Why don't you sell your game? How can I change your mind?

[Shaz]

commercial developers should put themselves out there more and help others get off their feet.

That's exactly what we're doing here, here and here, as well as any other thread in this forum where people ask specific questions.

 

[Zeramae]

@shaz

It's really good to know that there are options out there. It's a far-cry from now, but once I do have a completed game under my belt my plan was to get a team together to make games for people's enjoyment with the added bonus of being able to pay for my own gas/food without having to worry about utility bills and such.

Based on this thread alone I am imagining that the number of commercial devs will be much greater by the time I hope to trek into the foray.

 

[Indrah]

Personally I'm already considering working a commercial project at some point once I finish with my current one (which is goign quite well and shoudl be finsihed in a matter of moths, which is surprising all by itsef :I). What scares me most is the sheer amount of WORK that I could not possibly put in myself to make a game I'd consider good enough to sell.

I'm bascially a writer, my game actual game making skills are mediocre, I'm not even that good an eventer (and not FABULOUS as a writer either, so it's not like it compensates all the other areas). Art, music and scripting are all out of the question. That means a HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY if i wanted to have any sort of custom resources at all :I And without much reference or hopes of brilliant success, the thought of not making that money back is TERRIFYING. And the idea of using rtp for a commercial game isn't appealing either -.-

There's also the matter of time and effort. My current game is relatively short and simple, which is why it's going well so far. Any game I'd like to make commercial would probably be anything but that OTL I'm not entirely sure I'd have the guts to stick it out all the way, or feel the final product deserves the money.

Criticism wise (I mean for going commercial, not for game quality), I'm kind of not too worried. I've been on the apathethic side of things all my life so I can't see myself being TRULY bothered by some random idiot who I don't know flinging venom at me, so I guess that's one thing I don't have to fret about at least XD

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Not food, Dentistry. I'm not insured and I'm trying to cover some stuff.

I feel you there, man. My wife had to have some stuff done to her teeth that was causing her extreme constant pain, and it cost us thousands of dollars, because we had no coverage for it.

We had to do it on loans so my wife could get back to work (I'm just lucky my mom would cosign on the dental loans because my credit is ****), and it took us over a year to finally pay it all off and it was severely cutting into our actual living.

Is this going to be by private choosing or by public submission? Also how complex is it going to be to submit things in terms of contents? Because I am not a company, just one guy making a game and publishers often ask information like "Company name, Company adress" etc, which I obviously can't provide.

I haven't been involved directly with the commercial game stuff personally, but I could probably find out the answers to that or find someone who can give you the answers.

 

[Emmych]

Errrgghh, it's a resource thing for me. On one hand, I know I COULD make all the resources I needed if I gave it enough time, and I could get the stuff I needed that I couldn't make on my own and have permission to use it, but ohhhh myyyyy goooooddddd that would take ages and awkehgklaewghewj I am only one person OTL

Also the fact that the one game I do want to put enough effort into to make it something special, I have already promised it to the people for free. Were I starting it now, I'd be all "ah-hahahhahahahahahah give me money for this you bastards this took me for fricking ever IB"

(although that reasoning is something I might get over...? I'd probably be able to start selling it if I a) made it super affordable and gave it a super sweet demo for people to play)

If I end up sticking with gam mak, though, I do plan on making a commercial project eventually! I'm already making the foray into commissionable resources (j-just gotta get my skillset a little more polished before I for realz open up shop!), so selling a game seems like the next step. I'd just... probably work with someone and develop a ~custom engine system~ that works on the iOS and with Steam and ****, not RPG Maker. OTL

I'm bascially a writer, my game actual game making skills are mediocre, I'm not even that good an eventer (and not FABULOUS as a writer either, so it's not like it compensates all the other areas).

