[Mr.Chubigans]

For a look at the publishing rollout, go to this post.
(Note: The major update starts on post #36)

So, about a year ago I gave a post about a game called ShellBlast that I tried to sell via Game Publishing, and the road I took. Make sure to read that post first before reading this one.

Sales Update: December 08

Sales Update: January 09

***
UPDATE: Game has now been released! Check it out at spiritsofmetropolis.com



A month or two after posting that thread, I started work on a new puzzle game. Unlike ShellBlast, this was going to be a commercial game from the outset. I was going to design it from the ground up as professional...that is, make it incredibly polished and have it worth the money I would be asking for it. I had learned from my mistakes with ShellBlast, which was that while ultimately I still think it's a successful puzzle game that's unique and challenging, it was not in any way a viable commercial product, for the reasons I posted in the last thread. As of this post, here's where I stand with ShellBlast:



Now ShellBlast was included twice on Game Giveaway of the Day, as the second time I went through PayPal instead. So the total earnings was about $800. Considering the startup costs and licensing accumulated around $1500, it's definitely a loss. Not anywhere near the kind of sales I'd like to be making, but I have to remember the product I was trying to sell as well. It wasn't commercially viable. (Interestingly enough, lowering the price from $20 to $5 had little to no impact on the amount of sales I received!)

So, fast forward to today. I've completed a new game called Spirits of Metropolis, and it will go live on sale this weekend. Will it be a better commercial success than my last game? Let's go through the checklist:

-Design. I have said that ShellBlast was a very confusing and somewhat uninteresting game to look at. Let's compare ShellBlast to Spirits of Metropolis:

ShellBlast screen 1

Spirits of Metropolis screen 1

ShellBlast screen 2

Spirits of Metropolis screen 2

Right away, you can see that I've gone for a totally new design. Oddly, I think Spirits of Metropolis has more gameplay elements on those screens than ShellBlast does, yet Spirits ends up looking more simpler. This is due to two factors: The way the user can recognize the screen (Oh hey, a puzzle game based in a city vs some...weird shape thingys with lots of lines in the background) and the way that gems are more universally known as a puzzle game.

Still, it's not quite in the same arena as, say, a commercially made puzzle casual game. Is it still too "simple"? I don't think it is once you play the game. But that's not what really counts here...its the way the screenshots present the game. And I'm very pleased with the result.


-Simplicity. As I mentioned with ShellBlast, it was a very confusing game to explain. Spirits of Metropolis started out as a complex game as well: with each gem that you would clear, you would building a city below. Red gems would give you corruption in the city, while green gems would pump up money in the economy, etc.

I realized, holy crap, I'm doing it again. I've turned a simple idea into a complex monster. And the base gameplay in the gems was already fun enough. Why was I trying to add more uniqueness to a game that already had an original puzzle element at it's core? So, I threw away the whole city building concept.

Once I did that, I had the style of the game in stone...until an artist (Amanda Redmond) came in and gave it a complete overhaul. I realized that my original style was not even in the same league that she was able to do. Here's an old picture vs a new one:

http://www.vertigoga...eoldspirits.png

http://www.vertigoga...enewspirits.png


-Confidence. A lot of good my confidence did me with ShellBlast, huh? Here's the difference: with ShellBlast, I was depending on the developer to make my money dreams come true. I wasn't totally convinced that ShellBlast could sell for $20, but I let the publisher take me along with the ride.
The difference here is that I'm confident in Spirits of Metropolis, and I'm absolutely certain that it's worth the $20. The question is, do I have an audience to sell to? Will they play the demo and come to the same conclusion?

I'm not going through a mass publisher like Oberon Media this time around, but going through dev-portals like GamersGate and hopefully Greenhouse. But it's mostly going to be up to me and my website. Here's the sales goals and challenges I'll be facing.


-Website traffic. Here's a look at how my site, vertigogaming.net, is performing this month (note that we switched servers earlier this month so I don't have stats for that part):



(We'll be focusing on the number of visits.)

My sales goal for this month is 30 copies sold. That's absolute peanuts for game devs and even some devs around here using GM commercially, but for me it's a good number to reach.

So, let's assume that I'm going to hit about 10,000 user visits this month at the rate of 360 people a day. Let's cut that down into maybe 6,000 unique visitors (which isn't shown on that graph, but percentage wise is what it would come out to). If I can sell my game to just 0.005% of those users, I'll hit my target. But I've purposely made it an easy target to reach, perhaps because I'm just plain nervous about jumping into the commercial dev business...something I've dreamed of pretty much my entire young life (to make game devving a viable option for me, I need to be selling at least 70 copies a month...more than ShellBlast sold in a year and a half).

Think about that for a second. That's an astounding percentage. Heck, it makes it look relatively easy. But the real question is, is my site generating enough traffic to deliver the goods? I honestly don't know right now. It's something I'll know from experience I think, but right now I can't say. Its unfortunate that I don't have the traffic data for when I released ShellBlast, as that'd be a huge help.


-Genre Overflow. I'm willing to bet that I have more competition with the match-3 gem genre than any other PC genre out there. Are people tiring of this genre? Have they had their fill of matching colors for combos? With the unique take Spirits of Metropolis has, I'm hoping that answer is no. We'll soon find out.


