20 Ways To Make Money Making Indie Games
Since I'm on a roll for providing lists of ... stuff, here's something more original:

Newcomers to the indie game development scene often limit themselves to only two possibilities when it comes to selling their game: Either they try to find a publisher to sell it for them, or to follow the old "shareware" model and release the game on their own website. Recently, portals have become a major alternative. That's pretty much it for options, isn't it?

Not even close. I keep harping on all the opportunities that I have discovered in my own limited forays into the world of independent game development. People are coming up with new ways to market and distribute games every week! I wanted to share a few examples.

Don't forget --- unless you choose an exclusive option, you may be able to mix and match SEVERAL distribution methods. There's rarely a need to put all your eggs in one basket... but if you do, make sure you have some guarantees on that basket! And one opportunity often leads to others. For example, the original relase of the PC version of Outpost Kaloki was an "okay" seller, but it led to an opportunity to become a HIT GAME on the XBox 360. It found its audience there.

So here's a bunch of ways to make money making independent games. And no, none of these come with any guarantees.

#1 - Get A Domestic Publishing Deal
A lot of new people to the indie game scene think that what you need is a publishing deal. Create a game good enough that a publisher will pick it up and sell it for you at Wal*Mart. Nice idea --- and it occasionally happens. But whatever you do, do NOT make this your end goal! There are all kinds of war stories floating around about game developers who got one of these deals, thought they had it made, and happily signed over all rights and their games' future for a pathetic advance (if that), and then never saw or heard from that publisher again.

#2 - Sell it on a Portal or through an Online Publisher
Another popular option is to sell it on a games portal. These include RealArcade, Big Fish Games, GarageGames, Arcade Town, RealArcade, Matrix Games, Shrapnel Games, Manifesto Games, and Oberon (which handles sales on MSN and Yahoo). Valve and"Steam" is another new option. Sometimes these CAN lead to "box deals" for retail stores. Just remember that these sites cater to different audiences, and this may effect your sales. Oberon, RealArcade, and BigFish emphasize the very casual, usually female audience. GarageGames has a following in the Apple community. Matrix and Shrapnel focus on war and strategy games. Some of these companies prefer an exclusive publishing deal, and others are happy (and prefer) a non-exclusive deal.

#3 - Sell It Yourself on Your Own Site
Always a popular option. This takes the most work, but it's also one of the most rewarding. I think I've sold more copies of Void War on my own site than any of the portals.

#4 - Affiliate Sales
There may be other indies out there pursuing option #3 - and they may have a similar target marget to your own. Let them sell your game, too!

#5- Foreign Distribution Opportunities
There are some foreign distributors / publishers that are looking for content to release for cheap in their markets, if you can work with them on localization. Sure, you might only get $0.25 or $0.50 per CD-ROM, but if they can push 10k-40k of your game, that's some nice supplemental revenue.

#6 - OEM Deals
These may bring less money than #5, but if you can partner with a hardware manufacturer, you may be able to get a few pennies per game by bundling your game with their hardware.

#7 - Consoles
Sure, everyone's talking about the XBox 360 LiveArcade, but don't limit yourself to that. Don't even limit yourself to the two other major consoles that may or may not have downloadable indie games as an option. Or the ever-vaporware Phantom console. There are also opportunities like the Linux-based GP2X handheld. The owner of the "Arcade-In-A-Box" emulation system is also looking for new, retro-style content to offer for sale to his customers.

#8 - Cell Phones / PDAs
My personal take on Cell Phone gaming is that it was locked up and settled by distributors long before most indies had a chance... not to mention over-hyped as an opportunity. But it REMAINS an opportunity, and shouldn't be ignored.

#9 - Unusual Platforms
I was once contacted by a gentlemen asking for a bid to do a version of Void War for a motion-based platform that he was selling. I didn't win the bid, but those kinds of opportunities are out there.

#10 - AdverGaming
I don't know much about this one - but this one has potential to be the next big frontier. I mean HUGE, if we can figure out how to best exploit it. The cost of your game is subsidized by advertising products in-game.

Note: Do not confuse this with "Adware" bundling, which is a despicable practice of bundling malware with your game: this could very well DESTROY downloadable gaming as people learn to distrust anything they download off the Internet.

#11 - Release For Free, and Request Donations
A tried and true practice, far older than this technology. Independent "street" musicians have done this for ages.

#12 - "Serious Games"
There is a whole conference and at least one book on the subject of doing "serious games" - games designed to educate, simulate, and/or train rather than purely entertain. You might create a game from the ground up on contract as a serious game, or you may find an opportunity to adapt an existing title. This is growing really fast, too.

#13 - Use Your Game as a Centerpiece For A Book
Okay, there's a zillion books out there on writing games... but people still buy 'em, so there may be room for a zillion and one. Besides, very few have a commercial-quality game included with full source code!

#14 - Cross-Sell With Related Products
There's at least one company out there that sells both a board and computer version of a game, and cross-market the two.

#15 - Contests
There are several videogame development contests that happen every year, the IGF being one of the most notable. These prizes of these competitions range from cash to publication offers to free hardware and games - or a combination of any of these. They also come with some level of recognition and free press, which is always a good thing.

#16 - Release Free, Support With Advertising On Your Website
There are a bunch of Flash Game sites that do this. The games are free, but they encourage you to click on advertising links.

#17 - Mail-Order CD-ROMs
Sure, it's old school. But you could do on-demand manufacturing of CD-ROMS, and include free demos on the discs for your other games. Just a thought.

#18 - Bundled Collections
Okay, so these are often called "Shovelware" and may not always be good options - but opportunities do crop up from time to time to bundle your game with other, similar titles in a retail "box" release. It may make sense.

#19 - Free (Online) Game, Pay For Premium Content
Another model that is proving very popular right now: You offer an online game for free, but allow players to pay a fee (often a one-time fee, but a subscription may work) for preferred access and premium content. It could be a single layer of premium access, or you could give them piecemeal access to a never-ending supply of cool goodies. If it's a multiplayer game with a good community, your premium players may be your best salesmen.

#20 - Subscription Game Sales
This was an old-school idea from the late 80's and early 90's, as seen with SoftDisc ... the previous employer of much of the core id Software gang. It was temporarily resurrected by TotalGaming recently, but isn't being used anymore. It's still being seen in MMO's to some degree. The idea is that people pay a regular subscription for a constant influx of new games (or new content). This COULD be made to work with episodic content, in theory, but just like offering new games --- they'd have to be of consistent quality to make it worthwhile to customers. I'm not sure how to make this one fly today, but it's probably a concept waiting for just the right creative and entrepreneurial spin.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:31 AM (Permalink)