chillingo is another example - but, they are mainly an aggregate solution; they are probably not into investing time into advertising for everyone.. it is difficult to form these groups; indie developers dont like middle men either - but, that is why you try and establish yourself and a brand.
I guess ideas like this are 2 a penny But if forty devs got together to share marketing, then that is 40 games collected together, certainly more than what EA have on the market. If those Apps are quality and say come to the next holiday all those games go on sale, then EA cannot compete with that, and what they do becomes null and void with their holiday price fixing. A individual against EA or Gameloft cannot compete. But a group of people who decide to set prices at the same time can. This is no difference to what they do but at least things will even out.
Better yet, now this would never happen If we all managed to agree, the more devs the better, lets all have a sale this Xmas. It will certainly screw up EA's and Gamelofts predicted dominance and sales this Xmas And then we put the prices slightly higher after Xmas and get away from the 99c range. I guess I need slapping because this is pure fantasy But every indie dev would have to agree on the App Store - of course games at 99c will not be effected unless they go for free This would be like protesting!
Looks like everyone think about an Indie Label. Maybe we can join forces and setup an association which guarantee certain quality on games, quality control, etc. So when you brand your game, you stick this label in it, what do you think?
I think forming some type of Indie Label would be an excellent idea. I know some people have already raised issues with it. One of the things would be how to certify the "quality level", etc. For example, who makes that decision up front? What are the requirements, etc. Who is accepted? I think that a label would potentially be good. Look at the playing field nowadays. If the people don't know who you are, they are skeptical and are hesitant in paying prices (there are exceptions of course). This is understandable since there are so many apps, and frankly, most of the apps in the store are not good. There is a lot of forgiveness towards big name publishers. So they have the luxury of charging more for games that may not be any good (again, exceptions of course). The large publishers have brand recognition and have established good faith with the public. So of course they deserve getting the loyalty from the public. An Indie Label could potentially help indies get a similar footing in the marketplace. But for it to be effective, that label has to also make sure it provides people with a quality level they would be loyal to.
This issue won't be resolved until Apple changes the way games are listed. As it stands, you either make it or break it based on whether you're on the top 100 list. The easiest way to get there is to underprice your game (and even underpricing your game doesn't mean you'll even come close to reaching the top 100 list).
I think that's a fairly reasonable idea as far as fantasies go, but you've probably left it too late this year. If Blacksmith Games can get 24 developers to each make their game free for one day I'm sure someone could convince them to do a mass sale. It'd work best if you advertised it as a bit of festive fun rather than keeping it low key purely as an attempt to scupper EA's Christmas profits. Get the community involved, make sure the developers participating are actually getting some advertisement for their co-operation and I think it'd be quite popular. Someone quote this post back around October 2010
Not all games should cost $.99 cents, but they shouldn't be overpriced either. $1.99 is the perfect price for a popular but simple game. I would have gladly paid the extra dollar for Doodle Jump or geoSpark.
I don't think there is anything so bad in how Apple lists games. It is a large and difficult problem. There is a lot of product out there. Personally, I think it's a bit self-defeatist to see that as being the issue towards success. The advantage that large publishers have over smaller ones is numbers. Money, people, and outlets. This is why, if indies can properly band together, their odds of visibility increase with their ability in being able to leverage their different skill sets amongst each other.
I love the idea of getting a bunch of developers together to form a new indie label. In fact, it's something I've thought about for a very long time now (in AppStore terms that is). Given the right collections of developers, apps, marketing and community buy-in, it could be very successful at providing a way for the indies to compete with the big name players. If this does happen I'd love to be involved. For it to actually happen, it would be a good idea to first get an idea of developer interest levels. Who out there is genuinely interested in helping bring something like this about? Personally I've got significant amounts of experience in marketing and web development in addition to game design. I'd be more than happy to lend my skills and experience to helping indie devs not only be more competitive but also to "raise the bar" as it were for indie titles. AS others have mentioned there are already one or two groups trying to do something similar. Anyone know much about them? If someone's already trying this, are there reasons other Devs prefer to go a different route? Also, for it to work, the coalition of devs that does form to bring about an indie "publisher" those involved will have to be willing and able to dedicate time and attention to it. It can't be something everyone wants but no one wants to put any effort into or it's doomed to failure. Thoughts? Anyone genuinely interested? Q
We could build up a list of devs who might be... off the top of my head: TrueAxis Secret Exit Illusion Labs Imangi Studios Flickitty 9000BC Manomio Drömsynt Touch Foo Hackdirt Ltd The Iconfactory Tiger Style theFABRIK MrFungFung Mobigame Probably a load of even smaller developers too, this is pretty much just my ideal list Sorry if I forgot anyone obvious.
Nope. You can tilt left, tilt right, and shoot. You have 3 control options in Doodle Jump. I'm not talking about Canabalt. I'm talking about games in general. Some should cost more, others should cost less, and not everything needs to cost $.99. I don't mind spending $2 or $3 on a game. As a matter of fact, I'm about to spend $10 on the new Avatar game. Woooo! It's finally out. I avoided Doodle Jump for about a month because I couldn't stand how it looked. I'm glad I changed my mind. It's one of my favorite games.
I stand corrected, I didn't play for very long My post was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek anyway, don't think I'm following you waiting to pounce with a Canabalt quip every 5 minutes
I've been an advocate for this type of gathering for a long time. It would seem that it would be easier in this era, but it isn't. I don't know anything about the other groups, nor do I know anything about their particular interests or goals. Indeed, each developer needs to dedicate time and attention- creating a group and expecting people to join simply doesn't happen. Anyone who has Twitter or Facebook knows this. And for such a group to succeed, each developer needs to promote the group as a whole. Not just their individual games. I watch Twitter, and I really enjoy the posts from PocketMonkey, Koh Jing Yu and the developer of 9000 BC. They are REAL PEOPLE, and they don't just promote their games. For something surreal, Imp and Oaf is fun to watch too. However, as a gathering place, Twitter doesn't work to well to coordinate and organize a community structure. The community here at TA is great, except that we quickly get buried under EA, Ngmoco and Gameloft posts. We need a small and focused community. I don't think that we should battle companies like EA or Gameloft. They are viable companies and they produce some very good titles. They produce games that we can't (mostly for licensing, promotion and development reasons) and we produce niche titles that they can't (not enough money to bother). We aren't fighting the same battles, even if they do own the upper tier. We have the opportunity to use PlayHaven.com right now. They just launched, and they are relatively unknown. Geared and MiniGore are already using their system to build a community. Your game(s) are already listed at that site, all you need to do is go claim it. I can't explain all the benefits to PlayHaven, and it isn't perfect. But I think it could help. PlayHaven is currently free. If we start making noise now, we may be grandfathered in if they decide to go paid. One of the major benefits to this system is that players can automatically hop between communities with a single login. It doesn't require an SDK- here is a screenshot of Flickitty's PlayHaven page on my iPhone: You can test the actual link on your device: Flickitty Playhaven. I think that link is only function on the iDevice (problems on desktop version). I'm not sure how we could band our communities together on PlayHaven, but if enough of us made the request to Ray, they may be able to come up with something.
I had the same thoughts when I looked at Playhaven, and probably sent a very similar email as you to Ray . If they start handling recommended/allied communities so developers can band together on there, it could turn into something great for indies.
I definitely think you'll find there will be a lot of devs out there genuinely interested. We certainly would be. I think the biggest hurdle is defining an initial group that seems "legitimate" enough to be within a label. You'll get some devs that will feel miffed if they don't get into the group. For an initial label to be viable, there needs to be an establishment of not only the standards but also what everyone brings to the table as far as skills.
