Would an RPG maker video game store work?

[IanCR]

Hello everyone,

I am a web designer and I love video games. Specially RPGs and MMORPGs. So I had this idea, I am aware that it is legal to sell RPG maker games as long as you bought the software and all the assents are not copyrighted by someone else.

I read a few threads about selling RPG maker games were game creators were having trouble setting up payment gateways, finding places to advertise their game or even a place to sell it. I know it is very hard for new developers to get accepted on steam and even if they get accepted is very hard to be noticed among the many other games steam already has.

So here is my question, I have experience creating websites, managing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to rank in Google results, and managing several eCommerce platforms. It would be easy for me to create a website were people can buy downloadable games.

But before I do this I want to know if there is enough demand. So what do you think people? Would you like to have a website exclusively to sell RPG maker games? Were you can get paid lets say via paypall every time someone guys your game? You would justh ave to register, upload your game for revision and then you would receive payment every time it sells.

As a developer I know it is hard to focus on development and publishing at the same time. So that's why I came up with this idea.

Constructive comments appreciated.

 

[Shaz]

There have been a number of people who have come here and offered the same thing.


The thing is, for you to be at all appealing, you would have to have an already-established site that's currently bringing in heaps of traffic.


It's not hard to create a website, and it's not hard to set up ecommerce and SEO. What would you do that people can't do on their own or through the many existing companies that offer the same thing, considering some of them already have the audience and you'd be starting from scratch?

 

[Indinera]

Would you like to have a website exclusively to sell RPG maker games? 

It already exists, my website is one of them, and people who try it are usually pleasantly surprised.

 

[EternalShadow]

It already exists, my website is one of them, and people who try it are usually pleasantly surprised.

Try it in what way and how are they surprised?

 

[Indinera]

Affiliate with me.

It sells better than they think. Most people think Steam Steam Steam and overlook portals like mine. For one game I won't mention the dev confessed to me that the income generated from my website was close to the Steam one.

 

[Vox Novus]

It's not hard to create a website, and it's not hard to set up ecommerce and SEO. What would you do that people can't do on their own or through the many existing companies that offer the same thing, considering some of them already have the audience and you'd be starting from scratch?

This is a good point, Aldorlea and Amaranth are already well established RM sites and a go to option for many developers going commercial; steam is also a potential possibility but harder to get into.

For obvious reasons hosting sites take a small percentage of the income gained by the sales of games they host, perhaps one way to draw people in and set yourself apart from others is to offer lower percentage rates than your primary competitors.

Aldorlea and Amaranth's main purpose though is not as a hosting site for others games but as a medium to sell their own games; would you do this differently? Perhaps another thing to set yourself apart could be that you focus exclusively on trying to sell others games rather than your own. Also consider what you could do differently to advertise both the site and the games you host.

 

[IanCR]

There have been a number of people who have come here and offered the same thing.

The thing is, for you to be at all appealing, you would have to have an already-established site that's currently bringing in heaps of traffic.

It's not hard to create a website, and it's not hard to set up ecommerce and SEO. What would you do that people can't do on their own or through the many existing companies that offer the same thing, considering some of them already have the audience and you'd be starting from scratch?

The statement "not hard to set up SEO" makes me wonder, do you even know what SEO means? You cant just "set up SEO" And unlike most people arround here I do make a living from the internet. I have been a freelance webmaster for over 5 years so no, I would not "be starting from scratch". Just because there are tons of novices who think they are professional website developers just because they know how to set up a Wordpress site does't mean they actually know what they are doing. And that's why 99% of all bloggers and webmasters are unable to make a living out ot their efforts.

I understand that in this forum you might get a lot of kids and novices with good ideas. But I have been in the business and acrtually have success from it, actually most of my income comes from hosting a Minecraft server and that´s all thanx to good SEO.  And about the many existing companies....... you missed the entire point, have you ever tried to sell something on steam? Its like trying to sell a picture in Shutterstock. You will hardly ever sell anything because you will be competing with thousands of other indie developers.

