I just posted a new article called "Shareware Amateurs vs. Shareware Professionals" here:
http://www.dexterity.com/articles/shareware-amateurs-vs-shareware-professionals.htm

Hope you enjoy it! Feel free to share the link with other sites/people you think may be interested in the topic. I welcome any and all feedback/discussion.

Whoa...
Great work on the article...

itll take me some time to read, but, Whoa...

Nice work as usual Steve. I think you highlight the mindset differences between the amateur and professional well. I thought it was interesting how there was no real mention of the talent, intelligence, or potential of an individual that separated the amateurs from the professionals, it was all a state of mind. (A proposition i fully agree with).

I couldn't help feeling like I was reading a strong criticism of my character when I was reading it however. I definitely fall somewhere between amateur and professional, so seeing things that professionals do that I only do minimally or don’t really do (even though I know I should) was both good and bad. Good because it re-enforced what I need to be working on, bad because it made feel like I was more amateur then I thought. Which in the end is good, I always want to know areas where I can improve and grow. I guess you just have to learn to buckle down and take the tough criticism when it comes and objectively compare yourself to it to see where you stand.

The "amateur" and "professional" in the article are abstracts -- in reality we all have a little of both sides in us.

Growth is never easy, but in the long run we grow whether we want to or not. We either grow unconsciously as the results of our mistakes come back to us until we finally "get it." Or we grow consciously by becoming aware of our shortcomings and focusing our efforts on what needs improvement. In the first case, we're reactive; in the second, proactive.

Wow... I DO feel like a scham artist when I write sales copy :-)

This is a good article. I liked it better than the last few and I think it will be especially helpful for people starting out, who've never thought about doing interative improvements to their first release and the benefits that can yield.

I do get this feeling though that the critical factors in making a sale are more heavily skewed towards the game's quality and fun level than the other factors mentioned.

But I'm a member of the ASP...isn't that all I need to be a "Shareware Professional"? ;)

Seriously though, I totally agree with you Dan. I find myself falling right in the middle of those 2 classifications. Even before reading that article, I recognized a while ago that several of the "amateur" traits applied to me, and that I needed to work on them. Unfortunately, you can't just flip a switch or say "I'm going to fix everything thats wrong". All you can realisticly do is pick one or 2 things at a time and improve them, then work on other aspects. I definitely feel I need to work a whole lot on marketing skill. However, at the moment I think there are issues with my product that I need to address first. I feel I can get a 10x increase in conversion rate much easier than I can get a 10x increase in traffic.

It's a long road to "perfecting" my professional skills, but that is a good thing....it means I shouldn't have to worry about getting board with it anytime in the near future. :)

How do you go about gathering metrics from the different variables involved? How do you measure an increase in your website versus an increase somewhere else? Either way, the total value (the sale) is what you see.

I suppose you could gauge it by customer comments, but that's sometimes difficult to quantify.

I thought the article was very good, and made me look at myself critically. I've definately got areas to improve. Thank you. But hey, at least my glass is 0.00002% full! :)

LoL! good one Bill

Do gamers fall into a third category? Gamers are hooked on games and need no market research because they know alot of games and have tons of complains about even the most successfull games. Mention any game and they will make a list of possible improvements it needs...

Well, that was certainly an inspiring article! It was gratifying to find reinforcement in my thinking that I'm doing some things right, but more importantly it was good to read those things that I (subconsciously) know I'm not doing as well as I should. Thanks for the kick in the pants, Steve. :)

Originally posted by svero
Wow... I DO feel like a scham artist when I write sales copy :-)


Ah... I solved that problem by putting myself into a mental state where I'm so enamored of the potential benefits of the product that I feel that I'll be depriving people of lots of fun and joy if I don't do my utmost to close the sale. When you put yourself in this state first (believing you're doing people a disservice by not getting your product into their hands), you may find that enthusiastic sales copy will flow with relative ease. But whenever I try starting with, "Ok, how am I going to get people to buy?" then suddenly writer's block strikes. :)


I do get this feeling though that the critical factors in making a sale are more heavily skewed towards the game's quality and fun level than the other factors mentioned.

I agree... although I listed a number of factors, not all will be of equal weight.

