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This article was published as:
"Alternative Marketing Methods:
Self-Publishing via Shareware and Low-Cost Retail"
Proceedings of the Eight Annual Computer Game Developers Conference
Apr. 1994
Note: Some of the information in this article is old and out of date.
Alternative Marketing Methods:
Self-publishing via Shareware and Low-Cost Retail
copyright 1994 Diana Gruber
So you want to be a game developer? Don't we all. Believe me, it's a
rough business. You invest your youth and energy, you stay up all
night programming, and you pour your heart into your creation, all
the while hoping someday it will pay off.
The problem is, while perfecting your game, and concentrating on
every detail of optimizing your code and making your game beautiful
and fun to play, you neglected to formulate a business plan. You
don't know how to sell your game after you finish writing it. What do
you do now? Do you pitch your game to a big publishing company and
hope for the best? Do you send copies to hundreds of publishers and
hope one of them will find it acceptable? Do you wait for weeks by
your mailbox collecting rejection notices?
I am here to tell you there is another way. You can self-publish your
game. Self-publishing is not only within the realm of possibility, it
is, an excellent idea. Many authors have found self-publishing games
to be not only profitable in the long term, but highly satisfying. It
makes you feel good to be your own boss, to control the destiny of
your program, to make decisions yourself, and to gain respect in the
industry as you grow and promote your products and yourself. With a
little insight into the dynamics of the industry, it is possible to
earn a living on games without surrendering your program to one of
the big game publishers. It is possible to market your games
yourself.
The first, most obvious, way to self-market games is through
shareware. In the beginning, it was not believed that shareware was
a viable channel for marketing games. A few of the early popular
games did well, such as Nels Anderson's Mahjongg, but without strong
registration incentives, most games were played and discarded without
generating much income for the authors. That all changed when Scott
Miller of Apogee Software invented the trilogy concept of shareware
games. In this genre, a game, usually an adventure-arcade game, is
broken up into "episodes". An episode typically contains about 10
levels. The first episode is freely distributed via shareware
channels, and the player is required to send in money to get the
other two episodes. Scott Miller has parlayed this idea into a
multi-million dollar company.
Other registration incentives have also been tried with Apogee games.
Cheat codes are made available in the registered versions, but not
documented in the shareware versions. Time delays between levels also
improve registration rates. As Scott pioneered shareware registration
incentive techniques, other companies have followed suit with similar
schemes.
Besides registration incentives, massive distribution is necessary
for a shareware game to be a success. The best way to ensure massive
distribution is to have an excellent game. If your game is really
good, your users will distribute it for you. They will upload it to
bulletin boards, give it to their friends, pass it out at user group
meetings, etc. Shareware vendors supplement the efforts of users to
distribute your software. There are many kinds of shareware vendors,
and they distribute in many channels. Some publish catalogs, some
distribute via on-disk catalogs, some sell on CD-ROMs, and some sell
on racks in stores. Shareware vendors are always trying to think of
new ways to sell shareware, and you will sometimes hear of shareware
vending machines, shareware pre-installed on new computers, magazine
cover disks, etc. As you can see, there is no shortage of
distribution for shareware. All distribution is not equal, though,
and we will discuss some of the controversy surrounding the various
distribution methods in a few minutes.
When designing a shareware game, think about your audience. First of
all, you want your users to be able to play your game right away. If
it takes them more than 5 minutes to figure it out and get started,
they will give up and delete it. Second, your game must be addicting.
You want them to start playing right away, and keep playing for
hours. In some ways, this is a rougher standard than a retail game.
When a customer buys a retail game, they have already invested money
in it, and they are going to take a little longer to understand the
game and learn to play it. When they are downloading a shareware
game, they are evaluating it, and deciding not only whether they want
to invest more money in it, but whether they want to invest more time
in it. With the retail game, since the money is already invested, the
time investment is a given.
