I have an idea that could more then double your sales and income but would take a bit of work.
- First improve graphics a bit
- Add more weapons & maps
- Make it fullscreen
- Consider making it have a multiplayer (if you want to sell it for $10 read more below)
- Most important is apply to have your game added to Steam
- Add a map editor so you can make your own courses that comes with your game on steam.
- Build in custom map download inside the game, let you sort by most downloaded, highest rated, alphabetical, and by author.
- Upgradable buildings and weapons, instead of building 20+ collectors how about upgrading so 10+ could do the same as 20+
My main idea is to apply to have your game added to Steam and make your game cost $5 then you can be listed as games under $5 and many will buy it. If you get added to steam be sure to add a demo! That will make lots of people who are uncertain willing to buy it.
One huge plus of this approach is you can sell downloadable content for say $2 for 15 new maps and 5 new weapons/gadgets. This has many pluses such as easy access to additional income after your game is sold. To make your game sell for $10 you would probably have to add a multiplayer mode, but not necessarily simply add more maps and weapons and you could charge $10.
I really think your game will take off more if you sell it on steam, they will take a slight percentage but your game will get bought with less work and gamers love the steam approach since its so easy to use on multiple computers. You wouldnt even have to worry about anti leeching since its built into steam. I hope you consider this if you put it on steam for $5-$10 i would gladly buy this game! Here is a link to steams page with more information on how to sell your game through them: http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/ (http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/)
Keep up the good work and consider steam greatly you could profit alot more then through your current approach since you could get tons of people easier.
I do not work for steam I am just a fan of your game and would love to see it on there. Thank you and have a great day!
More suggestions are welcome if you think one would be great post it and see what others think!
Quote from: TiamatStudios on January 18, 2010, 12:17:11 AM
- First improve graphics a bit
- Add more weapons & maps
- Make it fullscreen
- Consider making it have a multiplayer (if you want to sell it for $10 read more below)
- Most important is apply to have your game added to Steam
- Add a map editor so you can make your own courses that comes with your game on steam.
Graphics do not need to be improved.
Yes to more weapons and maps! :)
Fullscreen makes it run too slow because virgil's calculations aren't very CPU friendly.
Multiplayer would only work if it was versus.
Virgil already said no to Steam
Map editor is already out.
UPDATE YOUR GAME. It's on the front page.
_k
Why did he say no to steam? It is the largest PC gaming program now and a majority of gamers will only buy steam compatible games. For me this is definitely the case when i buy user created games as i know they will maintain the game and it wont just disappear causing me to of wasted money. I think he should reconsider his anti-steam approach as it could greatly improve revenue and players!
QuoteAt the moment it is not currently available on steam.... but of course this could change in the future. We're very early in the launch, though, so once we can get heard above the noise things like steam may become possible.
Right now, we're just trying to get people to try the demo and spread the word. The more reviewers we can get to pick up the game and write about it, the better.
Virgil
http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.0
_k
Ah your wording just made it sound like they wouldn't consider it. Well i think once they are ready for steam it will take off pretty well its a rather fun game. Thanks for the replies.
Well, it's actually only Virgil that produces this game.
Update your game with the Patches link on the main website.
_k
I see, he should consider getting a development group of friends. Thats the best way to improve games fast, have one focus on coding, one focus on graphics, a few bug beta testers, etc. A game called Altitude made by 2 developers got onto steam and sell their game for $10. Though theirs is mostly focused on multiplayer a game like this could easily sell for atleast $5 on steam if they accepted the demo sent to them.
Dev teams suck.
It should be $20 because it's so awesome. Not $5...
_k
Oh i do agree it is awesome and it would be cool if he could sell it for $20 each but considering the stage its in and only 1 developer i think $10 is the max currently. Also i say $5 because it shows up on a special steam menu for people looking for cheap fun games and would get more players but at the cost of slightly less $ per player.
Also, there are drawbacks to dev teams such as splitting profits. But if you could get a friend who loves to draw to make you images and friends who like playing your game to test for bugs you got the start of a good simple dev team.
people have figuratively groveled at his feet to be part of a dev team, he politly said no to ALL of them
I see, well it does make things a bit harder to be a 1 man operation but not impossible. The main drawback is time, it takes alot more time to make the images, write the code, test for bugs, fix the code, etc. But if he thinks he can handle all the parts alone it can be done just is alot harder.
You can easily ask someone to make the images for you, at a small price.
Writing code is fun.
Testing for bugs is for the Beta team(we have one)
Fixing code is... meh.
_k
ha well fixing code is a bit more then meh but thats good there is a beta tester team. Getting an artist would be a very good step since it would free up time of graphic designing so he could use it for coding. Looks like a good start, a bit more work and i think it could easily be on steam!
such enthusiam, thats good, but try as u might, i dont think virgilw is gonna make a dev team anytime soon, so until he askes for volunteirs, u may want to just let it go
Oh its fine even if he doesnt, i just have seen how much it helps to have one with the altitude team. Originally it was 2 friends making a little java game, then they decided to make it have graphics. They improved all the coding, got people to help with graphics and to make maps. And now they are on steam and have over 130 servers and an average of some 60+ online players. They ended their beta and listed on steam just December of 2009 so thats pretty impressive. But they did do beta testing for about 1-2 years which is a great way to get new players. Instead of charging this early on i think the ideal would be to give a free full version thats beta then once its ready to distribute remove the beta version and put the full version for $10 on steam or such. I helped with beta testing of altitude is why i know the start of it. It is fun to user created content become pretty popular, shows that not just profession game makers can make good games and profit from them as well!
Well im logging out for today, thanks for the comments, hope my suggestions help! Have a great day!