then for the full game, disabling the limits, and then removing the buy/register screens. It's much easier to take out parts of the interface, then add them later.

5) High system requirements. Less is more in this case.

6) Company name: Like Kronos, I'm not sure I picked the right name. Guardian Light Studios is original and I have the URL. On the other hand, it's long.

On a more ironic note, Kooshie, the newest addition to Guardian Light Studios, has a demo which is (slightly) larger then the full game. (Due to ads and nag art)

There's more, but I don't want to add "wasting time" to the list =)

Yes, a URL that is short and sweet is a good thing, and is one thing I'm looking for in my new name.

Miko & Molly also has a larger demo than full version, so don't feel bad. Maybe that could be a selling point. "Want a faster download? Buy the game right now" :) Of course, I'm just waiting for the first customer who actually comes back and says I scammed them, giving them less than they got in the demo version.

Ironically the biggest mistake I made was not going indie sooner. If back in 1994 when I started, I had gone with shareware marketing right out of the gate instead of developing retail games for other publishers, Dexterity would be in even better shape today. But the great lesson I learned from this was to trust my instincts, not to play "follow the follower."

It seems stupid in retrospect, but it took me years to learn that if you want to find gold, you shouldn't dig where everyone else is digging.

LordKronos:

How about Kronos Games?

www.kronosgames.com

I wouldn't worry about companies with similar names either. They could be broke in a couple of years. Or if you come up with an original name, someone else could appear with something similar later.

I love this board! The business dicussions are far more useful than anything at Game Dev. I hope it doesn't get too big and fill up with kiddies.

Kronos Studios (http://www.kronosstudios.com/)
also sounds cool.

oops..clicked too many times..

Originally posted by Davaris
I wouldn't worry about companies with similar names either.

Well, would this trademark worry you a bit?
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=8u8cht.5.35


I had thought about Kronos Games, but not Kronos Studios, so thanks for that suggestion. However, in light of the above. I'm not sure that would be so wise. I am continuing my search now. I have a couple of candidates I kinda like. One is good because it is short and sweet and has almost no google search results. The other name I like even better, but it is coincidentally a phrase that already has about 1000 game-related google search results, plus it has a trademark on it which I am no clear if it would be troublesome or not. Here are the trademark classifications:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/basic/international.htm

A class 28 trademark is definitely troublesome, but I'm not clear about class 9. That appears to only cover hardware, but where does software go? Class 42 seems to only be software services (like consulting). Where do generic, non-game-related software goods fall into this? From looking at other trademarks, it looks like 9 is what others have used. So I think anything with a class 9 or class 28 trademark would be off limits.

Coincidentally, a couple of class 9 trademarks exist on the word Dexterity. Are you aware of this Steve? Have you checked with a laywer about the potential legal problems? If so, were you advised that adding "Software" to the end of it enough to avoid the issue?

Unfortunately, at this point I can't really afford to run this by a lawyer. I'm leaning towards being over cautious.


I love this board...I hope it doesn't get too big and fill up with kiddies.
Or green slime :D

Update...I did some more looking, at it looks like everything video game software related falls under IC28:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/gsmanual/manual.html

Of course, that doesn't help me out with the Kronos trademark, as I still think that is potentially very troublesome. However, it does clear up one of the other names I am considering. It had software trademarks under class 9, but I don't have to worry about that anymore. It also has a trademark under class 28, but it is for sporting equipment, so I think that still falls safely out of harms way.

So now for my current choices, I have something that is maybe a bit cooler, but has a longer url and turns up many search results, vs. a name that is maybe not quite as cool, but has a url about half the length of the other choice and turns up almost no search results.

Since we're already wandering off topic I wanted to ask:

Has anyone noticed that shareware and freeware game developers are being held to a higher standard than big retail developers? For some reason users seem content to spend upwards of $50 dollars on a buggy retail product - some with bugs so bad as to be unplayable - but god help you if they find a bug in your $15 sharware game, you'll never hear the end of it!

The mentality just seems strange to me. I guess it's just the nature of selling on the web vs. selling retail.

I think the big developers get those whineing emails too, they just ignore them.

Originally posted by KNau
Since we're already wandering off topic...
Well, I didn't think I was wandering off topic, just more like elaborating on something related to the topic. However, to make sure we are totally back on topic...

Making your first game a big, important game. No I'm not talking about picking a game you can't finish. What I'm thinking here is making 1 or 2 less important games before tackling your bigger project. When you realease your first game, chances are you have no real idea how to go about marketing it, so you learn as you go. If I could do things over again, I would have made a smaller game before Miko & Molly, one that I didn't care quite as much about. That way I could have learned all about marketing with it, and by the time I released the game I REALLY cared about, I'd have a much better idea of what to do with it. I don't really feel this is a major mistake by any means, but it is something minor I would change.