This weekend I released Break Ball 2 Gold. My company is a small one man company that has someone else do the graphics and several other things for my games. I've been trying to do the little things that make a difference as far as turning profits, but have been rather unsuccessfull for the last 4 years in doing shareware games (though I've learned a lot creating games in my free-time between working 40 hours a week and being a full-time student). I'm hoping to change things around becuase I'm about to graduate from school, and I would love to work on games full-time. I was wondering if some of you guys with more experience could visit my website or try BB2 Gold and offer suggestions on what I can do to improve my sales (or in other words, offer suggestions as to what I'm doing now that hurts my sales or that I need to do better). I think it's a great game, just about everyone that bought BB2 told me they're addicted and that it's a great deal, but my sales remain dismal :confused: I'm hoping that the new improved graphics and game play will change things, but know from experience and reading articles etc. that there is much more to running an indie business then just making a cool game, so don't be afraid to be blunt:) Thanks!

BC Soft Games Webpage (http://www.bcsoftgames.com)

Break Ball 2 Gold Pic (http://www.bcsoftgames.com/BB2GoldGallery/gun_pic.jpg)

I downloaded one of your games, "zero count", and boy that game was annoying. it just froze in windowed mode and wouldn't let me switch to full screen or anything. tried it second time, in full screen and same result. very frustrating.

potential customers might be turned off by buggy software.

I dont like the layout of the website. Maybe it's the bright orange colors. Try a different color thats easier on the eyes.

How many downloads are you getting? it could be that there isn't enough traffic to your website, hence the poor sales. If the # of downloads is low, then your sales will be low.

Sounds like your video card driver doesn't support OpenGL or you don't have the DLLs installed for OpenGL and DirectX (8.0 or higher is needed)?

Other games that require OpenGl work fine. It doesn't actually freeze up. It just doesn't do anything besides display the title screen. Nothing I tried seems to help.

I tried your other game BreakBall2, and that is a MUCH better game.

Be sure to send me a link and pad file etc... at editor@indiegamer.com -- so I can include it in the what's new section. That goes for the rest of you people releasing new games. Sometimes I'll see stuff on my own and include it but for sure if you mail me it will get in as I'll have a concrete record. (that doesnt apply for reviews since I dont have time to review everything, but no problem getting a mention somewhere else or a pad file up)

- Steve

-jih
I wish I knew why Zero Count isn't working for you, it doesn't make sense as all the init stuff is the same for ZC as it is for BB2 Gold, so it seems that BB2 Gold should crash on you in the same manner. Is this a recent download of ZC that crashed on you or was it a while back? My only guess is it's trying to load some pics and can't find them (which should cause the game to crash and display an error message)...I wish I had your computer to figure out the problem on :)

-svero
I don't have a pad file ready yet, do you want a link of the full version for review or just the shareware version (it didn't specify on your website)?

Originally posted by BCSoft
-jih
-svero
I don't have a pad file ready yet, do you want a link of the full version for review or just the shareware version (it didn't specify on your website)?

I sometimes ask companies for the full version for review, and sometimes people just send me one. Either way is fine although I can't guarantee a review. With regards to the what's new section just a link to the game's home page is enough for me to check it out, grab a screen, and add a section.

Originally posted by jih
Maybe it's the bright orange colors. Try a different color thats easier on the eyes.

Don't think that the website is costing the company any sales, but that is just my $.02