Getting Published

Hey everybody,
As some of you may already know, I'm just 15 years old, and I'm wondering if anyone here knows who to go through to get my game (Blox) published & sold.

Your parents.

What Gabe said. Since you're not at the age of license, you cannot enter into any form of contract, including a publishing deal.

There's nothing stopping him signing a contract. It just won't be enforceable as he's under 18.

I signed a contract with Virgin Games when I was 16. Not really a problem, they had to stick to their side of it but I didn't.

I guess liability laws are different in the UK then.

Well as long as he can find a company reckless, irresponsible and downright stupid enough to sign a contract which is entirely worthless to themselves, he'll be doing great then.

Idigicon might be interested.

lol

heh, that was pretty fast humour :-)

Ummm... Whatever happened to that company "Xtreme games?" I read about 'em in the back of Game Programming for Teens. Apparently they "insulate underage developers from comlex legal issues"... But their website's disappeared. Anyone know about that?

On a different note, if I have to go through my parents, who could THEY go through? Trust me, we'll need some help here.

The name rings a bell. That wasn't what Xing called themselves when they decided they needed a new name, was it?

I believe so.

They "insulate underage developers from complex legal issues" by taking their game, denying all knowledge and shafting them royally.

Yep that was them. Once upon a time I negotiating a release thru them with a DB game.

You can always start out by grabbing some web-space, and selling it yourself. There is no reason to dive into the deep end as fast as you can. Looking like you are serious and professional will go a looooong way to getting your foot in a looot of doors.

They tried pulling a stroke with me over ten years ago, when they were called Crystal Interactive. Alex De Vries used to ring me up most weeks, pestering about something or other.

He wanted me to set up Crystal Interactive UK. I was to find my own products, sell them, and give Crystal in the Netherlands a cut of the profits, which they apparently did nothing to earn. I was basically to set up a new company using a name similar to theirs, and give them money for nothing.

Strung it out for a few weeks, assuming I must have misunderstood something somewhere. Told them to shove off wasting my time in the end.

Wouldn't trust them to look after my goldfish, tbh.

I remember Alex De Vries called me about 10 years ago when I was developing Amiga games. Very glad I didn't give them any of my work.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/employment/young_people_and_employment.htm

I found this site last year when I was going to let my kid brother come to work with me during the summer holiday... And since I'm in construction, it was a no-no! :)

He ended up doing little oddjobs for me round the house,lol!

Still, he made a few bob! :)

Dabz

Yeah, I've been wondering about that myself. Anyone know some good ways to do that?

1) Get a ridiculously fast Internet connection. 25/25 Mbit works well.
2) Get the oldest POS computer you can possibly find, that will actually turn on.
3) Install SME Server on it.
4) Make sure to take regular back-ups. Alternatively, if you have large amounts of disposable cash, get a fully redundant SAN with integrated backup functionality.
5) Since you're burning money, do all of the above, in another house so you have off-site backup.
6) Invest in an UPS and generator, so you aren't dependent on the municipal power supply.

Scale up or down as appropriate.

Actually, Xtreme Games was Andre Lamothe's company.

It's now called XGameStation and it distributes a game console kit that Lamothe designed.

XGameStation

Im not sure if publishers are allowed to solicit it (mabe through your parents/guardians)

Alternatively..

Get your parents to sign up for a webspace and a paypal (or similar) account, then build a website for your demo of the software and you're off. Either send out full version links manually when orders are recieved, or go with a service who handles transaction and delivery (like share-it etc)

Dont expect to sell loads straight away as it takes ages(without paying) for your site to filter all over the place. However, there are some services for like $20 who send your links out to 1000s of shareware sites.

In addition, use people like share it, who charge a % but try and market the software for you to some extent (at the end of the day a sale for commission is better than none at all).


All the best with it and good luck :)

you might find these articles useful:

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/an-approximate-guide-to-selling-indie-games/

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/ive-finished-my-game-now-what/

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/software-passport-armadillo/

how come I always read Armadildo when I see the word Armadillo?


[edit]
LOL is hereby changed to :p
[/edit]

Because you're dyslexic?


LOL < (I *hate* when people do this to their own comments)

hmmm. no, that's not it...

(oh, and edited post above since you hated the LOL'ing)

:P

Um, Grey, I hate to tell you this, but all I see is a huge white rectangle on a grey background. Can you see anything from your end?

Scroll down! :)

Dabz

yeah it's bugged (in IE7 only, works on IE6/ Firefox/Safari!)and I *STILL* haven't fixed it sigh...