Hi all!

My name is Daniel Forslund and I am slowly entering the field that is "shareware", or independent game dev and publishing. I am currently doing it part time but will phase into full-time during this year if everything goes according to plan.
Prior to this venture I have run an animation business and am currently a business development manager at a quite big software company (not games related).

I won't ask you whether I am likely to succeed or how much I can expect to make, nor how I should market the products. I am simply confident that this will succeed, partly due to my stubborn nature and partly due to my unique product range. :)

However, I have a couple of questions regarding actually doing business. I would be very thankful for any help and or pointers:

- Would you recommend handling the ecommerce-side myself (credit card transactions etc.)?

- If so, is there any recommended reading (books, websites)? I am proficient with web development, but have no idea where to start with the ecommerce bit.

- If you would recommend to go with a 3rd party for transactions, are there any current review resources for such services? I can (and will) do the comparisons, but actual words of experience would be a great resource.

So, in short - what route would you recommend? What is your experience?

Again, I would be very thankful for any help and or pointers!
Last but not least, many thanks to mr. Pavlina for an excellent site.

Regards,
Daniel

1. No, get an ecommerce provider to handle it for you - at least to begin with - as it's quite a lot of infrastructure to build and it'll distract you from actually producing products at the start of your business.

2. Dexterity.com has a great series of articles for shareware game developers. And these forums have some very useful old threads to look through. But you probably knew all that.

3. Don't know. I use swreg.org, a kind of no-frills service with a curiously British flavour (hilariously curt and pompous service but gradually they've grown on me ;)) and some very powerful features.

Cas :)

Moderators!

FAQ section for newbies!!!

Please...

Originally posted by WildSnake
Moderators!

FAQ section for newbies!!!

Please...

Thanks for the extremely helpful post.

Perhaps a more correct statement would have been "moderators, a better search engine please". I did search.

Again, if there are threads that discuss this, point me there.

Pardon dfvdan,

It wasn't any way aimed personally against you.
By two-three months later you'll understand what I was meaning. OK?

Moderators,

FAQ section and better search engine! Please...

There are rumours of an upgrade occuring to vBulletin. Hassle Steve Pavlina :)

Cas :)

OK. I did a search for swreg and came up with these:

http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1484&highlight=swreg
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=946&highlight=swreg
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=490&highlight=swreg

Simon.

Many thanks for your help!
It sure is easier when you know what to search for. ;)

Apologies for my ignorance!

Originally posted by mathgenius
OK. I did a search for swreg and came up with these:

http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1484&highlight=swreg
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=946&highlight=swreg
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=490&highlight=swreg

Simon.

Welcome Daniel!

Please don't take Andy's (WildSnake) post as a complaint against you -- I believe his intention was to, once again, prod the moderator's into creating a faq which has answers to many of the questions you brought up -- and I'm sure many more questions that you will think of as time goes on. (I'm looking for answers to some of your questions too! :) )

I had heard a rumor that there was going to be a faq made, but I haven't seen anything surface yet.

Best Regards
Anthony

Originally posted by Justiciar
Welcome Daniel!

Please don't take Andy's (WildSnake) post as a complaint against you -- I believe his intention was to, once again, prod the moderator's into creating a faq which has answers to many of the questions you brought up -- and I'm sure many more questions that you will think of as time goes on. (I'm looking for answers to some of your questions too! :) )

I had heard a rumor that there was going to be a faq made, but I haven't seen anything surface yet.

Best Regards
Anthony

Don't wait for the mods to make a faq. Maybe the community can do one and get Dexterity to make it a sticky. :)

'srite. All we're here to do is keep threads under control, not disseminate wisdom!

Cas :)

Originally posted by WildSnake
Moderators!

FAQ section for newbies!!!

Please...

do you mean this one?

http://www.dexterity.com/articles/indie-faq.htm

also check the other articles in the same section, written by Steve P. (http://www.dexterity.com/articles/)

about registration services, check out http://www.blackcatsystems.com/regservices/ or http://www.regshare.com which both contain overview of all available registration services. Find a company the suits you, the rates you seek, payment method, custom order page, registration code system, and check various forums for people's opinions before you make up your mind.

you can check out this forum past posts about marketting strategy (if at all, by some suggestive thread), also check several software submition softwares that saves you a whole lot of time tracking those 500 download sites. I recommend Shareware Tracker (http://www.accusolve.biz/strack.html) warmly, and they're running now some nice price promotion. Also check out Rudenko's Robosoft (http://robosoft.rudenko.com/) for the same tracking job.

-Gil