Originally posted by Siebharinn
How do you go about gathering metrics from the different variables involved? How do you measure an increase in your website versus an increase somewhere else? Either way, the total value (the sale) is what you see.


You'll never get the kind of perfect data that will let you see how each component affects the sale. For certain pieces, like the performance of an order form, you can measure to a certain extent, but within the product, this relies heavily on trying to see your product as objectively as possible.

Gathering user feedback is one way, but another way is sitting someone down in front of you and watching them play. Just do this for a few minutes, and you'll learn a great deal about the shortcomings of your game. Another is taking bugs reports like compatibility problems seriously, avoiding the temptation to dismiss them w/o understanding the real causes. And still another idea is to learn by studying other products and web sites.

One great idea I heard from Tom Warfield (goodsol.com) is that of tracking sales from each individual ordering link in the demo, simply by tagging each link differently. If you have different nag screens, then you can see which nag screens generate the most sales.

Ok, just to clear a few things for those of us who are struggling in which category they should fall. To even qualify for the race you must have at least one finished product.

And, of course there are those of us who don't have the intention or currently don't want to participate in the race. :)

Anyway, excellent essay Steve!

I didn't get the impression that the article was intended to outline the rules for a race to see who can get from amateur to professional the fastest, or to see who could be the MOST professional. I think it was intended more as an illustration of the goals that an amateur should set in order to become more professional (if that is their desire).

For those of us who would like to be a professional this is a very good resource. If you prefer to be an amateur / hobbyist (there's nothing wrong with that, just don’t be bitter when you don't get the same results as professionals) then that is your prerogative. I think those of us who are interested in being more professional should help each other to reach that goal, as opposed to competing and trying to race each other to achieve them. There's room for all of us and more at the top, we don’t need to compete against each other and "race". In fact I think “Racing” will only impede our progress and make it more difficult to achieve our goals of being more professional.

Another long post, sorry, but it's fun to write- it helps me as much as it does other authors.

I agree that we all fall somewhere in between professional and amateur. An area where I am definitely an amateur is market research. I always have made games that sounded fun to me, and then went at it. There's 2 sides to it though. If the game isn't fun to you, it probably won't be for others. So you have to pick an idea that is both fun for you, and that has a good potential market. Thankfully, there are so many games to be made that there are plenty that should fall under both.

However, an area where I am a pro is order tracking. I make special versions of my games for different download sites, and this info is passed to the order page, and then to the sales data. My commerce vendor, BMT Micro, worked with me to do this properly, and developed a system for it. With my latest game, I track where it was downloaded, what link they went to the order form from, and even how far they got in the game. I have been shocked to see that most people do not win the game at all- even the people who buy. I used to record how many times they played, but thought that was a little too "spy-ish".

Scot Host (maker of Raptor, Demonstar, etc) and I were driving to go see the new Lord of the Rings movie- and we were talking about why so many games fail. He used a successful real-time strategy game he publishes as an example. For months, the author refused to make the controls mimic Warcraft and other blockbuster rts games- citing artistic creativity and making the game the way HE wanted it. But Scott persisted, and finally, the author gave in, and sales went up right away. My point is that common sense and thinking about what people want can go a long way. Just give people what they want; remove all the barriers that will make them delete or not buy.

I have realized that I fell into the same trap with Best Friends. I made a fixed camera, with the controls absolute. To me, it's the better way- but all the feedback I have received has been that people want to press up to move forward, and turn with the side arrows. Well, that many people can't be wrong, so I am changing how the entire game works to accomodate a chasecam. You can still have creativity, but don't sacrifice sales for it!

Most of this really falls under common sense, but it's amazing how the obvious slips under our noses so often.

Anyway, great article, Steve :)

Dan,
Don't take it so literally. Bernie wasn't saying it was a race, he was just making a comparison. There is no debating whether you won or lost a race if you don't even enter it. Likewise he was saying that there is no debating whether you "qualify" as amateur or professional until you actually have something complete.

Of course, that's where I have to part ways with his thinking. There is a big difference between professionals and amateurs when in the conception and design phases of a product. Even for a first product, a professional does market research, evaluates similar products, tries to figure out what make the successes succede and the failures fail, and using that to build a clear vision for the project before coding ever begins. Amateurs tend not to do the above so much.

