Hi there,
We are busy setting up a website for independent game developers. The first phase, and an important area of the website, is to provide the visitor with a large library of developers and their games. There will be two choices: add your free games to the library (MySQL based, searchable under different criteria), or (in phase 2) add non-free games to the library, in which we will serve as an affiliate.
The website will be set up in such a way, that people can also login to review games, so that a list of "best rated games for gameplay", "best looking games", "best games under $15", etc will be shown on the frontpage.
Now we are busy trying to define exactly, what we think an independent developer is.
I am curious to hear from you, what YOU think an independent developer is.
For us this means a combination of: financial status, the channels you sell through, the size of the project and team size, company profile. But, perhaps you think totally different about it? What is for you the exact definition?
Thanks.
OK here goes:
financial status = broke haha unless you have a day job
channels = any and all
size of project = too big (everything always takes longer than planned)
size of team = too small (1 man)
company profile = IT consultant/contract programmer who has branched into making games.
I know I've made jokes above but they are true for me and I suspect true for lots of others too.
nice call on those Grey Alien!
Hi Jeroen, Sounds like you are setting up something like a shareware site, and the affiliate structure confirms this to me. I'd urge you to talk to some people who have already done this and pulled the plug. You might want to talk to Savant on Indiegamer, his site was reasonably successful but he still pulled the plug. You might also want to consider how your site will be different to all the 1000's of others doing exactly the same thing, and what value you offer the developer - this market is really saturated, and to such an extent that is really is no longer an effective channel. I am sure that others on this forum who also run their own software business's will agree that sales revenue originating from shareware sites in negligible. We submit to shareware sites to drive advertising revenues, period!
Now for the sales pitch....Why not try something new? why not be the first website that delivers all free games and demos as web-based (on-line) games. But be quick!
The term comes from the indie music subculture. There it means those without a record contract and radio rotation.
Within a games reference it's someone without a publishing contract and shelf space in retail stores.
Financial status, size of team/project, company profile etc. have nothing to do with it.
Now for the sales pitch....Why not try something new? why not be the first website that delivers all free games and demos as web-based (on-line) games.
That's neither new or original.
That's neither new or original.
Show me a site that delivers *all* games, not Java or Flash, as web games. I'm talking premium content games not some half-arsed attempt at a game.
Well, this specific project is going to be an experiment in which we can manouvre ofcourse. So therefore I am happy to hear how you guys think about this. The idea is to provide a decent database of games that is clean and no-nonsense and in a second phase try to earn a bit cash to keep the site up and running (we are busy with other projects which need to earn the real cash).
Indiepath, thanks for your reference to Indiegamer; I'll contact him. The problem with providing 3d games online in the browser, is the fact it will cost a lot of bandwidth. Asking a developer money for a free game in a browser is a big no-no ofcourse. But, I've seen the tool, it's valuable and I like to think about the idea of delivering games that are smaller than a certain amount of megabytes (e.g less than 2 mb or sumthing).
It's just that I would need to buy this "game in a browser tool", but I cannot yet see this as a commercial oppertunity besides delivering our own games with it. I'm happy to discuss this!
Our idea is to show content that is good (or better) in regards to overall production quality. Demos are a no-no, and we don't want Flash or Java games as well (there are a lot of sites providing Flash games).