It is very important these days for a shareware game to have good
graphics. While 16-color graphics are acceptable, they will not sell
as well as 256-color graphics. Good art is important. Good music and
sound effects, and sound card support are also important. Shareware,
like retail, is a competitive market. If you want your program to be
noticed, you must make it stand out.
It is less important that a shareware game run on all platforms.
Shareware allows plenty of room for innovation. If you want to write
a game that supports only 1 meg SVGA cards and requires 8 meg of RAM,
you can get away with it in shareware. You will have a smaller
audience, but you will have an audience. It is more difficult to sell
a game with restrictive hardware requirements to a publisher.
Publishers have their own in-house standards, and will require that
your game must be able to run on their chosen subset of computer
hardware. With shareware, you have the freedom to experiment,
understanding that you also have the freedom to fail.
Traditional shareware is only one way to self-publish your games. In
recent years we have seen the emergence of rack vendors and "Low Cost
Retail" (LCR) vendors. These are distribution outfits that will take
your game and put it in various chain stores at a low price and give
you a small royalty. When I say small, I mean the typical royalty
will range from 10 cents to 60 cents per disk. It doesn't sound
like much, but the distribution is massive, and authors are reporting
getting excellent royalty checks from LCR vendors.
The primary difference between a LCR vendor and a traditional retail
publisher is the LCR vendor is not involved in the development of the
program. The LCR vendor collects submissions from authors, usually
shareware authors, and builds a product line of 2 dozen to 4 dozen
titles. These are then placed in stores and distributed through
several channels. The goal is to get as many titles as possible in as
many stores as possible, and this method of distribution is becoming
increasingly effective.
Another difference between LCR vendors and game publishers is the
ownership of the program. With LCR vending, the programmer retains
ownership of all the copyrights and trademarks. This works in the
author's favor, as a game can be re-released in the future. The shelf
life of a typical retail game is 6 months to 2 years, but an LCR game
can continue producing income indefinitely.
LCR contracts vary. Products can be shareware or non-shareware,
exclusive or non-exclusive. Non-shareware, exclusive titles generate
the highest royalties, non-exclusive shareware titles typically
generate royalties in the range of 10 cents per disk.
A list of some of my favorite royalty-paying rack vendors is included
at the end of this article. If you want to submit your program to
LCR vendors, I suggest you study the list and contact as many of them
as possible. Try to find LCR vendors that are appropriate to your
product.
When designing your game, keep in mind the differences between an LCR
product and a shareware product. The LCR customer, unlike the shareware
user, is an impulse buyer. He is not interested in evaluating a
product before buying it, he is interested in throwing a box in a
shopping cart. He is more likely to buy a title that he quickly
recognizes. In my case, I have found that solitaire card games and
simple gambling games like slot machines sell well on the racks. Most
impulse buyers recognize these games and won't hesitate to buy them
for themselves, or perhaps for members of their families. Adventure
games, puzzle games, and arcade games also sell well, but the more
esoteric a game is, the smaller the audience it will attract.
LCR games sell best when there is a screen shot of the game on the
box. Design your games with excellent graphics, because the LCR
vendor is going to want screen shots. It is one of the most important
selling points of an LCR game.
LCR games should not require printed manuals. They should be easy to
play using only the online help. If your game requires a manual, you
should either go straight retail, or you should stick with shareware.
A printed manual is generally acknowledged to be an excellent
registration incentive for a shareware product. Likewise, technical
support will kill an LCR product. When you are selling a game in the
$6 range, you are not allowing any money to cover technical support
costs. If your game needs technical support, release it as shareware
and make the technical support a registration incentive. Hints and
cheats are an excellent way to get a player to register, especially
if they are stuck half way through the 9th level of a 10 level game.
Give them an 800 number to call to register the game, and when they
register, tell them how to beat the level.