-Advertising. I have about three thousand dollars of debt I need to pay off, most from Vertigo Games server upkeep, equipment purchasing and so on. I have virtually no money for plastering ads anywhere right now. But what if the game is successful...do I pay off that debt, or invest the money into advertising for a wider audience? Right now, I just don't know. That's more down the line than anything else, so it's not anything for me to worry about right now.

***

So there you go. Over the course of the next several months I'll outline my plan of attack in pushing Spirits of Metropolis, share monthly sales, and learn right along with the rest of you what works and what doesn't. This isn't a business guide on how to make money; think of it as a crash course in trying to make a living. I've learned a lot since my last commercial game, but I'd be naive to think I know it all just yet.

The game will go live hopefully tomorrow, and from there we'll see how it goes. This could be the start of a great story...or perhaps just the opposite. I look forward to taking you all with me in this huge step in my life.

Let's do this, and if we don't succeed, then we'll do it again!

This post has been edited by Mr.Chubigans: 16 May 2010 - 03:50 PM

[KC LC]

This is an interesting chronology and insight into your experiences. I hope you keep the GMC informed about your success... or the other possible outcome.

Quote

-Genre Overflow. I'm willing to bet that I have more competition with the match-3 gem genre than any other PC genre out there. Are people tiring of this genre? Have they had their fill of matching colors for combos? With the unique take Spirits of Metropolis has, I'm hoping that answer is no. We'll soon find out.

Well, of course the match-3 games are your biggest competition. I think that goes without saying. But I see no evidence that people are getting tired of them. They're more popular than ever.

I think the challenge you face is the large number of free (and/or online) versions available. Bejeweled clones are everywhere. Many of them offer free online play or free demos for download. Some of them are quite good. That will surely impact your ability to sell your version, even with the new features you've added.

On the other hand, developers must be making money from these, or they wouldn't offer so many of them. So there should be room for one more.

[TD Games]

Wow, a good and interesting read there.

But one thing I am concerned about;

Do you have another job (not to do with game dev) because surely the money you get from selling your games doesn't generate enough money to provide a house, put food on the table, pay tax and and pay for clothes and many other things. Unless you've got many other games being sold I don't see how your not on the streets.

Sorry if this sounded rude, because I want to take this path - but with sales I saw on those tables I don't think I'd be able to live.

-Tom

[Calabitale]

Hi, I dont really know anything about this sort of thing but. If you are looking to sell your game to certain people then, you could try what this fellow did.
http://www.crypticcomet.com/
I dont think he had any advertising budget, he just went to the forums where the type of people who play the sorts of game he made and posted a lot. There is lots of information on how it worked for him. So I would suggest pimp it to those people that might like it, anyone with blogs or those who have any amount of influence. Dont spend any money on advertising, you cant compete with the big companies, and most people would ignore it, from a small game they have never heard of before.

[hpapillon]

Quote

But I see no evidence that people are getting tired of them. They're more popular than ever.

... Actually afaik the Match-3 genre has been in decline for years. Much more recent trends include 'Time Management' (fake job games, like "run a beauty salon" or "run a restaurant") and "hidden object games". Word on the street is that even a high budget match-3 with gorgeous graphics and a full storyline, at the moment, has little staying power... they hit the top-ten if they're good, but they fall off again quickly. Over the past year, a badly slapped-together HOG has generally been able to easily outsell a gorgeous match-3. (HOGs are finally hitting saturation, there are so darn many of them that they don't all succeed anymore.)

Which doesn't mean it's impossible to make one and do well. Just that the market trends may not be quite where you think they are.

My primary concerns would be audience targeting. The cool 'Spirits of Metropolis' banner had me expecting some kind of noir adventure game. I was totally puzzled by seeing generic jewels and matching gameplay. (I'm hoping at least that there's some sort of story to go with it all?) I worry that the people who like bright happy casual games will avoid it based on the initial dark presentation, and the people who like the dark noir presentation will be disappointed when they see the casual jewels.

Also, it doesn't seem to have any support for color-blind players... all your jewels look the same. If you do ever want to get onto a portal or the like, you'll need to add different shapes and textures.

Good luck with it!

This post has been edited by hpapillon: 20 December 2008 - 09:05 PM

[Mr.Chubigans]

It actually has a full blown colorblind editor that allows you to change the shade of each gem in several different colors, and has shape gems also. That'll be advertised on the main site quite a bit.

As far as the gameplay goes, it's not just a match 3 gem game, nor is it a game with a slight gameplay twist. It's a totally unique game that'll play well to trailers I think.

This post has been edited by Mr.Chubigans: 20 December 2008 - 10:20 PM

[Mr.Chubigans]

TD games, as far as income goes, where I live there are quite a number of jobs available...so the way I'm looking at it, I've got a good three months to make this somewhat profitable before I have to take on a job. As long as the outlook is good by the end of those three months, I'll be OK.

[TD Games]

Okay dokey.

[LongeBane]

hpapillon, on Dec 20 2008, 10:07 PM, said:

Quote

But I see no evidence that people are getting tired of them. They're more popular than ever.

