[GD-General] Re: [GD-Design] Indie - Publishing Services?

[Mike W. <ge...@ub...>]

>
>
>>[shameless plug time]
>>my company is currently preparing a publishing site for the game
>>engine we support as well, but the goal is definitely to have games
>>with other engines included as well.
>>    
>>
>Actually, can you go ahead and describe some more on-list what this 
>is about?  Hard to say it's "off-topic", although maybe this should 
>migrate to gamedevlists-general as a more appropriate forum.
>
K here goes ;}

Essentially, I have been helping sponsor and develop an open source game 
engine (Reality Factory) for several years now, the engine has grown and 
matured significantly over the past 3 years, to the point that people 
are coming up with completed games that are ready to sell.  I've been 
frustrated (as many others have i'm sure) with the options that are 
available currently, and as a result I've started work on this project.

Currently, there are ways to get your game for sale online, but these 
companies don't do any marketing or promotions, don't really 'help' you 
beyond actually providing the shipped-cd for the customer.  This is 
where this project falls.  We let you build the games, we'll promote it 
as well as give you the tools to manage & support the game once it's 
been released.

Basically, we're developing a customized online portal that is designed 
to help you sell your games.

Some of the services we will be offering:

    * Cd's can be shipped in any number of different packaging styles,
      with printed manuals, in normal CD cases, DVD cases, etc...just
      depends on how you want your game to look when it gets shipped.
       This will also mean that each developer can, to a certain extent,
      customize the revenue they receive for their game - if you want
      that 50 page printed manual, so be it, but this will reduce
      revenue for the game as well (printing costs, etc) compared to a
      game shipped with the CD and a smaller insert manual.
    * Customized & secure product registration system that allows for
      shareware software to become upgraded & unlocked into full-release
      software.  Alot of developers seem to be creating so-called
      'Episodic releases' - I'm experimenting with this as a possibility
      as well.  This is the centerstone of the entire system - secure
      delivery of the games.
    * Online e-Commerce sales & distribution integrated with the
      software security system - demo's can be setup in several ways -
      for 'x' days, for 'x' plays, that type of thing.
    * Shareware download & CD bundles for players to find the newest
      games to play as part of a larger online media portal (which will
      be promoting indie music and videos as well as games). 
    * For online-capable games, we can provide network server access,
      bandwidth and servers for any games we are publishing.  We've
      already been doing this for years with counter-strike & half-life
      based servers, providing rentals & community support.
    * Beta testing / community management tools for mailing lists, bug
      tracking, forums and more...a 'sourceforge for indie game
      developers' - we don't have a huge team here, but the goal is that
      we can 'help you help yourselves' in this manner, to create the
      most professional product possible.
    * Preview movies for your game, in online streaming format - as a
      simple example, I posted a VERY simple preview for the game i'm
      developing a few months ago - it has had literally thousands of
      people view it every month since it went online.  We can help
      create a small mini-preview movie of your game to help you promote
      your game
    * Provide merchandise for each game, including posters, calenders,
      mousepads, t-shirts, etc..
    * Soundtrack CD's for your game - we'll help you get your tracks
      into soundtrack ready format, if you don't have them already.  We
      have access to alot of indie music and will help work to get you
      the coolest soundtrack possible for your game.

It's gonna be a pretty interesting system overall...there will be a 
control panel where the developers will be able to update news, 
screenshots & game info from the web, as well as check out sales, 
traffic, manage your communities and so on.

We already have our network & bandwidth partners solid through the game 
server rental side of things (which has been rollin along for several 
years now), and in general, I'm very optimistic about the potential this 
project has.

We will be offering reasonable royalty rates, similar to what 
garagegames and x-games are offering, but i think the key is that we are 
looking to support ANY indie game that is professional enough to be 
considered a finished product.   I'd love to hear from any indies that 
have games that they have finished already or will be completing in the 
near future.   I'd like to have several titles available when we open 
the doors to the public.

An ongoing discussion regarding this topic is available from my site:

http://www.uber-geek.ca/?page=publishing

Cheers

Mike Wuetherick
www.uber-geek.ca
mi...@ub...