How to Sell Your Game - Boot Camp

[Shaz]

We're getting away from the purpose of the thread here. If you'd like to discuss game pricing, feel free to start a new one

 

[Lord Valdyr]

Sorry Shaz! *cowers in fear*

 

[Tuomo L]

One step that's not mentioned here is that you should compress your game via RM, then open the compressed file and extract it to a new location. THESE files are the ones you import into your installer, not the original ones in your RM project.

How come? Will the game still be playable to those without RTP or what?

 

[Shaz]

Compressing gives your players a playable game with all the resources embedded into the RGSS file. Unless they're determined, and know how to do it, they won't be able to get into your graphics or data folders.

If you don't compress, you're giving them your whole project as an open book. If they have the same maker, they can go in and open it up, and look at (and change, and share) whatever they want to.

Partly a matter of privacy, and partly a matter of saving yourself the headache of spending hours trying to figure out why something's not working in their game, only to discover they've changed it and introduced issues.

If you've used RTP, when you compress, you choose the option to include the RTP. Players will then be able to play your game without having to download it separately. But that has nothing to do with my reason for the statement that you quoted.

 

[Tuomo L]

This is still confusing me. The part where you encrypt the game, you do it to protect the game, I get that. But then you say extract the contents and make installer based of those contents alone. How come? What does this achieve?

 

[Shaz]

When you compress the game in RM (with or without encrypting), in addition to protecting the resources, you are creating an installer. But it's not a very nice or professional one. It won't check system specs, won't create desktop shortcuts, won't create an uninstaller. What it DOES do is package everything up that the player needs, without giving them access to the stuff you don't want them to have. This is good, but it's not enough for a professional game.

When you extract that into a new folder, you have what you WANT your player to have. But you want more - you want all those things above, and maybe more (maybe you want to set some registry stuff, add a EULA, have a nice image show while the game is installing, etc). So that's why you need to take the extracted contents (the stuff you WANT to give the player, which is not your original project) and run them through a third-party installer.

Hope that clears it up a bit?

 

[mystic0]

Even though paypal is a legitimate method of payment, I really don't like using it. For many indie developers and my side projects, there have been "goof ups" where paypal received the payment and I did not. So, the customer had to send me their invoice, then I had to confirm it with paypal, and get things smoothed out. There isn't any perfect payment system, but amazon has been kinder to me. I've heard desura is alright and steam is good, but I've never tried.

 

[Shaz]

I've not heard of any issues with Paypal. What "many indie developers" are you talking about? The ones I know (not limited to RPG developers) all prefer to use payment providers that accept Paypal.

 

[wild_bill236]

What if we wanted to put the game on a disc. how would we go about doing that and what kind of disk do we use CD-R OR DVD-R and how would we put it on there so it will have an auto run feature to install the game as soon as you put it in your computer?

 

[Indinera]

Do you mean selling it as a disc only or giving the option to players? The latter is very easy as BMT or Plimus do it upon request. The first one probably needs you to pay for it, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you've got a very good reason.

 

[wild_bill236]

like if some one wanted to sell their game on a site like ebay for example. or get gamestop in the the city they live in to sell it for them something like that.

 

[Indinera]

I'm pretty sure they are websites that will let you design and create a CD. But I've never done it so I can't really help more than that.

Gamestop has an online store btw

 

[FlamingWolf - Zezaph]

It's a very nice guide. Very basic obviously, but surely it helps a lot.

However I'd like to make to points:

1. as many said, Plimus has problems with Paypal. But that not the biggest of my problems. My problem is that Plimus is just plain ugly. Their affiliate network is terrible, their interface improvable, their commissions are above average and they tech support leaves a lot to desire. That's why I'm moving to FastSpring. For now I'm happier with them
   
2. I don't completely agree with the DRM thingy. It's good to know that you can protect your game, but in my experience protection of that kind is near to useless. First because hackers can easily crack almost anything with ease. Second because, in the past, I made some tests. From my tests I haven't noticed any drop in sales from protected/unprotected software and the p2p dstribution rate of my stuff was similar. On the other hand, with protected games, I noticed a big increase in tech support emails ( mostly from people that don't understand that the serial number must be put in the field that asks for it... ).
   

My 2 cents

 

[Erics]

This was a fantastic read, and kudos to Amanda! I have a question, when the user purchases a key, and after it is activated, does the processor's protect it from being copied to another computer?

 

[Mizuotaku]

Thank you for this information as It will help me get started.

 

[Kes]

Would it be possible to check the link for Amanda's pdf?  When I click on it all I get is the blue loading-up bar and then nothing happens.

Thanks

 

[Shaz]

Hey ksjp17, I just checked it, and it works for me. Can you try again, and if it still doesn't work, give it a go with a different browser?

 

[Kes]

A different browser did the trick.

Thanks.

 

[EternalShadow]

I checked this for interest and I was surprised at its comprehensiveness. An installer creator may be a good investment even if the game isn't being sold.

 

[Mizuotaku]

When I try to buy a license for the installer program I get this.

"The following product(s) could not be placed in your shopping cart.

• 202467 Astrum InstallWizard 2 Standard - not available"

 Do you know if they stopped selling them for now or there is something wrong with their distributor?

The License for this product is now $49 (standard) & $89 (Pro.) us.