@LordKronos: Ahh after re-reading the post I see he was probably talking metaphorically. Sorry bernie.

I would have to agree with your perspective as well LK. As I surmised before the difference between a pro and an amateur is largely a state of mind. A perspective or way at looking at the world is the biggest difference. For example you may not even have started your game, but your doing market research, reading books on game design, listening to motivational tapes in your car and sending questionnaires to your friends and relatives to find out what types of games they like to play. (Without asking leading questions of course). Although such a person has almost no experience; I would argue that they have the "professional" perspective.

Dexterity:
Do we have to worry about the marketing side if we go with you on the Platinum Deal? Creating these games is more than enough work for me. I would definitely be interested in making alterations if it wasn't selling though.

I think there should be a way to rate the articles. Though I would certainly find myself satisfied if there would be a single choice to put 12 out of 10 for each of them :) The article is great and very inspiring. Thanks a lot, Steve.

It is amazing how many things that you find rather obvious can generate a dozen of new ideas each time they are emphasized. One should never forget the magic word "iteration" ;)

Originally posted by Davaris
Dexterity:
Do we have to worry about the marketing side if we go with you on the Platinum Deal? Creating these games is more than enough work for me. I would definitely be interested in making alterations if it wasn't selling though.

This wasn't addressed to me, but I'll toss in my 2 cents anyway.

I think it's safe to say that marketing decisions start before development and well before applying for a publishing deal. Your first marketing decision should probably be "What game should I make?" followed closely by "How will I or someone else sell this game?"

If you make something that has no market, or isn't properly suited to internet sales or your potential publisher's client base then they won't be able to publish it even if it's a good game. There are many other marketing decisions that come into play as you create the game like what technology to use, and how to present the game and so on...

So to make a long story short, IMHO yes, as a developer you should be thinking about marketing.

Originally posted by Davaris
Dexterity:
Do we have to worry about the marketing side if we go with you on the Platinum Deal? Creating these games is more than enough work for me. I would definitely be interested in making alterations if it wasn't selling though.

You're only responsible for what you can control. So while a publisher can work on optimizing the systems external to a game, like the web site, marketing, etc., the developer has the most direct control over the product itself. In our case, the developer always has final say over design decisions related to the product, but we do our best to urge developers to give players what they want. We'll pass suggestions for improvement along to the developers of games we publish, but in the end it's up to the developer to decide how much refinement to do. Sometimes developers just want to be done with a game and move on to new projects, and I certainly understand that feeling. It can be tough to keep refining the same game over a period of years. But those little changes can compound to make a big difference in sales over time. For instance, if you could spend a couple extra days now to increase the sales of your product by just 10%, would that be worth it over the next 5+ years of sales?

I think one of the biggest insights I have had was in regards to Linux. My primary background with computers is throught programming and when I caught up with the GNU movement in the nineties that seemed like the only reasonable way to write software. How could anything that produced Emacs be less than perfect? Moving over from the Amiga via BeOS to Linux seemed at the time very natural. When I two years ago started contemplating a more active stance in my entrepreneurial career it seemed logical that I would write my games in Linux using SDL and OpenGL. This was my first sign of flexibility, five years earlier I would just have done a Linux-only game.

When I started experimenting with the developement setup it soon became clear that it was almost impossible to have a reliable cross developement environment. There were differences in the SDL and OpenGL implementations that made bugs creep up every time I tested the program in Windows. Because I had very little experience with my Windows developement setup these bugs turned out to be very hard to remove. It soon began to dawn on me that there was a problem and the problem had nothing to do with computers.

My attitude was at fault. I didn't treat people as equals. I had years of experience with programming and computers. And I subconsciously demanded everyone else to have that experience as well. I was saying: "A Linux-only game! You have to be smart to even start it!" when actually I was being very dumb myself. Think about the farmer who grows your wheat. Does he require you to have deep insight into his line of work before you get to eat bread? I was saying "I know better and I like to show it". That is not very humane. Many developers do that: "You are stupid if you have problems with my program."

At the same time my attitude towards game developement and design changed as well. And this is something I think Steve hit with his article, even if it could be more underlined. You don't do market research because you want to sell your game. That is just a follow-up. You do market research because you want to improve yourself, you want to get better at making games.