LCR racks consist of exclusive and non-exclusive titles that are not
shareware. That means, the author can not demand additional payment
from the users who have bought the game in a store. However, you can
still make money on after sales of related games. "If you liked
Ping Pong, you are going to love Table Tennis Deluxe". Include a plug
for your other games in your exit screen, or write a small on-disk
catalog with a printable order form. Think in terms of maximizing
your sales in all channels simultaneously.
Since exclusive games generate the best royalties, write lots of
these. Design your games in such a way that you can create multiple
exclusive titles. If your game has levels, you can put 10 levels on
one rack, and another 10 levels on a different rack. You can change
the title and change the artwork and recycle the code to maximize
rack coverage. Also popular are "game packs". If I write 6 solitaire
card games, I can put 3 on one rack, and 3 on another rack, and then
mix together one from each rack plus a new game for a third rack. The
more games you have, the more room you have for this kind of
marketing.
Be careful with exclusive contracts. Insist on a performance
guarantee. If a game doesn't sell, reserve the right to take it to a
different vendor. Otherwise, an LCR vendor can tie up your game in a
non-productive exclusive contract for years. If possible, reserve the
right to market a program via shareware simultaneously with the LCR
distribution. If the LCR vendor insists on no shareware version, then
he should pay you a higher royalty. Keep in mind, whenever you give
something away, you should get something in return. If you sign an
exclusive contract, you deserve an advance against royalties. Do not
sign away a right of first refusal on future program unless the
vendor gives you a very, very large advance. If the vendor does not
want to pay you an advance, then reserve the right to release the
program in some other channel.
Non-royalty shareware racks still exist, and some authors find them
profitable. Some authors have programs which are so hot, they want
any kind of distribution they can get, and will place their games on
any kind of rack and CD-ROM. That works for some authors, but it
doesn't work for all of us. Many authors report that their
registration rates from non-royalty racks are as low as 1 in 3000, or
even worse. The problem seems to be, when people buy software in
stores, they are not in the habit of paying more money for it. It is
less confusing to the public if they can buy the game outright and
not owe additional money to the author. However, this issue is still
the subject of much controversy, and results will vary for different
companies and different games. It is best to go into this kind of
situation with your eyes open, and study the issues before allowing
distribution of your shareware program on non-royalty shareware
racks.
The CD-ROM market is also controversial. Some CD-ROM manufacturers
put a dozen or so carefully-chosen games on a disk and pay a small
royalty to the authors. Authors report being pleased with the
results. They report being less pleased with CD-ROMs that contain a
"gigabyte of shareware", or hundreds of titles downloaded
indiscriminately from bulletin boards without regard to author
distribution requirements, current version numbers, hacks or viruses.
This type of CD-ROM is less effective at generating registrations for
the author because individual programs tend to get lost in the huge
volume of software available. Also, the trilogy method doesn't work
well when there are so many games available. Instead of registering
to get episode 2 of Commander Keen, the user will simply start
playing episode 1 of Duke Nukum, for example.
License agreements are very important for shareware programs. When
you release a program, it will stay released. There is no way to call
back a program once the shareware distribution has been started.
Therefore, it is important that you get the license agreement right
from the beginning. Do not give away any rights that may later be
valuable to you. In particular, do not give blanket permission for
shareware vendors to distribute your program. Require that vendors
get written permission before distributing in stores. In general, you
do not want shareware vendors to sell a non-royalty shareware version
that will compete in the same store with your royalty LCR version.
To avoid this kind of situation, take care to reserve your rights. If
you have questions about copyrights and distribution restrictions,
talk to a knowledgeable attorney.
In conclusion, self-publishing games through shareware and low cost
retail is profitable and satisfying, but requires a thorough
understanding of the market to be successful. There is room for
innovation, and there is also potential for disaster. Your program is
valuable, and deserves to be marketed in an optimal manner. Design
your program to fit your marketing strategy, and choose a marketing
channel that fits your program. Protect your rights, study what the
other authors are doing, and talk to as many vendors as possible.
Good luck!