Any luck with publishers ?

i don't get your point.. maybe you want to take 10 minutes to take a look at the recently released action puzzlers yourself and the case of jump bird jump.

its not about prediction.. but would you release your strategy game if a couple very similar styled strategy games where just released shortly before you?

do you buy a strategie game every couple day? do other do it? is there no market saturation for a given game style within a short time period?

you can avoid releasing your game after an onslaught of similar titles hit the store.. and if 10 doodle jump clones with decent to average quality hit the store.. what makes you think your sales would be a few days later with just another one?

silly debate since its not about prediction but awareness of the current market. the same thing you write.. the market now.. and if you ignore the market now and bring the same but weaker shortly after some big releases who even got featured by apple.. what should be the conclusion..? rush out with the release to stay in the shadow of thoose as "just another".. ?

pretty unheard of that someone delays the publication of a product because of too strong competition. as if any market has endless customers/ressources to support any numbers of similar games in a short time frame..

 

Actually, the reality seems to be the opposite of this imo. By signing on with a publisher, to the general public it APPEARS as though your game is actually the property of/developed by the publisher... its Chillingo's name stamped on all the screenshots for ex, not your own, and it will be the publisher who is almost always associated with your game, at least in the eyes of the general public who most of the time don't even know the difference between a publisher and developer.

Imo if you want to build up your own company name, you are best off going at it yourself, even if it takes 5 games to get something going... this is of course assuming you are going to release high quality stuff from the very get go and have the means to sustain yourself while you build your brand up (be it from working on the side, or having enough start up money to last while you take a few hits). Actually the great thing about the app store is that you can test the waters without just jumping in full time with your first game.

We are currently on our second release, and while we haven't had great success compared to the top dogs (ie our 4 man team can survive month to month, but we have not recouped our total development costs yet), we are slowly building our user base (up to 15,000 Facebook followers which still amazes me) and creating some loyal followers (but consumers AND iphone bloggers) with each new game.

 

Yes. What other option do you think there is? Maybe if I wait a fortnight everyone has spent their strategy game money already? What about if another one comes out in a fortnight?

 

Mr. Ugly, I think you just nailed it concerning publishers ;-)

 

Me too, that is seriously impressive.

We're still a long way short of our first thousand and there's a "Join us on facebook" button right on the main menu!

 

IMHO, $.99 is a horrible price point. It locks you in a corner with no place to go.

The only time you should have a $.99 app is if it sticks in the top 25/50. If not, then jack it up.

Why? Sales. If nothing else, you can get on those feeds that publish sales, and you can always pick up some new customers when you cut the price.

$.99 is a volume price point. If you aren't carrying volume, bump it to a $1.99 and plan to have the occasional sale.

 

Hi Rubicon,

Yes, it seemed odd to me. It may be at the lower volumes, the sales are to genre enthusiasts who are not so price conscious.

Not only a fellow Brit, but someone who has lived on the Isle of Wight. I spent a year in Cowes (it had to be there with the name Andy Cowe), initially working as a video game designer at Vis Entertainment.

 

Yeah, that's a nice run in from Cowes to the farm.

I think you just missed me - I worked at Stainless for many years as head of core technology. When Vis bought us out they made it quite clear that they didn't want any tech prima donnas so we all buggered off. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Thanks for your tips. You remind me of the user part, that having a large number of loyal users will be the greatest edge for a game. But it is the first step that is troublesome.

 

I had a little Suzuki Swift GTI, which was perfect for those backroads. I was there towards the end, so we have missed each other by a little while (another Stainless connection: I was designer on the mobile version of Crystal Quest).

On the subject of publishers. That is the way I intend to go for my next release. They may take a cut, but they also cut out a bit of the work for me, the bits that I don't enjoy and am not very good at.

 

As long as I have been here there has always been an anti-publisher attitude. Publishers will not make you a millionare but will help you with exposure. Whenever a game become hot , people tend to look at that publishers list and see what else they have good. I know I have look at catalogs of publishers to see what they have in thier catalog.
The problem stems from people thinking publishers will make you rich. In most cases they will help you sell more then you would on your own , but that the best you can hope for.

 

I don't think that's even remotely true. Yes, there are some who are very much opposed to the idea, but in general I would say it has been fairly balanced all along.

If your game has hit potential and start doing OK, then having the backing of a publisher makes a lot of sense. They can spend money and help a game becoming a hit. As many, included those who have signed up with publishers, have mentioned though: Very few publishers will spend any money to make this happen in the first place. Meaning: If your game does not do business the publisher consider reasonably well, there isn't anything to be gained.

Like most things in this world this isn't black & white...

 

I come from the AAA industry. There, publisher are not in the dev's heart too, but at least they DO PAY for everything. If an ios publisher is just putting is logo and is name and do nothing else, then the least we can say is that the deal is not in favour of the devs. This can't be a long term viable solution for the devs.

JC

 

I think there are 2 types of publishers and you can't just stamp a stereotype on them.

1. Is the one that just to try to maximize sales by putting their name brand on your product.

2. Ones that get involved and really have a stake in the success of the game. Crescent moon is a good example.

I think there is room for good publishers in the ios market as long as they are willing to invest in your game.

 

Well I been here long enough to know most times there is a anti-publisher attitude here. Maybe I should be politically correct and say non-enthusiastic attitude.
Also what I said about publishers is right , they help with exposure but dont guaretee a million dollar hit. Only if you do well will they help you do better. I dont see the rebuttle because your saying the same thing Iam saying with different words. This question of publishers has been asked and debated many times before. The answer remains the same there is no magic bullet or company that can guarentee success. A quality product and promotion can help sell a few copies but luck is a factor that no one will admit too. In a market like this , this year 2011 you must concentrate of visaul appeal then solid gameplay. Solid visauls seem to be a must these days as consumers want something similar to console type graphics. As far as casual games are concerned cute visuals and easy to learn gameplay is king. Decide what demo-graphic your going for , then design your game to fit the profile.

 

It seems we're in general agreement about the publishers. We are not apparently on the attitude towards publishers in these forums. You see an anti-attitude, I see a few very vocal members being negative a few being overly optimistic and the majority landing (sensibly) somewhere in between. This is not particularly important to me though, and it is probably all in the eye of the beholder anyway...

 

An editor is not a publisher.
Most of the time, the editor pre-finance your game.
A publisher take a finish product, and sell it, but rarely get financially involve in the prodution.

I think you need to make a proper deal with the publisher. You pay him a percentage of the sale and for that he need to give you guarantee (minimum number of sales, proof of marketing action etc..).

If he didn't give you any kind of proof of commitement in the contract between them and you, I don't think that's a good deal.

 

? what the heck is an editor.. ? never heard of this term before..

a publisher is exactly thoose who finance projects (at least they did in console and pc developement)

in a classic enviroment they pay you for your work and then publish your work and depending on the contract you may or may not get a pice of the sales afterwards.. often the money the gave upfront is all you'll see sometimes not..

but thats not the way most if any iOS publisher work.. at least not to my knowledge.. a few commit to the projects and actualy pouring ressources into it to make it better (crecent moon) but thats it.. more or less..

i've yet to hear from an iOS developer who goes with an "paper" pitch to an iOS publisher and gets funding for the developement of the project..

 

I didn't get you. How does an editor pre-finance your game? Huh..