I've noticed a trend emerging in the downloadable games space, across all genre’s, but especially the puzzle game genre.

There is an ever widening gulf between what I like to call "shareware games" and "downloadable games". Now these may seem like a mindless distinction, because virtually all downloadable games are distributed via the shareware marketing method.

Regardless of that fact, despite the best efforts of the ASP, the term "shareware" has achieved a certain connotation amongst the general public that implies second rate graphics and polish. It is in that light that I chose the title "Shareware games" to describe the first category.

By now you are getting a good idea in your mind of what I mean by shareware games. Most of the time a persons first game can be considered a "shareware game". It's a nice concept but it's still rough around the edges, and the graphics were done by the programmer, or his best friend the aspiring game artist. The music and sound affects are decent but they sound like they probably could have been in an old SNES game.

Now, before anyone gets offended at my lackluster description and starts feeling guilty about their own game, let me state that this is more of an abstract description. I've played many games that have one or two of these characteristics and not the others, so don’t assume that if you’re making a shareware game that it is just a pile of retro crap.

Secondly, I don't think that making a "shareware game" precludes you from making any money with your game. Shareware has a long life, and especially if the developer continues to grow and evolve their game over that lifespan it can become a good money maker.

On the other hand we have "Downloadable Games", these games are done by professional caliber people. These are either people with extensive experience or enough connections or money to attract it. These are highly polished and refined games where it's obvious who ever worked on it knew how to make games, and knew how to make them fun. These games are often targeted at the casual, mass market. Many of them are the abstract puzzle games you see from places like PopCap and GameHouse, or even that full armor pace (nice looking games there). The Silvercreek guys, Mike Boeh's games, patrox's games, we have quite a few top quality dev's around here.

Real Arcade even has it's own internal development team of professional developers who develop top quality games exclusively for their distribution channel. I recently had the opportunity to go down to the Real Arcade offices and meet with some of their producers. Very nice guys, I have to say. But there's big money there and top quality talent with many years of industry experience.

The people who make these game tend to not like the word shareware, they talk more about viral marketing. They tend to prefer using the big distribution channels, Real Arcade, Shockwave, MSN, Yahoo etc. They can often get funding from these channels to develop their games if they offer the channel a few months exclusivity.

In essence, the reason I refer to these as "Downloadable games" is because they are games created by professionals who have taken the magic downloadable games formula and applied it to their game development process to produce games in the casual online sector.

Do I think you have to be a "professional" to create a "downloadable game”? No. If you have an extensive web presence and connections in the right circles you can attract top quality content creators and make a downloadable game yourself.

But the question is, do you want to? Are these new "downloadable games" going to be the death of "shareware games”? Will there be any market left for struggling shareware developers once the pro's are done glutting it with top quality content? Are these downloadable games a flash in the bucket? Do they lack the staying power shareware games published by their own developers have proven to have? Is the "downloadable games" way of doing business a sustainable business model?

What would happen if someone developed a "Downloadable game" but then avoided the distribution channels and released solely on their own site? Would it do better? or worse?

Anyway, those are just some of my observations and questions.

Very long post there. :) I just want to address the "is the shareware games market going away" issue.

As I see it, what you refer to as "downloadable games" (which as I understand is largely browser games?) are targeted at the ULTRA casual market. Meaning just about anyone who is a casual computer user bored with solitare and looking for something more interesting. This is just one segment of the casual market. There are many niches that exist in the casual market that can be filled. Not everyone is looking for a really simple game to play. Moreover, certainly NOT EVERYONE is looking for a puzzle game, which I think many people these days aren't getting through their skulls judging by the amount of puzzle games still being released every day into the overflooded puzzle game market. But that's a topic for another thread. :)

What I'm trying to say is that there's no such thing as "the casual market" which covers every casual game player in existence. Casual players just like hardcore players can be split into different categories or niches. Thus there'll always be room for "shareware games" since different casual players are interested in different types of games. One giant company, or many giant companies can't satisfy everyone because some things that people like aren't profitable enough for them (but more than enough for us). That's why small independently made games were always viable to begin with. And that's why they'll always be viable as long as the industry is around. DavidRM said something along these lines in his book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584502142/qid=1067672065/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-5871397-5263157?v=glance&n=507846). Free plug for David! :)

I started a thread "Why is there a puzzle tendency?" that could help, though I cannot answer any question of Dan's :)

ergas

Since games are like films and can be classified as art, whether the artist chooses to make a game with less production values or not is his decision. Hence, if he decides to go ahead and implement his brilliant idea low production values notwithstanding, you are going to have his game up for download as what you call a shareware game.