STOP BEING MODEST. Your dialogue is smooth as **** and it makes me want to punch your face in jealousy. </3

(but srsly you are super good at establishing characters through minimal dialogue, which is kind of amazing)

And as far as "game making skills" goes -- REALLY IT IS JUST PRACTISE AND PLAYING A LOT OF OTHER GAMES. I know I haven't actually shared anything I've made (because ahahahahaha most of it is terrible), but my gam mak skills have levelled up intensely in the past 1-2 years because of lengthy discussion, lots of article reading, lots of game analysing (I've been meaning to write a few articles on why a few games I love are terrible/amazing, since I have figured out why) and also failing everywhere! ;w;/

SO JUST GO PRACTISE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN, MAN~ YOU CAN DO IIIIIIIIT~

 

[Shaz]

Maybe you can still sell your game, but give it to the people for free who you promised it to, if they will test for you. Unless you promised it to a hundred people

 

[Emmych]

Maybe you can still sell your game, but give it to the people for free who you promised it to, if they will test for you. Unless you promised it to a hundred people

It started out as a "HEY GUYS THIS WILL BE FREE TO PLAY~" game, even though I never explicitly said it either way.

I guess I could always make it free for a short period of time, just for the folks who'd already been following along...? That's probably terrible marketing but ahahahahahahhhahahaha man I ain't gonna make game creation my meal ticket anyway -- just my ticket to shiny toys and well marbled steaks. >w>;;

 

[Lunarea]

I had originally planned to make my current Ace project commercial, but I ended up changing my mind. A small part of it is because I felt like I wanted to get more experience under my belt. A bigger part, though, was that it wasn't as simple as just making a game and setting a price. There's all this extra stuff, from registering as a company to making a website, to taxes. The nail in the coffin (so to speak) was that I just wasn't looking forward to harsh criticism. I'm not sensitive to the point of not being able to hear even the slightest criticism. But I've observed people going out of their way to be rude and overly critical, and I'm not sure I want to deal with that - or rather, I'm not sure that I have the energy to deal with that on top of everything else I've got going on lately.

If someone were to take care of all the extra stuff (taxes, licensing, site), I would definitely reconsider the idea. And knowing that I'd have some more support (which, by the way, my friends are absolutely awesome about) would be like icing on the cake.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

@Emmych, I'll just tell you that one of the other RM sites, (one I actually like for the most part mind you) that you frequent, would give you tons of **** if you went commercial with a project you promoted on their site. I'm just mentioning it because I know that you are over there.

 

[HamPants]

I, personally, would never feel comfortable enough to try and make a living solely on something I consider an art. That's not to degrade people who do just that, be they authors, artists, singers, game makers, or anything - all the power to you if you can do it, I just don't have enough confidence in my talents to make enough money to survive. That also doesn't mean I'm not willing to try and make some money by making games as a hobby, but I'm certainly not going to put all my eggs in that basket, or stop making games if I can't support myself on it, you know?

 

[Shaz]

We're certainly not encouraging anyone to leave their day job and do this full time THAT will take a few years and a few releases to accomplish, and even then it's a risk - you're only as good as your last game.

We're just trying to help people who want to earn some money from games they make "on the side", to get started down the right path

 

[Espon]

I didn't bother selling my game cuz it just didn't feel very sell-worthy. I made it in about 20 days and to me it just doesn't feel good enough to carry a price tag. Of course, a part of this is myself always being so critical of everything I do. Also I'm not even sure where to begin when it comes to trying to sell a game (I'm lazy and don't bother looking it up)

I'm kind of hoping I can sell the current game I'm working on, so I've been trying to avoid borrowed resources unless the creator allows it. Of course, this is making the process extremely slow since I don't have a team and my interest and motivation has it's ups and downs (right now it's kind of at a low point and I can't get much further than doing 1 frame of a sprite sans shading).

 

[Lord Valdyr]

This is the direction I've always wanted to see things go, if we have more people venturing into the commercial aspect of things, we will have more people looking to do commissions and this could become a full marketplace.

