Ron Carmel (aka half of 2Dboy) spoke about the hurdles they faced after the release of World of Goo.  Their problems stemmed from retail partners putting Mac discs in PC boxes, bugs, Paypal, their hosting provider, and more.  This all manifested itself in the form of a Tsunami of email.  In the end, it took 4 months to sort out all the problems after the release of the game.  Ron gave some tips on how to address some of the issues an indie may face after release.

When the e-mail starting pouring in, Carmel and Gabler thought that updating the FAQ page on their website would address many of the common questions they got – turns out people don’t give a sh!t about the FAQ.  Adding some of the most common questions before the contact form on the contact page was slightly effective, but forums were the best since fans could help one another.  When it comes to Bugs, Ron suggested that an indie picks their battles and addresses only the most pressing and common bugs that affect gameplay.  Don’t worry about stamping out rare graphics issues or random crashes; you can’t please everyone.

When it comes to retail partners, Ron suggested that you get some sort of penalty in the contract for publisher mistakes since it makes you look bad.  Don’t let webhosts or paypal boss you around either.

Ron also emphasized the importance of promotions and bundles since they equated to 1/3 of World of Goo’s revenue.  Short term promotions and bundles will help you reach customers that wouldn’t have bought your game normally.  Interestingly enough, having a consistent price across game channels doesn’t matter at all.  World of Goo is $20 on 2Dboy & Steam, $15 on WiiWare, and $7 on Big Fish but Carmel hasn’t notices any complaints or changes in sales though they got a bunch of complaints for having different prices on the same distribution channel ($20 Steam USA and €20 Steam Europe).

The bottom line is that indies have to prepare for months of PR work leading up to and following their game’s release.  Get interviews on blogs, send review copies to anyone that asks, and be prepared for unexpected issues to crop up.

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