Don’t get frustrated when your game doesn’t sell thousands of copies on day one.  There’s a lot of Indies out there who say, “My game has been out for a week and I still have no sales!”  Sometimes it’s because the game is lousy, but more often than not it’s because nobody knows about the game.  Marketing is paramount!

We have already talked about how to build buzz for the game while you’re working on it, but don’t just forget about your game after you release it.  Here’s a few marketing essentials.

Website – This was touched on in Lesson 2, but obviously creating a website and using it to interact with customers is a no brainer, so do it.

Email Blasts – If you don’t get the press to cover your game, then nobody will find it and you’ll be whining about your lack of sales.  After your game is done, think about your audience and target the websites, magazines, etc. that make sense to contact.  My overall advice for your email is to come across as a real human being.  The press is a lot more likely to actually read your email if you have a concise subject line, introduce yourself and talk about your game.  The gaming press gets blasted with press releases all the time that are impersonal and corporate.  You’re an indie developer so use your personality to stand out from the crowd.  If you don’t get a response from someone about reviewing or featuring your game, don’t lose hope either.  It is okay to send a follow-up email…just don’t go spam crazy.  Don’t ask if they’re interested in a review copy either; just send it!

Game Trailer – Creating a game trailer showing your game in action is a great way to garner interest and encourage downloads.  Be sure to send emails out about new trailers and post the video around the net.

Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are all great ways to interact with fans, link to your website, announce promotions, give away free copies etc.  They’re great marketing tools that are free to use.

Newsletter – Collect email addresses through promotions and sneak peeks at your game.  Once your game is out, email these potential customers about your game release.  You can email these same potential customers about future games or upcoming promotions and discounts.

Forums – Register for appropriate gaming forums and provide links to your website and game demo in your signature.  Every time you post, there will be a way for readers to check out your game.

Attend Conventions – Attending IGF, GDC, PAX and other conventions are great ways to meet other game developers and gaming press.  Network and create partnerships so that you can market your game more effectively and build links and traffic to your site.

Advertising – Indies have had mixed results with paid advertising, but it’s worth mentioning that there are ways to pay for web traffic.  Some people have found that they can be very successful with pay-per-click and other low-cost advertising campaigns.

Don’t Give Up, but Don’t Go Overboard Either!

Marketing is a full time job.  Instead of sending one press release when your game is finally completed, think about sending a press release announcing your game, announcing the free public beta, and then finally announcing the game’s release.  Continue marketing your indie title with relevant announcements about game updates and more.  A good tip is to break up the monotony of marketing your game by doing only a few marketing tasks a day.

There’s no magic bullet to marketing an indie game, but if you’re personable and have an interesting product, you should be able to get some press coverage for your game.  Marketing is an ongoing process.  Stay with it and give your game time to grow.

Your game is done and now it’s time to make some money (hopefully). Instead of walking you through every possible combination of release scenarios, I am just going to outline some of the key release avenues that most indies utilize:

Self-Publish
If you’ve successfully been marketing your game throughout the development period, Self-Publishing and releasing your game on your website is a no-brainer. The advantage of selling downloads through your website is that you, the developer, collect the majority of each sale and have control over the website itself so that you can adequately support, feature, and sell your product. The disadvantage is that most indies have measly traffic and will not be able to reach their customers as effectively.

Portals
Before you release your game on your own site, it’s probably a good idea to contact some portals and see if they would be interested in selling your game. What’s a game portal? Well, it’s a site that collects a bunch of games and sells them through a unified website. Some prime examples of portals are: Valve’s Steam, Big Fish Games, Impulse, Reflexive/Amazon, Real Arcade and Direct2Drive. Every portal is different with different audiences and some even act as publishers. There are exclusive and non-exclusive deals and tons of other particulars that I won’t get into. Generally, getting on portals is a good thing since your game will be in front of new eyes. However, since a developer has less and less control over their game’s price on a portal, it is usually best to sell your game at a premium on your own site initially and then boosting your game’s sales by releasing on several portals over the next year. Some deals may be too good to turn down though.

