[Indies} Getting it to market

(This is where GFK's suggestion for a forum topic devoted solely to marketing would be useful!)

Anyway, just trying to get my head around a pathway to getting a game to market and I think I've covered all the angles, but want some advice to see if I'm on the right track.

Firstly;

1, Finish the game.
2, Get it betatested.
3, Need a forum.
4, Need a website.
5, Need a way to protect the game assets (have some licensed content that requires this).
6, Need the ability to provide patches.
7, Need an installer with a number of features.
8, Need an honest reseller that can host the full version.
9, Then there's all that marketing stuff..
(Note that the full game is likely to weigh in around 120mb to download.)

So;

1, Finish the game - well, almost there.

2, Get it betatested.
Have contacted a number of beta testers, so have them waiting in the wings.

3, Need a forum.
Have set one up at (below) with the idea that the beta testers could use it to begin with, so that's all good. Need to customise its appearance but it'll do for the moment.
http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum

4, Need a website.
Unfortunately I'm a website design newbie. I have a good grasp of graphic design so hope I can produce something reasonable, but it won't contain anything advanced (e.g. flash, etc). Will design a site using a simple, clean layout containing screenshots, minimal text.
Have grabbed a copy of NVU as a free web authoring package. Seems to be a good package for a newbie like me?

5, Need a way to protect the game assets.
I used Molebox standard for the demo and it works well - any problems encountered by users did not seem to arise from Molebox. Seems to provide a good level of protection against hacking as well.

6, Need the ability to provide patches.
Molebox Pro apparently offers the ability to generate patches.

7, Need an installer.
I want something that is easy to use - drag and drop preferably. Don't want to bother with scripting (like Innosetup?)
Must compile to one compressed exe file and I can specifiy a password for the installation to proceed. Must be able to customise installer's appearance.
So for the above I'm leaning towards Clickteam's Installer prog (registered version)
http://www.clickteam.com/eng/installcreator.php

8, Need an honest reseller that can host the full version.
I do have local hosting for the demo and website, but it's in New Zealand and the traffic limit is not very high (and of course we're at the bottom of the world).
However I thinking I want a reseller who can host the full version on their server and won't choke the downloads if they exceed a certain number of gigabytes. Is this unreasonable?
Also, I want the reseller to handle it all - just want my payment (if I've sold any copies) at the end of the month. Any tech issues, I'd expect to handle through my website/forum/patches.
I also want the buyer to have instant access to the download once they've made payment. I don't want to be responsible for emailing download links to customers - want the reseller to do that.
Also want the reseller to supply a generic password key with the download email for the installer to work. Ok, it's not going to stop piracy, but it's a little thing.

So in terms of the above, I'm leaning towards Plimus at present?


9, Then there's all that marketing stuff..
But that's another game altogether.

Don't think I need to reply to this one... however, before submitting to portals make sure your game is feature complete. The occasional bug here and there is acceptable provided you fix it up before release, but you don't want to send in a 10% finished game.


Be careful with this one! You'll generally find that some people will tell you "I don't like feature X because its the wrong shade of blue". You don't need to be wasting your time with nitpickers. If possible, have a methodical, pre-written test plan, rather than just asking people to "test it", then get an email 10 minutes later that says "YAEH THIS ARE GR8AT! HIM ARE HAEV NO BUGZ lol!"


Why do you need a forum?


Yeah, you do. Try not to host it on Geocities or somewhere similarly bad.


Molebox is fine. However I got reports of random crashes under Windows98 - problems which disappeared completely when I stopped using Molebox.


Not sure on this one. Apparently Molebox can do this, but so can the likes of Armadillo (being the Indie DRM software of choice).


I use InnoSetup. If you don't fancy messing with scripts then google for ISTool (I think its called) - basically a GUI front-end for InnoSetup. Personally I find scripting easier.


You might want to visit IndieGamer. There's a thread bubbling away on there now, where Plimus customers are having all manner of problems.

I use BMT at the moment. They host full versions as well as demos, but the server they host demo versions on is abysmally slow.