This idea really excites me not just as a developer but as a buyer. I love rpgs and I like them 2d with turn based battles and overworld maps and junk. For instance when reynard frost finishes ruins of rydos I will most assuredly purchase it

 

[Archeia]

What Lunarea said is the first problem (except the overly critical thing, I expect that ). The whole procedure of going "commercial." It feels like there's so many things I need to know and do.

As much as commercial games are interesting I also have the same issue as Indrah. The sheer amount of work and on top of your day job makes commercial game making appeal to me less. And you need some sort of budget before you could even sell your game because of music/sound effects themselves. And even as an artist, making assets take forever and costs an arm and a leg when it comes to time. Not only that, I rather have someone to work with (like Deckiller/Liberty/Indrah/rhyme) who pretty much compensate my weakest areas and someone whom I can rely on. People who can work for free until the time is right and super reliable, sort of thing? It's hard to find people like that.

@Emmych, I'll just tell you that one of the other RM sites, (one I actually like for the most part mind you) that you frequent, would give you tons of **** if you went commercial with a project you promoted on their site. I'm just mentioning it because I know that you are over there.

Only if it's RTP <w<;

 

[Helladen]

I want flexibility to use any resource available. If I go commercial it hinders my creativity. I would rather make a better game than make money off of it, but eventually if I can get a team capable of making a quality game together, I may change my ways.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Only if it's RTP <w<;

You mean, "Only if it has some semblance of RTP in it. Even if its just using a similar style."

I've never seen them discuss a commercial game favorably. And the one game I can think of where the author decided to go commercial with it later and had already had a game page from when it was a free game (even though I don't really like the guy), he got trashed horribly.

 

[HamPants]

It really is relieving to see so many new options cropping up! In my first post, I stated how surprising it is to see all of the options available, after being used to the olden days. Now, imagine my surprise that by the second page, the resources I know to be available have suddenly doubled in size and scope!

It's a very optimistic time for game makers.

 

[Archeia]

You mean, "Only if it has some semblance of RTP in it. Even if its just using a similar style."

I've never seen them discuss a commercial game favorably. And the one game I can think of where the author decided to go commercial with it later and had already had a game page from when it was a free game (even though I don't really like the guy), he got trashed horribly.

Actually, Necropolis was taken well. (The other commercial game)

But this is getting off topic :x

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Actually, Necropolis was taken well. (The other commercial game)

But this is getting off topic :x

Except, he also announced that it was being rebuilt in XNA from the ground up in the same post, making it not a commercial RM game.

... And yes this is going off topic.

 

[Mako]

Why don't you sell your game? How can I change your mind?

Actually I'd convince you otherwise. I've been shopping around for prices (just got my last pm back) and man, it's not cheap. I don't even see how it's possible to break even... Not naming any names a scripter wanted over $800+. Totaling up my very few sprites and art I had picked thus far... It was quite a pretty penny. (Mako's not cheap! I'll stand with the rest of them) but if you were to NOT choose a commercial project, the sky is the limit. Literally, and you could gain the reputation off of that product. Maybe even get a team, then you could produce something.

The people really monetizing and making money are the people selling the idea that you could make a commercial game. If you were to create a script, or a sprite, or a music pack.

***

My take on the situation is other commercial RM-ers are not contacting one another (how could they) or even following a set market price. But it the respect of scripting, and pixel art what I've seen thus far is that they are far outside the average market value.

I'm still researching this, so it is not fact that you can't make money with an RPG maker game. But at this rate I'm looking at; if you wan't a decent looking game with non-standard RTP pack you best be weary. Also another note, it's worth looking into freelance pixel artists, scripters, and royalty free music such as the ones found of various other sites. In my findings (all six of them) a pixel artist is 10x cheaper (no joke) then anyone you could find in the RM community. and get this? 10 million people don't have access to the commercial art you pay your hard earned money for. There are acceptions to this finding, the stuff on the market here is pretty below market value, the scripts are also the acception in some cases great scripters offer some little to no compensation.

I do support RPG maker in the respect of getting your story out there with little to no 'fluff' by fluff I mean gameplay or graphics... and in that regard it's fantastic.