That being said you should learn not to judge people that you don't even know, I do make a living from the internet and in fact I dont even need more money, I would simply do this because I like videogames and I can always earn some extra change.

Anyway I am looking for opinions from actual game developers.

 

[Vox Novus]

Umm, Shaz is a game developer...

 

[Shaz]

Ahhhh, you are so defensive. Why? Not one of my comments was offensive. You should be able to respond to every single one of them without getting emotional or going on the attack. If I spoke with ANYONE who wanted to help me sell my game and they got upset like that when I started asking them about those things, I'd walk away REAL fast.


Let's break it down.


Yes, I do know what SEO is. No, I have no desire to do my own. If/when I need to, I will pay someone to do it for me - someone who can prove with figures how well they do it and not just say they can "manage SEO".


You make a living from the internet? Guess what ... a number of people here do. Freelance webmaster means nothing - I did that a few years ago. 5 years experience doesn't mean you're good at what you do. I would take you more seriously if you didn't list Minecraft Server as one of your accomplishments. My 14 year old son's friend does that. I wouldn't trust him to market my game.


I'm surprised you misunderstood my "starting from scratch" comment - if you have been handling ecommerce and setting up websites for others for so long, I'd think you would have picked up the meaning. How many game distribution websites have you set up? How many do you run? How big is your audience, and how active are they? How many sales do you make in a month and how many games do you cater for? THIS is what I mean by starting from scratch - if you don't have a game distribution site and an active audience, then you ARE starting from scratch when it comes to helping us sell our games. What do you have over the long-established sites mentioned above that would cause us to go to you rather than them? By the same token, if I wanted to sell something on Steam, I would use a publisher with a proven track record. What is your track record?


I have been a programmer for 5 commercially released games and have contributed to several more games by other developers, including Amazon. Yes, I am a game developer, so I'm exactly the person you want to hear opinions from. Thank you for asking, rather than judging people you don't even know - that's good advice btw


No, I would not use your service because you are not established in this field. And because you apparently don't like it when people ask questions to gauge your experience.

 

[Indinera]

The statement "not hard to set up SEO" makes me wonder, do you even know what SEO means? You cant just "set up SEO" And unlike most people arround here I do make a living from the internet. I have been a freelance webmaster for over 5 years so no, I would not "be starting from scratch". Just because there are tons of novices who think they are professional website developers just because they know how to set up a Wordpress site does't mean they actually know what they are doing. And that's why 99% of all bloggers and webmasters are unable to make a living out ot their efforts.

I understand that in this forum you might get a lot of kids and novices with good ideas. But I have been in the business and acrtually have success from it, actually most of my income comes from hosting a Minecraft server and that´s all thanx to good SEO.  And about the many existing companies....... you missed the entire point, have you ever tried to sell something on steam? Its like trying to sell a picture in Shutterstock. You will hardly ever sell anything because you will be competing with thousands of other indie developers.

That being said you should learn not to judge people that you don't even know, I do make a living from the internet and in fact I dont even need more money, I would simply do this because I like videogames and I can always earn some extra change.

Anyway I am looking for opinions from actual game developers.

It's good for you, all I'm saying is that it (a portal selling only RM games) has already been done. It's nothing new. I've had such portal running for 7 years now.

My general opinion is that a new venue to sell RM games is always good, so feel free to create yours.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

So what can you offer that other portals don't? And how can you get buyers?

You know why most people sell on steam even if there's already so many games on it? Because it has a BIG userbase.

If I'm gonna sell an RM game, my first choices will be Amaranth and Aldorlea, then maybe Steam and/or gamejolt etc. Why? They already have a userbase.

What's the use of a shop that no one goes into anyway?

It's good that you want to do this, but unless you can ensure that your shop will have a good amount of buyers going in it, your shop wont be a good alternative.

PS: the people above are all game developers, and Shaz and Indinera both has years of experience in selling RM games.