Oh, come on! I really couldn't read that text very well in your game when it was red. :P

Seriously though, I thought it was a good idea to thoroughly test stuff, and even report on the minor things that you don't think work well?! Maybe I'm wrong. You shoulda told be you didn't want to be bothered with minor details, Gfk. ;)

Well... the red text was a problem if you couldn't read it, as there was a reason why you didn't want it that colour!

If you'd said to me that you wanted blue text because you didn't like red generally as a colour, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. Do you see? :)

Reports of minor problems are great - like the one where somebody suggested having a drag-click option instead of clicking individual letters. The game still worked without that, but it did make the game easier to play in the longrun, once you got used to it.

Ya, I see. :)

@Madjack, well done on getting so far. I'm considering using armadillo, molebox is an interesting alternative. I've used Innosetup and been quite pleased with it's performance. Not sure if Innosetup has password functionality within it, although this is something I will explore - thanks.

As for your forums, I can see the relevance of this if you are providing an online gaming experience. Somewhere for folks to arrange games.

'Be careful with this one! You'll generally find that some people will tell you "I don't like feature X... You don't need to be wasting your time with nitpickers.'
True enough, but I've picked a few people that from their past posts, don't seem to be of that variety.

'Why do you need a forum?'
Heh - you're not a people person are you? Myself, if a game is not of the 'casual' variety, I expect a game's website to include a place for feedback - a forum - and part of my decision in whether to buy a game is to see what the users are saying on the forum. Also it may be of use to the beta testers.

'Try not to host it on Geocities or somewhere similarly bad.' yep - have paid for proper hosting.

'Molebox is fine. However I got reports of random crashes under Windows98 ' I've heard that too - but not too concerned about Win98 users.

'but so can the likes of Armadillo'
I haven't checked Armadillo out - I'll do so.

As for Plimus, I'll check out that thread on Indiegamer and also check out BMT. Thanks for the suggestions

Well, I have e-mail for all that. As for wanting to see what users are saying about games on forums, that's what we have demos for.

People should decide for themselves if they like a game or not. Peggle would be a great example to use at this point.

For me, a forum would be something else for me to constantly check up on. And that's if anybody actually bothered posting there, other than spambots.
True enough. Many portals don't even require games to work in Windows98 any more. If they do though, its an added bonus.

Sounds pretty logical to me MJ. I'm gonna buy yer game because you deserve it imo (I like tron stuff anyways). Plus I'm gonna beat it so I can rub it in Zenith's face hehe. :p

How much will it be?

'Plus I'm gonna beat it so I can rub it in Zenith's face hehe. :p'

;-)

Probably around 17.95USD.
(and did I mention? Watch out for the turrets!)

If the demo doesn't sell the game I also don't understand how a forum would help.

The trick is to make a splash, I would have thought the retro sites are going to be all over your game as it is so you need to come up with some other sectors to raise your profile further. Consider entering into IDG competitions, submitting to all mags still in print and then try and think outside the box and spam a few tank fanatic forums or some such. Once you've got a few headlines and your demo is I am sure going to seriously kick butt I'd say you'll be good to go and fame and fortune will be in no short supply.

You might also want to have a look around for exclusive deals if you are close to finish. Real, Apogee etc. are scouting for titles and have pretty simple to use submission systems. The industry strength testing and promotional opportunities with such companies can't be denied and they are use to signing deals with limited exclusivity.

Apogee! I haven't heard that name since the early 90s when I was logging on to BBSs. The good ol' days eh?

Skid
'you need to come up with some other sectors to raise your profile further'
Yes - posting to the Tron fansites occurs to me + putting a few gameplay vids on YouTube seems to be a growing trend for indies.

'If the demo doesn't sell the game I also don't understand how a forum would help. '
Well, as I see it; demo + website + forum = presence + community + indication author is reachable. And since one is relatively easy to set up and I don't mind taking care of it, I might as well have it - it might come in handy and even be fun.

GFK

Checked out Armadillo - seems to offer good protection, but is also pretty expensive?

Also looked at the Indiegamer Plimus thread - seems to have been a temp problem with Plimus as they're reporting it fixed.