I have a game, now what...

News & General Discussion
1

Hello everyone,

I could use some advice, directions, hints…

So i have made this game… It is a PC game, FPS Tower Defense type.
It has a campaign mode that can be played in Co-Op with 3 friends.
And it has a multiplayer / PVP mode, with a max of 4 vs 4.

The campaign is the “episode 1” of , hopefully a long series and is pretty much straight forward.
The PVP is a “Loot and discover” design : Play your match, get “Energy”, spend this energy on upgrades / new items ( turrets, units, ect… ), repeat.
It supports Teams, and i am planning on adding a “Spec cam / Observer mode” , and implement a ladder / tournament system ( Still stuggling to figure out out to make everything work the way i want…)

I made all the graphics and the code in C# ( i was 3d artist originally, but decided to learn Scripting after the programmer i was working with gave up ), bought the sounds on the asset store, and a few plugins ( alloy, bolt network, Particle playgrounds, ect… )
4 years later… i have the game…

But now what…

I basically have no money… so ad campaigns are not a option for me.

How do you guys do ?

Should i just contact steam and try with them ?
I know absolutely nothing about marketing and business in general, and i have no interest in it.
M y guess is that i should have a facebook page for the game, a twitter may be, a website too…and some kind of forum somewhere ???
Also, legally speaking, should i find a way to register the name of the game ?

Well, as you can see i know nothing about all that… and i am reluctant to try and find a “partner” that would take care of that side of the business, as my first two experiences ended up with just being a huge waste of time ( people quitting, giving up, getting a new girl friend, ect…)

If anyone could share his/her experience, with a previous game made and sold, or point me to a service / company that i should contact for this kind of request, that would be great.

Thanks !

2

You can apply your game for steam greenlight if it’s good enough but it requires a one time fee of $100. Also explore other options that aren’t steam, for example Desura. Make sure to make a site for your game, facebook page, twitter, and youtube, that way people can know about your game.

Good luck!

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3

Spend 4 years promoting it.

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Yea that’s what i was afraid of ( facebook, ect… ) I am so bad at public relations … I am gonna read the guide ( Thanks for the link ! ).

5

Honestly, there’s no silver bullet and luck is going to be a factor. Just try.

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You could try publishing to Indie DB. Well not realy publishing it, but it’s a great way to get known out there.
That’s what I plan on doing once I have enough to show for. :).

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yea i get that. I am gonna think about it for a few days. I think that having someone who knows what he is doing ( public relations and promotion ) might give “better results” …

8

Well it’s like they say “Money talks, and BS Walks” So if you got money, the world will come bowing to you ready to give you a million dollars lol.

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What would you guys do ?
If you know you are terrible at anything relating to marketing, public relations, social media, and basically " sales" in general, but you think you have a great game to sell ( At least, a game that you enjoy playing ), what would you do ?

And english not being your primary language …

10

You could spend 500,000 to make a 1,000,000. If I said you could spend 50.00 to make 100.00 that would make sense, too, right? That’s the trouble, getting a lot of money generally means spending a lot. It’s generally return is relative to investment. Rarely can you make a lot of money for little investment. More often, it’s the inverse and you must constantly inject cash to keep the pump primed.

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11

That’s a question I can’t answer for you unfortunately.

I don’t want to give any kind of bad advice that’s the main reason.
There are so many routes you can take, quite a few free ones which have already been stated in this thread
Facebook, IndieDB, etc.

But you can’t go wrong with finding a real professional who is honest with you about prices and is fair about it and not overcharging you.

But you can spend 100,000 dollars and make 100 dollars in sales, so there’s really no direct answer except taking a chance with what you feel is right.

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12

Hit Greenlight or contact Devolver Digital.

You most certainly should register a company and go through the legal hoops.

13

Sounds like you would prefer to work with a publisher. There are many out there such as BigFishGames. Not sure how good they are but if you do not want to do any marketing at all working with a publisher may be your best option.

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Alright, Thanks a lot everyone. I am gonna study everything you guys said. Hopefully, you will see an “XLink Origins” game sometimes…

15

I would go buy marketing and finance books and read them until you are comfortable with those things.

I’m not being mean, I’m serious. Nobody here has some magic way to get your game noticed.

Never say you can’t do something, instead find a way to do it (self education in this case)

16

Extra Credits is supposed to finish their series on homebrewing your first game and the last video is about what to do after you finish your game.

Sit tight, it should be out this week. Might be helpful.

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@MornFall - Sadly, there isn’t a single method that guarantees success.

Have you registered a company and gone through the legal stuff? Are you prepared to do it? Do you know what kind of responsibilities you are then expected to fulfill and what the law demands of you?

The marketing strategy would also depend on the game itself… do you even know whom your audience for the game is?
What is the strong points of the game? What is the unique points of the game? Do you got any material that communicate these points to your future users already prepared?

Hiring a company or entering an agreement with a publisher doesn’t magically solve anything. You have to make sure that they understand the game and its audience, that they will give the game the attention it needs and preferably got experience working with the intended audience. The first option wants money, the other one often wants a piece of the cake… do you even got material to show them, to excite them into investing time on your project?

There is also the completely free option… do you got a website for the game that you can direct users to for more information? Anywhere that you plan to sell the game? What kind of pricing strategy? Do you got a presskit prepared? There are a ton of places to meet people and show your work on the internet. Are you already there, will you be there, how do you have to modify the information to interest the visitors of that “place” and so on…

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There are number of software and game submision websites online, you can search these sites and submit your information there to get popular without investing any money.

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Sorry to everyone else who has seen this link before, but this is why we created these videos, it get’s asked a lot.

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Thanks guys, really appreciate all the time taken to answer me.

I am going to start with a website, and take it from there. I am gonna go like i did with the game that seemed overwhelming at first, but one step at time a time, i got where i wanted. Time to follow the same i guess. The only part that worries me a little is the “legal” side, i think i will absolutly need someone who knows what he is talking about for that. If there is one thing i hate more than central authority, it s the law behind it…