There are very few who have escaped the "perfect designer" trap. You set out as the best game designer ever. All that flows from you is through your supreme creativity. What do you actually say? " I can't get any better than this". And that is a very sad proposition. Seeing my fiancee working with fine arts has really changed my look on creativity. You are not a transmitter but a receiver. The world is full of all the games we ever make. We just need to go out there and listen to them. Look attentively at things and let them change us. Market research should not be pointed out as the imperative to creating a sustainable income. It is the imperative for surviving as humans. "How could I become a better human today? How could I serve the world better?"

What I like most about the article is the points about fear. I have been doing hang-gliding for many years. The first reaction from most people is "I could never do it. I fear high places and everything!". They have something valid here. Doing hang-gliding involves high velocity differentials between you and the ground. Is it statistically more dangerous than being in your own kitchen? Probably a bit, but not as much as people think. The insight comes from my mentor, the most experienced pilot I know: he has a very acute fear of heights. But if the fear of heights is not the reason for the common reaction, what is it then?

I think the key is here: unlike most modern activities, hang-gliding is not something you can stop in the middle. You can't just decide half-way that you don't like it any longer or are too afraid to continue. Take-off is optional, landing is mandatory. You are essentially up there alone with your fears. All of them. And you have very little choice but to face them. As some like to say, your death is your best source of advice while you are flying and you need to pay hard attention.

In reality hang-gliding is not that special. We all face the same unavoidable death in the end. It just seems that most people need a concrete reminder to really take time to face their fears. Our slogan should be "Mortals have the most fun.", to remind us not to get rigid with our ways of thinking. To take the wine glass analogy one step further: every day you live is one more drop into the wine glass.

One thing missing from the article was the tremendous opportunity before all of us. Looking at the columns and comparing yourself is not the right way to go. There are many more columns both to the left and right. I think the opportunity is that we can decide for ourselves were we are heading, what our goal is. You should underline that in the article Steve, we can all grow, each and every one.

Another great article. Keep up the good work Steve.

Steve,

Your article is very powerful, mindful and perfectly real descripition of the phenomena and factors of selling something online. Finally an article that isn't puffed up or perpetrates a myth of becoming "rich" -- it gives an actual step by step breakdown of the process of generating money. It is so accurate and deeply insightful that you can apply this to all of life: getting a job, finding someone for a relationship, meeting a goal etc -- the principals of optimization, perspective, and action all apply universally to everything.

The interesting description of variable scalars (factors that have multiple return results and are critical steps needed one after another and if one is zero, on any one variable, get you nothing and screw everything up is just like anything in life: i.e, find the woman of your dreams, something goes wrong in a otherwise perfect would-be relationship and then you are left wondering how something so perfect went wrong? Strictly talking from a hypothetical perspective here ;) ) is brilliant. I have been trying to understand why sometimes this step by step chain is so necessary in everything in life and one false step results in disaster or success, mostly by being unconscious of the prime
factors

Anyways, you put me in Zen and perfect thinking by reading this article. Bravo! My original gripe is gone with your articulation and delivery of your philosophy of selling online. I'm ready to buy a copy of your book now.

Originally posted by mogul

Anyways, you put me in Zen and perfect thinking by reading this article. Bravo! My original gripe is gone with your articulation and delivery of your philosophy of selling online. I'm ready to buy a copy of your book now.

I think if Steve started a cult I'd probably join it.....

;)

Well, LK thanks for clearing it. As you probably noticed I am not native English speaker but I am constantly improving and learning :), so sometimes I have problems to express myself. So bear with me. I was not intended offend anyone, just to share my thoughts with you.

Under the race term I mean a competition like searching for the cure for cancer, or to set a new wr or a kiss competition where there are only just winners and not luzerz. But you have to be a scientist, an ironman or a heterosexual cute guy to enter the happening.

There's only a small problem there. Sure I want to improve myself and my products and become good at everything. But the two most important things that stop this are time and money.

I don't have the money to spend on market research, nor the money to hire someone to do some stuff for me, so I basically have to do everything myself.

Like on my game, I basically submitted to all the download sites I could, and set the price really low, now most of these places have the price shown on their page. Now, I was told that maybe my game was good enough to charge a higher price, only problem is that I would have to go through 30-40 sites just to try to get them to change my listing. Now this wouldn't be so bad except that most sites have anywhere from two to six week wait before a listing can be updated, unless you have the money, which I don't.

