WHERE can you sell your game? What are the requirements?

Besides actually FINISHING your game, I think this is one of the most daunting things to face for ANY developer of any genre. The thought of having to search around and contact anyone and everyone who might be able to sell your game for you, is overwhelming. Thankfully, some of us have already done a lot of legwork in that area, and have established communities of players eager to demo your game.


I am only going to list a few here (Amanda takes care of all this stuff, so my personal experience is very limited). I'm hoping other established commercial devs will give more options.


No matter where you attempt to release your game, it MUST be complete and THOROUGHLY tested.


Your Own Website


You definitely need to consider this, especially if you plan on releasing multiple games. Your ultimate goal should be to build your OWN fan base, who will buy future games directly from you, and reduce your reliance on everybody else.


Have somewhere for players to come to get help with your game, chat with each other about how awesome your game is (because it will be, right?), report issues they're having, and get all the gossip on your NEXT game.


There are a lot of free web hosting options that you can start off with, but eventually you'll need to spend a bit of money and make it look professional (ie get your own domain).


RPG Maker Web


will soon be selling commercial games.


I don't have details of requirements or submission guidelines. Hopefully Touchfuzzy or someone else in the know will fill us in on all the details when the time comes.


Amaranth Games


You can find a game submission form at the bottom of the page on Amaranth Games - fill that in and we'll take a look at your game.


Requirements: No nudity, no swearing, no excessive violence, no ripped resources.


Aldorlea Games


Check "Contact" button on Aldorlea Games


Requirements: family friendly, with exceptions that will be judged individually


Steam


Submit your game to Steam Greenlight (a fee applies)


Or contact Degica (games@degica.com) to have them publish for you


Big Fish Games


Yes, they do sell RM games, and they have a very loyal following. Getting your game on BFG is probably harder, and more work, than getting it on the smaller "RPG Portals" (like Amaranth Games and Aldorlea), but it's definitely worth your while.


Look for the Submit Game link at the bottom of the page on Big Fish Games


BFG has their own QA department, and they will play your game through and report any bugs back to you, before they'll accept your game for release. Do not rely on them for all your testing though - your game should be as close to squeaky-clean as possible before you send it to them.


BFG has a more casual audience than you'll find on the dedicated RPG sites. Tutorials, mouse control, quest logs, are all things that will help you get your game accepted by them, and loved by their players.


As a bonus, if English is not your native language and your game is developed in something else, BFG releases games in 10 different languages, so you may not need to localize to English in order to get your game out there.

 

How awesome are you? Thanks so much!

 

Shaz you are really helpful in pushing the commercial community forward I would just like to thank you for that.

 

Has anybody ever looked into sites such as Cafepress? I know they used to do data CDs (not sure if they still do) which would fit an RM game. It seems like that would open it up to a larger market.

 

You guys giving out support for upcoming devs is pretty amazing imo.

 

I love this idea! If the cost wasn't counterproductive, I would LOVE to distribute my games in a retro-themed retail box. I can even "see" the design in my head, as we speak. Ah, the good old days.

GB

 

I know nothing about it, but if anyone ever does/has, please do post and help the rest of us out

Unemployment Quest is (from what I can tell) a pure RTP game. They ran a Kickstarter project a little while ago, and raised funds to produce professional (not home-burned) CDs of the game. It was VERY successful.

I'm not sure about BMT Micro, but I'm pretty sure Plimus has a checkbox on the buy page to include a CD. I don't know whether Plimus creates the CD or if it's up to the developer to send it out. BFG will also provide a CD version of a game, at the customer's request.

 

If I recall correctly, Cafepress will eat most of your profits by giving just a small percentage of each sale. I wouldn't bother, but if someone has used it successfully, they are more than welcome to share their experience.

As for BMT, they definitely ship CDs, if you ask them to.

They create it. You can send cover arts and stuff that they will use.

Otherwise it's just a generic CD with just the title of the game on it.

 

While looking into CP and Createspace I realised a problem - every copy is the same from one master CD. That means you can't really do any copy protection, which isn't ideal for most people I'd imagine.

 

As I search for possible sites to post some RM commercial games, I found these sites (I'm not promoting them and I'm only listing some sites I found so far) that have RM games included:

• Desura
  
• GameStop
  
• GameFly
  
• BeamDog
  
• Greenman Gaming
  
• GameTap
  
• Game Streamer
  
• IndieVania
  
• IndieCity
  
• Show Me The Games
  

I even saw Aveyond, Millenium, and other games on some of these. I hope this will help.

 

Very nice post.

I'm thinking with how well people are creating RM games now, there isn't going to be a problem with distribution channels, but marketing them.

 

Do you have to get your game rated by the ERSB?

 

Depends on the distribution channel. In the US at least, ratings are 'voluntary, but some channels won't sell unrated game.

Not sure how it works in other countries.

 

okay thanks :lol:

 

Most portals are based in the US, so no worries about that.

 

I think you forgot FastSpring, which is very good and it gives you a lot of nice features ( Affiliate program, CMS integration, print and send CDs to costumers who wants it, download protection, etc... ).

CafePress, and similar sites, are good for selling t-shirts and stuff like that. Personally I'd use them only if my commercial game are relatively successful. After all, for you it's extra money. For your fans it's a cool gadget to remember your game

But for the CD, I'd go with FastSpring or Lulu.com .

 

This is very informative thank you! I wish I had known this before I spent hours googling everything. I did find out all this info before the hard way, had I simply noticed this post I could have saved myself some headache. 10 years now (since RMK2k) I have been doing this, and only recently decided to actually finnish a project.

 

I'd like to add my site to this list if possible. I'm working on a project that is on kickstarter, but I've decided to open up my site to other inspirational game products. If you'd like to advertise on my site, please check out www.gamersimmersive.moonfruit.com

It is still undergoing some work, but I think the general idea is there.

 

Hey phoenix_rossy, this list is of sites that have established communities of RPG fans, not sites just starting up. If you're after more games to sell, just sign up with BMT Micro and Plimus, then browse their catalogue. You'll find a lot of games there that you can put on your own site to help get it off the ground. But you'll still need to work on getting the traffic.

BTW, I looked at your site - do you realise your 'featured game' doesn't actually have a title that's visible anywhere on the page? It MAY be on the image, but that's so small and in an unusual font and I can't read any of that text.