Analogy is you have brilliant films with good production values, great production values but crap film, crap production value but a great film. Whether any film gets made is the filmmaker's decision. There is no authority to say the film cant be made.

Nothing its going away Dan. Go on make your shareware (downloadable?) game :)

I have a pretty good idea of what options I have and what directions I would consider taking. Right now we are shooting for the highest quality we can muster for Katsu's Journey. So in essence a "downloadable game", something that wouldn't look too out of place in the top 10 at shockwave when comparing production values.

In contrast to what fenix down was saying, the "downloadable games" category does include, but is certainly not limited to web based games. As I said, the www.retro64.com games, www.phelios.com games, are what I would consider "Downloadable games". Even in dexterities stable of games it's pretty easy to split the games between shareware games and downloadable games categories.

One thing that I do notice is that the top 10 games on a place like Real Arcade are all "Downlodable Games", however generally the top 10 list contains 80% abstract puzzlegames (a puzzlegame where the gameplay is abstracted, or represented by balls, gems, or other game pieces), there may be one "actiony" game like rebound, and usually one or two word games.

People may refer to these games as casual or main stream, but they are neither. What they are is mass market, an abstract game is a game that virtually anyone can relate to, because it doesn't make any statements about itself, it is just pure gameplay. Like for instance, Katsu's Journey has a character, and a setting, and samurai running around. This instantly lops off part of the mass market, all of a sudden we loose some women, we loose people who don’t like Japanese stuff, and we loose the people who only like abstract games.

I think when Fenix says "Ultra Casual" market; he is really referring to the Mass Market. However there are some drawbacks to being mass market, all the games feel the same, like they've been produced by and industry and not individuals. I would say that's one thing that walls of Jericho has going for it, it feels like it was made by someone who cared about the game. Not just someone trying to make money.

A lot of these mass market games suffer from what seems to be a chronic lack of passion by their developers. They may look great and play fine, but they don’t have that passion.

In that I think Katsu's Journey has a chance, it’s not afraid to take a stance and be something rather then an abstract gameplay model. It still maintains some mass market appeal by being non violent, and having somewhat stylized graphics.

It's interesting though, I don’t think you can actually make games for true "casual gamers" and be successful. The games like Bejewled and Columns are not targeted at the casual gamer; they are targeted at the hardcore segment of the mass market. (or players who have mass market tastes, but play like hardcore players)

Originally posted by Dan MacDonald

I think when Fenix says "Ultra Casual" market; he is really referring to the Mass Market.

Yeah we're talking about the same thing just using different terms. I think ultimately there's not much use in trying to analyze how the market works though. Ultimately, the best way to go is to make a good (fun) game that's fairly original and easy to learn (sounds very simple right? ;)). The only pre-requisites are that the target market isn't already saturated, and that you can make a game that you believe can compete with the current top 10 in that genre. That's what I've gathered from reading these forums and Steve P's articles. Of course, talking about it and actually doing it are very different things. :)

"Shareware" is merely a marketing plan, and is jargon to boot. Therefore, the bulk of the people who describe their own game as "shareware" are those who are relatively new to the party.

You could just as easily say there are "DirectX games" and "video games", because the former is how amateurs talk about the game they are making, and the other is how the public perceives them--and how professionals promote them.

As for film, filmmakers get to "choose" their production value only when they have enough money that a choice is available (like Woody Allen choosing to shoot "Shadow and Fog" in b&w). Without sufficient funding to "choose" to make a glossy, high budget flick, you do the best you can with what you have available, focusing on your strengths and downplaying your weaknesses.

-David

So, I'll admit I didn't actually come up with the terms "Shareware Games" and "Downloadable Games" in the context in which they are used above.

I picked up on this terminology when talking with the producers at Real Arcade and some of the other distribution channels (at IGC). GarageGames has even gone on the record as saying "We don't sell shareware games". These terms "Shareware Games" and "Downloadable Games" have already become part of the business language at the distribution channel level.