The other thing, i was starting to post my game to gamers forums, however I realized that in order to solicit my game I would basically need to be active in all these forums (there's some pages that list some 40-50 forums based on games), that's just time I don't have.

So i'm just stuck because I have no money, or nobody that I could ask to do something for free. Of course I want to improve myself, be a better marketer, be a better developer, learn art, music, and programming, as well as design and constantly improve myself, but I don't have time to do all those things all the time, so I go back to my development, and hopefully try to improve what little I can from my last project.

One other thing to note about constantly improving a single program, on my game I know there's alot of things I could improve with it, and since I started using a new compiler (and new language), I was going to rewrite the same program in this new enviroment, because now that i've learned some things I can actually improve the game. But then I had friends who told me I should move on, that it's not worth messing with it because I could be making another game and selling 2, instead of improving on selling 1. And these were from some successful guys.

So while I agree the article is really good, I also think there are some things you can't control and are forced to remain "amateur" just getting by on what you can. You may be able to pay some money for someone to do market research, or have the time to go on a hundred sites trying to get people to look at your program, but I can't right now, so i'll just keep trying to do what I can do, since I can't do anymore than that ;-)

Just my 2c

A good habit I've recently picked up is to take one day per week off from your development (in my case I use Mondays) and make it "web-day".

On that one day a week you update your website, issue news releases, patches, etc. No new work is done on projects in development - only refining what you already have. It gives you consistency without having these things floating over your head all the time. If you know something you want to do with your website or you have an idea to refine your marketing just write it down and leave it until your next web-day. The rest of the week is working on your new projects or whatever excites you.

1 day a week is pretty easy to swing even for time pressed indies, I'm sure. It may not seem like much but it's one day more than I suspect most developers spend.

Originally posted by Uhfgood
I don't have the money to spend on market researchNo money necessary. If you just want to evaluate competitor's products, you can often get the gist of the game from the demo. It also costs nothing to browse through download sites and see what is available, and what has the highest download counts. It costs nothing to email previous customers (if you have any) and ask them a few questions. It also costs nothing to come into here and the other dev boards or IRC groups, make friends with some of the developers there and ask them questions about their experiences.

Of course there are things you can only do or do better with money, but something is always going to be out of your reach, so make do with what you have.

i was starting to post my game to gamers forumsI don't know about anyone else here, and this may depend on the type of game you have, but not a single one of my sales came from any gamers forum, despite a few thousand downloads from them. They all came from download sites, search engines, and word of mouth.

So i'm just stuck because I have no money, or nobody that I could ask to do something for free.You aren't stuck. Assuming you have at least one game completed, and that game has at least some sellability (it isn't simply a tetris clone or something), you will fall into one of 2 categories:
1) You are making money from a few sales, in which case you have a little bit of cash to throw into listing on download sites. You could also work on figuring out how to increase the level of sales.
OR
2) You aren't making any sales, in which case you have a perfect opportunity to discover why. First lets start with traffic. How many downloads do you get a month? If the answer is 25, that's your biggest problem there. You need to get that up. If you get plenty of downloads but no conversions, then you need to work on your incentives, or maybe make you web site better/safer. Is your order form on an SSL page? If not, nobody is going to want to order. Do you require creating an account before ordering, or have 10 pages of options? Thats a downer. It's hard to give examples without knowing your particular situation.


Of course, on the other end, perhaps your game isn't sellable, no matter what you do to it. If that is the case, then you need to be professional enough to admit "I was acting very amateur when I designed and developed this game" because a little research should have told you better. If so, you need to cut your losses and start over (and do the proper research...don't make the same mistake twice). However, do NOT make the decision to abandon based on the fact that you have no sales. Ask a handful of developers (preferrably successful ones) whom you respect to take a look at your game and see what they suggest. If nobody can figure out a selling point for you or an improvement you can make, you are dead in the water...bail out now. But if you get back some ideas, take a good hard look at them.