I think you should listen to your own advice, don't judge.

 

[Indinera]

Yeah Engr. Adiktuzmiko and:

you missed the entire point, have you ever tried to sell something on steam? Its like trying to sell a picture in Shutterstock. You will hardly ever sell anything because you will be competing with thousands of other indie developers.

I'd be curious to know if this is based on experience (ie he has actually sold something on Steam, in this case a bit more details would be welcome) or just a repeat of some kind of general consensus about Steam (which then would be a bit pointless).

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Steam might be saturated but the sheer amount of users still give you a chance of selling pretty fine. Compare that to a site that only has a few games but no people go into it.

 

[Indinera]

My question was not so much to debate about Steam, but to find out whether IanCR's claim about it is based on actual experience or not.

Any experience can be valuable. Repeating what others say is not.

 

[IanCR]

Ahhhh, you are so defensive. Why? Not one of my comments was offensive. You should be able to respond to every single one of them without getting emotional or going on the attack. If I spoke with ANYONE who wanted to help me sell my game and they got upset like that when I started asking them about those things, I'd walk away REAL fast.

Let's break it down.

Yes, I do know what SEO is. No, I have no desire to do my own. If/when I need to, I will pay someone to do it for me - someone who can prove with figures how well they do it and not just say they can "manage SEO".

You make a living from the internet? Guess what ... a number of people here do. Freelance webmaster means nothing - I did that a few years ago. 5 years experience doesn't mean you're good at what you do. I would take you more seriously if you didn't list Minecraft Server as one of your accomplishments. My 14 year old son's friend does that. I wouldn't trust him to market my game.

I'm surprised you misunderstood my "starting from scratch" comment - if you have been handling ecommerce and setting up websites for others for so long, I'd think you would have picked up the meaning. How many game distribution websites have you set up? How many do you run? How big is your audience, and how active are they? How many sales do you make in a month and how many games do you cater for? THIS is what I mean by starting from scratch - if you don't have a game distribution site and an active audience, then you ARE starting from scratch when it comes to helping us sell our games. What do you have over the long-established sites mentioned above that would cause us to go to you rather than them? By the same token, if I wanted to sell something on Steam, I would use a publisher with a proven track record. What is your track record?

I have been a programmer for 5 commercially released games and have contributed to several more games by other developers, including Amazon. Yes, I am a game developer, so I'm exactly the person you want to hear opinions from. Thank you for asking, rather than judging people you don't even know - that's good advice btw

No, I would not use your service because you are not established in this field. And because you apparently don't like it when people ask questions to gauge your experience.

Does your 14 year old kid makes a monthly 4 - 5 figure income by running his server? If not then we are not on the same league and you should not even mention him...

Running a pro Minecraft server requires a LOT more technical skills than creating RM games. If you really want something neat (not generic) you must know Java which is a real programming language, also in order to create a large network. Unlike RM games who utilize a basic proprietary scripting language that works only under the RM environment. Comparing Ruby with Java is like comparing HTML with C++.

Sure there may be tons of kids running Minecraft servers from their PCs the program is designed for that lol. But the people who are into it for business get their own dedicated servers and connect them using proxies. This creates the illusion of a single server when there are actually several servers working together to render the same world. And that is how large networks can handle over 3000 concurrent users at the same time. Same principle applies to most MMORPG games.

Here is my main server website.

http://www.mineplex.com/

Over 2000 users always online, over $8000 in profit every month and ranking on the top servers in most server lists websites.

All thanks to SEO, which then again, it is something you cant just "set up".

Enough said.

 

[Indinera]

And how does that reply answer my question about your Steam experience?

PS: better than disclosing unverifiable figures, do provide some links of your work.  

PPS: Thanks for the update and link - more details is always welcome.

What about Steam experience? Or RM games experience? I don't know very well how things are with Minecraft but they seem to be very different fields.