Now of course GarageGames uses shareware marketing to help sell their games. So I thought it was really weird that they said “we don’t sell shareware games". But after talking to some of the producers at these big companies I’ve started to realize that they are using the word "Shareware" in a way that would make most ASP members cringe :)

Don’t shoot the messenger ;)

I'm not bucking the trend or shooting the messenger. I'm pointing out that almost no successful shareware product, game or otherwise, uses the word "shareware" in their marketing message to players/users.

"Shareware" is not a word that should be used in marketing copy. Just like TV ads don't declare themselves "regional campaigns" or "national marketing". They stick to the message: Buy our product!

The companies you mention are all from the game development industry as it stands now, which currently has very little respect for games created outside the publisher system, and they want to distinguish *their* games, games built by industry veterans, from the games of some kid in Kansas. It's not "fair", but that's the way it goes.

-David

Originally posted by DavidRM
I'm not bucking the trend or shooting the messenger. I'm pointing out that almost no successful shareware product, game or otherwise, uses the word "shareware" in their marketing message to players/users.

"Thank you for evaluating mIRC. mIRC is shareware, which means that after you have evaluated mIRC for 30 days, you are required to register it if you wish to continue using it. The registration is a small, affordable, one time payment of US$20.00, and will also work with future versions of mIRC."

Is one that springs immediately to mind. The term 'shareware' is also in most of the EULA's I've seen too.

Zoggles,

2 points:

1. EULA's aren't marketing materials.

2. mIRC is a very old product, from a time when people thought that "shareware" was a marketable term. Old habits die hard.

Did you have a real point you wanted to make? Or were you just nitpicking?

-David

I'm certainly not a proponent of using shareware as a marketing term, especially when it comes to games. We were in the top 3 on google for a while for the term "Shareware game download" and even pretty good on "shareware game". The click-throughs were horrid though, 20-30 hits a day. Nothing like what people get for "Free game downloads". For both professionals who want to distinguish themselves from the kid in Kansas, and for consumers who want good games for download, the term shareware has developed a somewhat "amateurish" connotation.

Many developers simply use the term shareware when it's appropriate and helpful to do so. At the Shareware Industry Conference, I'm a shareware author and publisher. At the GDC, I'm an independent game developer and publisher. When I attend one of my wife's business conferences, I'm even a member of the press. You can find numerous examples of this chameleon-like approach. Even Winzip uses the term shareware in a few places on their site.

Originally posted by Dexterity
Many developers simply use the term shareware when it's appropriate and helpful to do so.

Yes. When it can be assumed that the audience for the usage will understand it. That is, when it's not jargon.

Which is not, really, the point.

The point I was trying to make, apparently with no skill at all (I'll blame an overdose of Halloween candy), is that differentiating between "shareware games" and "downloadable games" is ridiculous and patronizing.

However, I then tried to make the point that indie game developers should *expect* to be patronized by the industry as a whole. Because, silly us, we're not "doing it right." We're a) not making games with publisher money (what the hell were we thinking?), and b) we don't make games like the ones they make (must...make...me-too...clones).

This patronizing then spills over to the industry professionals who have "chosen" (usually by sudden loss of employment more often than any other factor) to make independent games. They are then appalled by several facts: 1) indies with no funding don't focus on the "gloss" of the games they're making (Oh, the inanity), and 2) many of the successful and semi-successful indies have *never* held an industry job (No secret handshake? Out, I say!).

In my book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584502142/davidrmsoftwa-20) I try to promote a sense of "we're all in the same industry"...maybe it'll happen someday.

-David

Okay, I think we all like the endearingly amateurish game, and when done well, I think there will always be a place for it (Supreme with Cheese anyone?) - but if Popcap represents the unattainable level of polish and professionalism that is threatening the industry as we know it, then we've got serious problems. Popcap is peanuts. An indie developer that can't make a popcap-level game to popcap-level standards is like a signwriter that can't do straight lines. You can't expect people to give you money for any old crap, just because you program computers, and "programming computers is hard". Programmers are not the highly sought after commodity they once were, and if you can't do straight lines, then you better either learn, or get out of the signwriting business.

Personally, my goal is to create work that compares favourably to ANYTHING - including multi-million dollar retail products. Let them patronise me if they will; wait 'till I single-handedly make a game with better visuals than theirs (not to say I'm stupid enough to attack them head on; I'm working with a very different approach, but that is the standard of presentation I aspire to).