65 replies to this topic

[theg721]

Hey all,

Just wondering if anyone's had success with selling thier games at school, and if so, what they did to make it a success. I'm due to start selling copies of a game I've been working on since October 09 at school with my friend the day after tomorrow, and don't know how to go about it. At the moment the plan is WOMA (Word-of-Mouth Advertising), and we will go around the school tommorow morning telling people about it. We have permission from the school*, so don't yabber off at me about that. It is a shoot-'em-up complete with appropriate copyright notices and will be sold for 75p (approx $1 in USD).

Anywho, just wondering if anyone:

a) has sold games at school with success
has advice

Thanks,

theg721

* No longer have permission from school. Oh well.

Edited by theg721, 25 March 2010 - 04:33 PM.

[Dangerous_Dave]

Lots of people have done this. Whether they were successful or not is a matter of what you consider successful. People do buy the games.

You are likely to make enough to buy a few snacks, but not enough to buy a car. I haven't personally done this, but plenty of people on this forum have so they should be along any minute now

[Desert Dog]

I've never done it myself, either, but I have to query the 75p price... if your selling them individually on cd's, then your going to make darn all for your efforts. Why not go to 1 (er, pound?) or even 2?

[Dangerous_Dave]

Over here in NZ, buying bulk, you can get CDs for like 20C (NZD) each. That's about 10p, with 65p profit. Sounds fine to me .

[Tarik]

Define successful. Really if you write a simple marketing plan and look at the maximum potential demand of this plan you can pretty much figure out how successful you're going to be. Let's say your school has 500 students and you sell the game for 75 cents, then by some standards you're looking at a few days of salary at most if you sell to all students. But for someone who's 12 and worked on this game for a few weeks it's a great success.

In any case, if you're selling at schools then financially it's just not going to be as attractive as a minimum wage job. I mean, it's hard to find a school that allows their own students to sell on its property unless it's school/charity related and usually not for-profit, and selling it other school's is just not really going to be realistic. Selling a single game at a single school will usually not get close to the amount of money you'd have made if you worked a minimum wage job and put in the same kind of hours. So financially I don't think anyone has ever been successful selling their GM games at their school.

Of course it's a great learning experience when you're young and I applaud you to have developed and organized the selling of your game at your school. Advice? Well reconsider pricing, it's not true that pricing something at 1$ will get a lot of sales. Price is an indication of quality, often indie-game devs prefer to sell for at least 10$ especially at launch such a low price is barely seen. Other than that, just try to reach the market outside of your school, for the simple fact your school takes up about 0.001% of the potential market. (just making up numbers here, you get my point). Nowadays with internet it's quite easy to reach people without spending much. an SEO'd website, one-time press release, sending your game to dozens of indie reviewing websites together with your story, posting some gameplay videos and your game will reach 10x the people at your school easily if it's a quality game. If it's not a quality game, you shouldn't be trying to sell it but should just practice more and create a quality game even if it's small and it takes a while.

Good luck.

[theg721]

Thanks for the replies everyone. After talking to the other developer about it and mentioning this topic, we have decided to raise prices to 1.25. We also are showing it off at a small exhibiton (gulp) in front of the school's Head of IT, IT Techincian, possibly the Headteacher and possibly a few journalists. So far we have permission, but have to discuss business law/nature of the game etc. with school officials. We have also had to delay release due to having to get through this but will still email (for the aforementioned 75p) the game exe to buyers as I want to get it out quick. Fingers crossed it will get in the school magazine (which is named "The Thoresbian"). If anyone needs more info I will be glad to share.

theg721

P.S. If anyone wishes to look up school policies, check link removed by.. guess who.

Edited by theg721, 24 March 2010 - 08:47 PM.

[jackyboyhenry]

well , i wouldnt put up where your school is lol , but you can get quite alot of money if you have enough people in your school , if you have 255 people in your school (including staff) and you have only 100 people buy this you get 7.50, that cant be bad!

[theg721]

well , i wouldnt put up where your school is lol , but you can get quite alot of money if you have enough people in your school , if you have 255 people in your school (including staff) and you have only 100 people buy this you get 7.50, that cant be bad!

Although your calculation is wrong (0.75 x 100 = 75.00), thanks for your reply .

[twelveways]

Is it the game in your sig?

[theg721]

Is it the game in your sig?

Nope. It's an Elder Scrolls fangame, but I reckon it's just a shoot em up with ideas from The Elder Scrolls (e.g. The Adoring Fan).

[jackyboyhenry]

Although your calculation is wrong (0.75 x 100 = 75.00), thanks for your reply

i should beleive in myself more , i got that answer and moved the decimal cos i thought i got it wrong

[theg721]

Can everyone please ignore this topic for now? The Head of IT decided to take away our permission

[twelveways]

For what reasons?

[theg721]

For what reasons?

I quote exactly:

You see boys, if you where to go out and sell that, people would think, "If they can sell stuff so can I!". And as we can't let that happen, I won't let you sell your game anymore.

[Desert Dog]

You see boys, if you where to go out and sell that, people would think, "If they can sell stuff so can I!". And as we can't let that happen, I won't let you sell your game anymore.

Yeah, other kids might think 'if they can work hard, and produce something that others want, and sell it to make a bit of money, while learning/using a lot of important skills which will be useful for us later in life, so can I!'

I'm probably being unjust, and I guess he's justified in his decision, but he could at least have thought things through before giving permission in the first place.

So it isn't practical to consider other ways of selling your game?

[theg721]

You see boys, if you where to go out and sell that, people would think, "If they can sell stuff so can I!". And as we can't let that happen, I won't let you sell your game anymore.

Yeah, other kids might think 'if they can work hard, and produce something that others want, and sell it to make a bit of money, while learning/using a lot of important skills which will be useful for us later in life, so can I!'

I'm probably being unjust, and I guess she's justified in his decision, but she could at least have thought things through before giving permission in the first place.

So it isn't practical to consider other ways of selling your game?

For a start it's a she. Anyways, I guess you're right. I'm not sure about other ways, though - I can't exactly get a PayPal account at 10, and I'm not sure about age limits on sites such as BMT Micro.

[twelveways]

You should get your parents to talk to him. Maybe you could give half of the money to charity.

As long as you are doing it with the schools permission then there is no problem. As long as your game is not violent or gory or anything that is.

A responsible school schould encourage enterprise and creativity.

Edited by twelveways, 24 March 2010 - 08:36 PM.

[theg721]

You should get your parents to talk to him. Maybe you could give half of the money to charity.

As long as you are doing it with the schools permission then there is no problem. As long as your game is not violent or gory or anything that is.

A responsible school schould encourage enterprise and creativity.

a) should be a she
my parents don't know about GameMaker or my programming skills. The last time I told them... they went berserk.
c) Violent or gory? I'll tick both of those boxes.

[RowanFN]

let the old mum and dad talk to the teacher,

ooooooooooooor

u could be reli mean and say its for charity, but then never give it to charity lol, but thats a lil harsh and probs guilt tripping

[theg721]

let the old mum and dad talk to the teacher,

ooooooooooooor

u could be reli mean and say its for charity, but then never give it to charity lol, but thats a lil harsh and probs guilt tripping

Thanks for your your reply. As I said, my parents hate it when I use GM or program, and Option 2 is a little mean, don't ya think?