Of course I want to improve myself, be a better marketer, be a better developer, learn art, music, and programming, as well as design and constantly improve myself, but I don't have time to do all those things all the time, so I go back to my development, and hopefully try to improve what little I can from my last project.Yes, I see what you mean. I want to learn to play piano, too. I can play a few things now, but not much. In the last 5 years, I've probably spent about 20 hours actually trying to learn. Can you guess why it hasn't happened yet? Of course, in my case it's no big deal because it isn't a real priority for me. It's something I thought would be cool to learn, but I can still sleep pretty well at night knowing I'm not a skilled pianist. However, if marketing and art are a serious goal for you, then you need to pick one thing at a time and focus on improving there. For the other things, either worry about improving them after you have mastered something else, or find someone who IS talented and is willing to join up with you for a split of the money (yes, you will have to share, but remember that 50% of something is more than 100% of nothing).


One other thing to note about constantly improving a single program, on my game I know there's alot of things I could improve with it, and since I started using a new compiler (and new language), I was going to rewrite the same program in this new enviroment...No, don't rewrite it in another tool. Just figure out how to improve it in what you already wrote it in. Save your new language for your next project. However, don't be too quick to jump for that next project. Improving your current one is often much less work than starting on a new one.

Of course, once you are actually making money, at some point adding a second game is a good idea, but that depends on your circumstance, so its hard for someone else to say when.


Long post:D

Most of the time when someone says, "I don't have X, so I can't have Y," that limiting belief is the problem that creates their reality. That's the amateur mindset at work. The pro mindset says, "So I don't have X right now... How can I get Y anyway?" and then begins tackling the problem with all the ideas and resources s/he can muster. I.e. "I will find a way or make one."

When I began working on Dweep I had no money either. Yet I was still able to do enough market research and get an artist for the artwork and a musician for the music.

The market research took only one afternoon. That's all I needed. There's an article on how to do this right here:
http://www.dexterity.com/articles/basic-market-research.htm

The artwork was done by an old high school friend for a percentage of royalties. He's still getting checks today, and he hasn't done any work on the game in years. It was a good win-win arrangement. It was only a few weeks of artwork total because I designed the game to have modest art requirements, so the risk for the artist was minimal... no long months of indentured servitude.

The music was done for free in exchange for a credit in the game.

I did the sound effects myself. Dweep's squeaky noises are actually my own voice saying, "Dweep," pitch-adjusted with some filters applied. I used a freeware sound editing tool. There are only a couple dozen sound effects in the entire game... again, very modest.

When you tell yourself, "I don't have the money," or "I don't have the time," your belief makes it so. People with such limiting beliefs are usually surrounded by opportunities to make extra money, and their schedules are filled with time-wasting activities, yet their limiting beliefs blind them.

It's all a question of how badly you want it. If I offered to pay you a million dollars if you could create a decent game in 3 months in your spare time on a $100 budget, I'd bet you could get pretty creative in finding ways to get it done.

The truth is... when someone says, "I don't have the time," what they're really saying is, "I don't want it badly enough." If you hope to make a game, you'll fail. If you resolve to make a game, you'll succeed.

Great article too, I think i'll try some of those ideas (the one about market research). Currently two products i'm working on have no market (as they once did), however I can still go and check out the competition, and find a way to make mine the best.

What can I say about the amateur mindset? Well i'm still an amateur, i'll let you know later ;-)

One question, you say throughout the article that refinements are important to a game's success...

But how do we refine it month after month? Do we just re-link the download to a new version? What if the game has internet multiplayer capabilities, the past customers are forced to download a patch?

I think that there are many refinements that can be made without actually touching the binaries. The game itself is only part of the equation.

There's also the thing of competing with commercial games. When I went to download.com half the games displayed were commercial ones, not indies. So what do I do, do I consider trying to beat commercial games including that in my market research, or should I only look for indies, and try to make the best indie/shareware game ever.

With each new update to the product, which could be every few months or just once a year, you can complete a batch of refinements. For instance, in a given update you might improve the upsell text, fix several bugs, improve the artwork, streamline the interface, add several user-requested features, add new levels, add new special fx, tweak the pricing, add new registration incentives/bonuses, add a level editor (or new features to the level editor), add better tracking info, etc. Meanwhile, between releases of the product, you can continue to refine your web site, your marketing, etc.