That said, from my perspective, it's always worth trying, so go for it. You don't have much to lose. If you are able to create a community of players willing to buy RM games direct, it will be profitable for everyone.

 

[IanCR]

And how does that reply answer my question about your Steam experience?

PS: better than disclosing unverifiable figures, do provide some links of your work.  

PPS: Thanks for the update and links.

What about Steam experience? Or RM games experience? I don't know very well how things are with Minecraft but they seem to be totally different fields.

That said, from my perspective, it's always worth trying, so go for it. You don't have much to lose.

I tried to publish a game I made (not using RM) on steam. It was never accepted, besides if you sell on steam you have to sell really low because people will compare it to thousands of other games from small publishers (basically you face the same problem you face when trying to sell something on Amazon).

In fact I have never done a single cent with Steam, that´s why I don't use it. I prefer to use other methods and publish myself, I know it sucks to be a new publisher and still remember when my server was new, I had to throw in over $10k on sever lists advertising and google ad words before I was able to rank high on Google. But the investment payed off in less than 6 months.

 

[Indinera]

I tried to publish a game I made (not using RM) on steam. It was never accepted, besides if you sell on steam you have o sell really low because people will compare it to thousands of other games from small publishers (basically you face the same problem you face when trying to sell something on Amazon).

Well Steam is a vast topic in itself, that I'm not sure I'm willing to discuss it into details here.

It has evolved a lot with years, too. I'd say 2015 is the worst year to be on Steam. Even 2014 was significantly better. The main problem is that they lowered the number of votes to pass Greenlight dramatically from 2014 to 2015. I don't think it was a really good idea, tbh.

High pricing can pay off, especially if the game's content justifies it, because people who prefer to buy at a low price will get your game while it's on sale.

Which year did you try to publish on Steam, may I ask?

In fact I have never done a single cent with Steam, that´s why I don't use it. I prefer to use other methods and publish myself, I know it sucks to be a new publisher and still remember when my server was new, I had to throw in over $10k on sever lists advertising and google ad words before I was able to rank high on Google. But the investment payed off in less than 6 months.

Nice to hear about a successful venture.

What can I tell you? These days to sell outside of Steam it's not particularly easy. So you might design a good website and end up with a very low volume of sales.

Blame it on the millions of games released on Steam, made easier by Greenlight and Kickstarter.

If you're motivated and think you can come up with a good website and content without involving too much time, sure go for it. But I don't think you'd be able to replicate your Minecraft income with such venture.

 

[IanCR]

Well Steam is a vast topic in itself, that I'm not sure I'm willing to discuss it into details here.

It has evolved a lot with years, too. I'd say 2015 is the worst year to be on Steam. Even 2014 was significantly better. The main problem is that they lowered the number of votes to pass Greenlight dramatically from 2014 to 2015. I don't think it was a really good idea, tbh.

High pricing can pay off, especially if the game's content justifies it, because people who prefer to buy at a low price will get your game while it's on sale.

Which year did you try to publish on Steam, may I ask?

Nice to hear about a successful venture.

What can I tell you? These days to sell outside of Steam it's not particularly easy. So you might design a good website and end up with a very low volume of sales.

Blame it on the millions of games released on Steam, made easier by Greenlight and Kickstarter.

If you're motivated and think you can come up with a good website and content without involving too much time, sure go for it. But I don't think you'd be able to replicate your Minecraft income with such venture.

Mabye you are right with the "But I don't think you'd be able to replicate your Minecraft income with such venture." the cool thing about Minecraft is that it is so mainstream already that it is easy to promote. And people buy items on a regular basis because they spend it on the sever economy, while selling games I would only get a 1 time payment from customers.

 

[Indinera]

You can get repeat payments if they liked the game they bought. If you check my website I've got 100+ RM games available.

http://www.aldorlea.org/allgames.php

The problem you might have is that your Minecraft experience is probably not going to be of much help for selling RM games.

If you're interested trying, feel free to do so, but it probably takes a lot of time to build a community of players.