Single player PC game developers: We're All Charity Cases Now | Hacker News Reader

Single player PC game developers: We're All Charity Cases Now

pc.ign.com

29 pointsChrisXYZ14 comments

Indie developers with loyal fans need to tie in the fans with special editions, just like big companies are. I can buy fable 2... or I can buy the limited edition and get a load of stuff, that as a fan, I would like to have. Same can be said with Fallout 3 and any number of games over the past 5 years. I mean Sid Meier's games release with like a 150 page manual, and I buy Sid Meier games (mostly because I like them enough) partly for the manual.

He could do any number of things. If you buy Geneforge 5's silver edition you get a signed limited edition Geneforge t-shirt. Gold edition, get a signed limited edition novelization of Geneforge 1-4's story and a signed t-shirt.

Personally, if I'd played the demo and loved it, I'd probably jump into Geneforge 5 with a special edition if I got a book telling me the story I'd have gone through in previous games.

A few loyal fans will be willing to pay more for things that can't easily be reproduced, and I'd hedge my bets that if he's earning a living off of an indie game he's got enough loyal fans that this would probably be quite profitable (especially if people want to give him money).

I think he should see how hard it is to get setup selling on Steam. It's not crack-proof either, but I get the impression that single-player games are still selling pretty well there.

I also saw this recent announcement from Valve that sounds interesting to help work around this: http://store.steampowered.com/news/2372/

But it does sound like more DRM, albeit a different take on it.

It is a form of DRM, but the delivery mechanism is just so easy that's it's worth the tradeoff. Any game you ever install through Steam is remembered by Steam. Format your computer? No problem, Steam will reinstall all your (Steam) games for you. No need to dig around to find the install discs.

It's the opposite of EA's DRM. EA's DRM makes life harder for the legitimate purchaser. Steam's DRM actually makes life easier for the legitimate purchaser.

Something rings so true about this. Treat your customers like you actually like and trust them. Give them more reasons to give you money, and they'll gladly do it (special editions, re-releases, etc).

The author could take advantage of his customers' desire to hand over money by offering something in return, satisfying his need to engage in trade rather than charity. Everyone would be happy. Customers get more stuff, he makes more money, and no one feels like they're getting shafted.

Give them more reasons to give you money

I have little reason to suspect that being in the cloth-map business is going to be any more worthwhile in the long term than being in the IP business.

It's obviously not going to be a huge source of income, but if it a few percent of revenue or something, depending on the amount of work necessary to make it happen, it might be worthwhile.

Example: I've been a fan of the Warcraft universe and lore, and I own a pile of Warcraft merchandise: action figures, posters, t-shirts, and collector's editions of every Blizzard has made a collector's edition for (I don't even play the new WotLK, but I like having the collector's editions for the art and soundtracks).

If he's got some customers are as rabid about his games as I am about the Warcraft universe, he could at least increase his revenue by a few points, even if it's just simple stuff like cloth maps, t-shirts, and soundtracks included with a Collector's edition of a game.

I don't think that's unreasonable. Obviously it's not going to overtake the rest of his business, but it could be an additional source of revenue, and even advertising (T-shirts are walking billboards), people talking about the "awesome" inclusions in collector's editions. Stuff like that.

Edit: He actually does do some special purchase stuff: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2009/03/so-heres-how-many-gam...

Total Copies Sold of Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: 3979.

Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: $111412.

Total Geneforge 4 Hint Books Sold as of March 13, 2009: 807.

Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 Hint Books as of March 13, 2009: $5649.

The books served for around 5% revenue from Geneforge 4. It's not huge, but it's a little something more.

Part of the problem with the game industry now is that there are just so many damn games being released. It used to be that a single title could easily hold my attention for at least a couple months. Now, the release schedules from just the big names alone clog up most of the calendar. People need to pick a cutoff for game purchases and I think the indie titles tend to get cut off the list first for most.

This article doesn't matter once they make games available on-demand via OnLive where there is almost no installation. Everyone forgets that BitTorrent and other pirate sites also have the benefit of being on-demand.

It's still tough for the majority of the population to use BitTorrent, they'd rather prefer a Hulu.

I wouldn't be so confident.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gdc-why-onlive-cant-possib...

People are asking to give him money in a way that makes him emotionally uncomfortable, so he's turning their money down. Yep, he's professional alright.

There's nothing unprofessional about turning down money if accepting it makes you uncomfortable.

Indeed. That's integrity.

I'll give you $10 to suck my dick at gunpoint.

Your example is not valid because he didn't state he was in the dick-sucking business in the first place.

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