Remember that this approach assumes a very long time span. We're talking years here, not just a few months total. Sometimes you'll make small incremental changes (i.e. spend a few hours improving your home page for better search engine rankings); other times you may opt for a larger project (i.e. redesign your entire web site to be database-driven via PHP/MySQL). The main idea is that you just keep continually improving... 5% here... 2% there... and so on. The process never ends.

You ARE competing with commercial games. In a fashion. The difference is your target audience. If you are making a game that appeals to the same players who buy the cutting edge games (UT2003, Warcraft 3, etc), then your project has to compete with those, feature for feature. Since you probably have several million dollars less to develop your game, it's not going to be much of a competition.
On the other hand, if you target those people who DON'T buy Warcraft, for whatever reason, then Warcraft isn't competition at all.

Originally posted by Uhfgood
There's also the thing of competing with commercial games. When I went to download.com half the games displayed were commercial ones, not indies. So what do I do, do I consider trying to beat commercial games including that in my market research, or should I only look for indies, and try to make the best indie/shareware game ever.

You have to consider all the competition and how you'll differentiate your product from it. I even consider TV as competition. So what unique value can you provide?

Making small incremental improvements works like compound interest. If you want to increase your sales by 10x, you might think it's impossible. But most people would believe they could figure out a way to generate a modest 5% increase without much difficulty. And if you make 47 modest changes over a period of months or years that each generate about a 5% increase, that's how you get your 10x increase. In reality it won't take 47 changes. Some changes you make will generate a 0% improvement, possibly even a reduction. But once in a while you'll hit the jackpot with a simple change that gains you 30% or more.

So if you're making $500 per month and want to get to $5000, this is one way to do it. Plus when you've done all the necessary changes, you'll have a much better shot of releasing a new game that makes a higher amount out of the gate. The first few changes may get you from $500 to $600 per month... just a few extra sales each month. But the last round of revisions may take you from $3500 to $5000, a significant increase. However, to get that $1500 increase, you have to start with some more modest gains and build your way up.

What's also interesting is that it may very well take you more time and effort to generate that first $500 per month than it will to go from $500 to $5000... assuming you stick with the product and don't abandon it too soon.

But once in a while you'll hit the jackpot with a simple change that gains you 30% or more.

I was wondering if you had an anecdote on something you did that got you this result in one of your games, not in theory but in actual pratice?

This forum is more success oriented, intense and overall empowering then a Tony Robbins infomercial! Whee!! :D

This forum is more success oriented, intense and overall empowering then a Tony Robbins infomercial! Whee!!

LOL!! Truer than you know.

ALL WE NEED IS A FIRE PIT TO WALK ACROSS AS A GROUP LED BY STEVE ROFL!!!!!!

Updates are no big deal to release, I update my games once every few months. If you have a good bulk email program or service, it's a piece-of-cake to let your customers know. Make sure you let them know the update is FREE, many have been raked over the coals by other companies and are expecting to pay. When they learn you are not like that, they are better, more loyal customers. Repeat business is very very very important.

And for the free version, updates are important too. It provides good newsletter content and shows the world that you are committed to supporting your products.

I'd be happy to get 100 a month, shoot i'd be happy to get 5 a month (ie 1 registration) of course I don't think my product is that good now that i've had some time away from it.

Since i'm using a new development enviroment, i can't really update my program much (unless i put the old software back on), not to mention the code is like speghetti... The only thing I could improve on it is the graphics, since I can do it pretty much externally. Also the music and sound. I guess if I spent a little time on that each day the game might be better recieved.

I just have to remember this stuff for my future games.

I'd be happy to get 100 a month, shoot i'd be happy to get 5 a month (ie 1 registration) of course I don't think my product is that good now that i've had some time away from it.


No offense intended, since it appears that you have three more games complete than I do, but your games seem to be very simple clones. You would benefit from the market research that Steve mentioned. Just counting the number of Tetris and Galaga clones out there means that your games have to be extremely exceptional for them to become sales. That particular genre has been over-saturated. I don't think there's much you could do to improve them past all the other Tetris and Galaga clones.

Originally posted by mogul
I was wondering if you had an anecdote on something you did that got you this result in one of your games, not in theory but in actual pratice?