... Actually afaik the Match-3 genre has been in decline for years. Much more recent trends include 'Time Management' (fake job games, like "run a beauty salon" or "run a restaurant") and "hidden object games".

What is a hidden object game?

[Obilink]

LongeBane, on Dec 21 2008, 11:39 PM, said:

hpapillon, on Dec 20 2008, 10:07 PM, said:

Quote

But I see no evidence that people are getting tired of them. They're more popular than ever.

... Actually afaik the Match-3 genre has been in decline for years. Much more recent trends include 'Time Management' (fake job games, like "run a beauty salon" or "run a restaurant") and "hidden object games".

What is a hidden object game?

Basically like an I-Spy Game, such as Mystery Case Files.

[Schalk]

I hate the fact that "Hidden Object" games do so well. Personally I find them boring to play and make. But that is probably because the Casual Games Market mainly targets adults with 50%+ being female and I'm neither an adult nor a female.

This post has been edited by Schalk: 22 December 2008 - 07:34 AM

[Mr.Chubigans]

Game has now been released! You can find it at spiritsofmetropolis.com.

And so, it begins.

[masterofhisowndomain]

A very interesting read and strategy for pushing sales you have there.

Quote

-Advertising. I have about three thousand dollars of debt I need to pay off, most from Vertigo Games server upkeep, equipment purchasing and so on. I have virtually no money for plastering ads anywhere right now.

Does advertising need to cost lots? Advertising for example on here, where there are hundreds of potential customers, is entirely free and possibly lucrative. Ask around: are people willing to spread the word for you? Have you got any banners for people who are able to accomodate one? Although it might not be viable for yourself having only 409 posts, some users with a lot of posts spread around several forums would be more than happy to boost a noble cause!

Additionally, whatever happened to Sandbox of God 2? I'm slightly bemused as to why you haven't considered that type of game a commercial route.

This post has been edited by masterofhisowndomain: 22 December 2008 - 03:18 PM

[Mr.Chubigans]

I'm trying to make Sandbox of God for free on PC, though I think it'd make a better commercial game on consoles/handhelds/mobile, honestly. I was actually going to make the game for the competition, but I didn't have enough time.

***
UPDATE (12/23)

It's only been two days, but I'm finding out that there's no way I'm going to be able to pull this off with just the audience I have now. With the demo hovering around thirty downloads and sales at 2, I'm going to have to get it up on other sites and, more preferably, find some publishers like Greenhouse, who I just fired an email off too.

Next month the game goes live on GamersGate.com, which is a better target audience than what I have now. Till then, there's no way I'm making my 30-sale goal this month, but perhaps next month it'll be a better target.

So far, so slow, but I'm not giving up this easily.

TRAFFIC:
-Derived a few from the main topic at Game Maker Creations, and two from youtube.

This post has been edited by Mr.Chubigans: 23 December 2008 - 02:59 PM

[rinkuhero]

I could probably post about the game on indiegames.com/blog if you like. The people there tend not to buy games due to being used to freeware, but it couldn't hurt.

EDIT: And done.

This post has been edited by rinkuhero: 23 December 2008 - 03:25 PM

[Mr.Chubigans]

Wow, thanks rinku! I didn't know you posted at indiegames. That's really awesome.

[rinkuhero]

I usually don't, timw does 99% of the work there since he's awesome and since all the rest of the editors are lazy, but others occasionally post too.

And you've probably already done these, but another thing I'd recommend is some of the stuff I mention in this guide -- i.e. a press release, sending out free review copies to reviewers, that sort of thing.

But I don't know much about marketing casual games because I haven't done that before. I suspect that casual games rely more heavily on portals than on selling directly from their website. Audience is important: sure, you may have 300 visitors a day, but how many of them are high schoolers who never buy games and can't afford to or are unable to buy stuff online, how many of them even enjoy casual games, etc. -- the key thing is to reach the casual game audience, and that's what portals tend to be good at.

You may see if Jay Is Games is interested in reviewing your game, too -- they're the largest blog about casual games that I know of.

[Dmaster270]

Submit this to Game Informer and if they accept it, you'll have an even bigger chance of getting more sales (assuming you get a good review, which I'm sure you will.)

[gamez93]

I have been following the progress of this game through your blog ever since we had it in Issue 12 of GMTech magazine and I am glad to see it is finally finished. I was reading up on some places that can help you with the advertising of your game, and came across http://www.advertiseyourgame.com - I haven't done much research on them however they appear to be something like Google Adsense - but purely for games. Maybe that could help you out, best of luck with all this and making it success in the New Year.

[Schalk]

gamez93, on Dec 24 2008, 02:48 PM, said:

I have been following the progress of this game through your blog ever since we had it in Issue 12 of GMTech magazine and I am glad to see it is finally finished. I was reading up on some places that can help you with the advertising of your game, and came across http://www.advertiseyourgame.com - I haven't done much research on them however they appear to be something like Google Adsense - but purely for games. Maybe that could help you out, best of luck with all this and making it success in the New Year.

I found out some more information on that site http://www.quantcast...iseyourgame.com.