Facebook Indie Games
Stealing Farmville's thunder one player at a time. 1 down, 80 million to go.
TwitterFacebookPageSearch
Contributors
David Barnes
"If you’re an Independent Developer and you’re not selling games directly to customers yet, start worrying"
That's the advice from Denki as they announce radical restructures. Why radical restructures? Because they can't find a publisher for their latest game, Quarrel.
A publisher will give a developer a lump sum (technically an advance) in exchange for rights to the game. This means that the development costs of the game are all covered in one go, even if the publisher takes a year or more to earn that money back. But because no suitable publisher has stepped forward for Quarrel, Denki has to sell the game directly to customers -- which means instead of a lump sum, they'll be receiving income gradually. This is probably best for Denki long term, but in the short term it means less cash flow -- and therefore less jobs. Sad news. Read the full announcement on Denki's blog. And heed the warning.
Posted
by David Barnes
The One Rule for Building a Valuable Indie Games Brand
I was planning to do one of my list posts "9 Ways to Build a Valuable Games Brand". But then I realised there's only really one rule, and this is it:
- Narrow concept, broad distribution
In fact, this is the main way to build any valuable brand.
How many best-selling authors write "books about anything, but I only sell them in hardback at Borders"?
How many famous bands say "we play all kinds of music, but only sell it on cassette in HMV"?
How many successful restaurant chains say "we sell any kind of food, but only at railway stations?"
None! So why doesn't it surprise us to hear game devs say things like, "we write a whole variety of games for the iPhone", or "we aim to be world leaders in writing games for Facebook"?
There is only one reason to focus on one platform -- and that is to promote the platform
Remember the Sega vs. Nintendo wars? It wasn't really the quality of the hardware at stake -- the Megadrive and Super NES were both pretty good. It came down to this: are you a Mario or a Sonic person? Are you a Mortal Kombat or a Street Fighter 2 person? These games didn't cross over to the other platform, because they were a powerful way to make their own platform stand out.
Now of course Sonic is a Nintendo character, and seeing Sonic in a Nintendo game always makes me feel a bit dirty. It's like a child who lost his parents and is adopted by his wicked uncle, who only wants to get his hands on the family inheritance. Games that feature Mario and Sonic remind me of Roman Caesars leading their vanquished foes through the streets of Rome.
David Letterman's band will play any kind of music the show demands. Why? Because they exist for only one reason -- to support & market the David Letterman show.
If you build games that only run on one platform -- whether it's the iPhone or Facebook or whatever -- what does that say about your relationship with the platform?
The most valuable game brands have a clear concept and will run on any platform
Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and other major name game brands run on a wide variety of platforms. And these brands are powerful enough to outlast any game playing platform that's around today. None of us have a clue what game devices will be popular in 5 years, but we can be pretty sure that you'll be able to buy Sims, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty on them.
"If I had an iPhone, I'd buy that game for sure"
I wonder how many people, like me, are in this position? We see an iPhone game getting great reviews, the trailer looks great, we like the developer. But before I can give the developer a dollar and buy the game, I have to pass a few hundred dollars to Mr. Jobs. I have a dollar to spend. Heck, I have ten dollars to spend. But right now, I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a new phone. People like me are willing customers with cash in our hands... but you don't want to take it!
So what's a game developer to do?
Here, we have a list. How to build your valuable games brand:
- Decide what your "concept" is all about. As a rule of thumb, aim for the biggest concept that you can afford to own. Look at your strengths and resources, and pick a concept that's popular enough to give you a good return, but not so popular that other, bigger and stronger, brands are already there. Unless you have billions of dollars to invest you will never own a space like "real time strategy in space" or "humorous games" or "first person shooters". "Twisted and funny RTS games in a circus setting" might be a better fit for an indie with low resources.
- Build your marketing message around that concept. Don't market yourself based on the platform! Make sure it's clear what your games are all about, from the moment somebody hits your home page.
- Ensure all your games fit the concept. No doubt you have hundreds of great game ideas. Building a valuable brand means throwing away most of your ideas. Force yourself to find ideas that fit your brand.
- Find ways to get your games on a bunch of platforms. This doesn't mean you learn to program for every platform yourself. Developers working on other platforms might be prepared to port your game in exchange for a royalty. Invite developers for other platforms to "pitch" new games based on your concept. Congratulations, you are now a publisher.
- Once you've done all you can with your chosen concept, move on. Once you own your space, or realize that you can't get any further for the time being (i.e. until new platforms come along, or its time for a sequel), find a new concept and build on that. Of course it makes sense if your new concept will carry over some of your customers for the old. But by now, you might want to try something completely new. Or you might choose that you now have resources to broaden your core concept into something bigger: "instead of focusing on tennis on mars, we think we can now own the whole "ballgames in space" niche", or something.
Of course if you already have a game that's working for you, then you'll want to build your concept around that game. First focus on bringing that game to other platforms, and then decide what that game's "core concept" is so that you can bring build new games that share it.
Do you want to build a valuable brand? How are you going to do it? Or do you have other goals and motivations driving your development?
Posted
by David Barnes