This forum is more success oriented, intense and overall empowering then a Tony Robbins infomercial! Whee!! :D

Adding a level editor to Dweep (thus creating Dweep Gold) was one. Another was aggressively putting newsletter sign-ups throughout the site, including while games are being downloaded. And another was doing announcements to shareware CD vendors.

As for Tony... I've done his firewalk seminar twice (1995 and 1998). What can I say... lots of fun! :) My wife ended up with 2nd-degree burns on her feet though. Those coals are really hot, and she slipped out of state after the first step... Ouch!

Yeah, I have a few things in the works too..., i'm working on a graphic adventure game engine, and a sidescrolling platformer with rolling hills (ala sonic)...

I know those two aren't exactly saturated... (adventure games were mostly discontinued although rpg's still seem to be going strong), and 2d sidescrollers haven't been made in years with a few notable exceptions (lightweight ninja being one of them)...

I'll be doing some more research though I guess, I need to play some demos of my competition.

I've been doing some research myself on sidescrollers, and I don't think that's saturated. I think Tetris and Galaga are though. I'm curious to hear how StrayFire is doing.

Really, I don't know if anything is truly saturated as long as you have a well done product. I would've thought puzzle-bobble style games should have died out by now and yet Dinomite seems to be doing pretty well.

If walking on burning coals is what drives shareware success, I seriously underestimated what the competition is willing to do :)

If you can walk on burning coals, everything else is easy.

Wait till you see the competitors that eat glass and juggle chainsaws :)

I'm not to bad with juggling balls ( picked up a learning kit at the bookstore),but I'm still trying to figure out how to do the chainsaws though.

You'll have to master the chainsaws then, since I can juggle too. :)

Well chainsaws just don't do it for me nor does losing any fingers or hands. But you never know, I should probably try Bowling pins 1st, and I'm still having issues with more than 3 items. Much more practice is needed :)

Actually the one I want to try is fire breathing.

Doesn't look to hard, and boy could it be fun. We'll see. I did blow myself and a friend across the room as a teen trying to start a woodstove with gasoline. There is something beautiful about a ball of rolling fire :)

Damn I never was able to get that burnt hair smell out of that that wool jacket.

Well at least I know what a herd of burrning sheep should smell like, I'm sure that will come in handy someday :)

2 Workstation computers, C++ compiler and 3D modeling package: $4200

5 Pine Sticks, Matches and gasoline: $85

Being a fire breathing independent game developer: Priceless.

Originally posted by Guardian_Light
Being a fire breathing independent game developer: Priceless.

Really? I thought the price was $4285 ;)

I never took a moment to comment on this article. I thought it was excellent and want to belatedly thank Steve for writing it. I really enjoyed your description of multiplicative factors in the product cycle. It reminded me quite a bit of Jay Abraham's "Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got," where he provides three factors for increasing your business. I know you've read this, but for the benefit of everyone else:

Income = Number of Clients x $Average Transaction Amount x Number of Transactions per Client.

Increasing any one of these variables increases your profit, but it's nonlinear: if you increase each variable by 10% you actually increase income by 33%. The flywheel metaphor mentioned in another thread (http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=170) was also apropos.

I wonder has anyone actually created a formula that encapsulates all the major factors in running a shareware company? I tried it once but it became complicated very quickly and pointed out areas in which I don't know enough about measuring and tracking.

Everyone has a slightly different business model, so the factors will depend on that model. In our case we do a lot of repeat business -- more of our sales each month come from repeat customers than new customers. So our average customer is worth a lot more to us than to an indie developer with only one or two products. Many of our customers have been with us for years and have bought 10+ games. As a result certain factors are more important to us than others.

One of the keys is to figure out where the biggest costs are in your business. In most cases for indies the biggest cost is the cost (time/money) of developing a new product. Other factors like web hosting, taxes, and e-commerce fees are much less significant. If your product doesn't outsell its development costs, you lose money. This is a simplification, but if you focus on getting the best bang per buck for your development costs, I think you'll be on the right track. For instance, if you've invested 6 months to create a game, doesn't it make sense to invest another week or two to optimize the registration incentives?

Another example of how constant, incremental and long-term improvement to a product can make it a success. Pretty much echoes the ideas expressed in your article (and a bit of luck!)

http://www.ultraedit.com/products/story.html