Publisher
If you want to go Retail, you’ll almost definitely need a publisher. Publishers can also help get your game on a whole bunch of other distribution channels and portals. Publishers certainly help give a game the backing power of a larger company but it comes at a price. Publishers are often going to take a cut of sales. That’s the cost of using them and harnessing their marketing power. There are some horror stories out there of publishers who don’t pay royalties or don’t support your game at all. Generally, it’s good to request a marketing action plan and an upfront payment to make sure they mean business.

During the final stages of your game’s development, you should start putting together a release schedule, contact portals, distributors, and publishers and plan out your game’s release. Remember to use press releases and solicit reviews. Send a press release announcing your game’s release date about a month out and then send out review copies. Send out another press release announcing your game’s release on your website (or portal) and be sure to keep sending out releases when your game is available on new websites or distribution channels. Scream about your game’s release from a mountain top and be consistent and persistent. Dedication will result in press coverage which will help get your website visitors and your game demo downloaded.

Keep in mind that it’s a task in and of itself to get people to visit your website and actually download, install and play your game demo. Don’t get frustrated when you don’t sell thousands of units on Day 1. Remember that your game is not the next Halo and people haven’t been talking about it for months on end. Work to create excitement prior to release. Use player and reviewer quotes, put gameplay footage up on YouTube, and try to create excitement and inform people about your big indie game release.

More importantly, keep it up after the release. In the final lesson of this guide, we’ll touch on how important it is to continually market your game and push sales.

A bulk of your indie development time will be spent on coding and programming your game. Putting in all your features, designing levels, debugging the game, updating graphics, and inputting sounds and music is a major portion of indie development, but don’t think that just because your game runs and plays from start to finish means that its ready for release. You should spend about the same amount of time perfecting your game’s design and features that you spent coding the thing. Going thru the game with a fine toothed comb, working out all the blemishes and adding production value goes a long way. If you are finished programming and have finished graphics, sound, etc. in there, then it’s time to start the following:[This Content is Exclusive for Insider]

Whether your game fits into an existing genre or is something entirely unique doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you think about your potential customer before you write a line of code. You’ll also want to take into consideration your coding experience. The good news is that if you’re already a proficient coder, you can start writing your game and pretty much port it anywhere. But this is a beginner’s guide and most Indies aren’t really hardcore assembly line type coders.

Most indie game developers use some sort of engine or software to code and create their games. There are tons of choices and they all have their pros and cons. Here is a breakdown of some of the most popular choices starting with the platforms considered to require the least amount of programming language up through the most technical and programming heavy choices:

RPG Maker: Free
Pros: Free and gets you designing the game quickly
Cons: Windows PC only, RPGs Only, Lack of Flexibility

I’ve never used RPG Maker since I’ve never made an old school Japanese style RPG, but it’s very proficient at creating a unique RPG. RPG Maker is free and makes creating maps, characters, and events very easy without any real gameplay coding. Obviously the drawback is that it’s not very flexible – it makes only RPGs and you don’t have any control over the gameplay mechanics. If you’re thinking about an RPG, this tool does substantially streamline the process though.

Game Maker: Free, Pro Version $25
Pros: Cheap solution, Easy to Use interface, Great for 2D games
Cons: 2D games only, Only Windows PC Platform

Game Maker is a great choice because it’s cheap, great for 2D games, and offers a nice and easy point & click /drag & drop user interface. You don’t need to code a thing and can make any type of 2D game. Plus GM has some great flexibility in the optional advanced mode. This solution focuses on Game Designing rather than Game Coding, which is really nice. The major drawback for Game Maker is that it builds games for Windows PC only and is restricted to 2D.

The Games Factory 2 / Multimedia Fusion 2: $59 – $369
Pros: Great for 2D Games, Easy to Use Interface, Java/Mobile enabled, New Features in Development
Cons: Developer version is expensive, Originally Built for Windows Only Development, Framerate Issues

Multimedia Fusion 2 is very similar to Game Maker in that it has an easy to use point and click user interface and event editor. You can pretty much make any type of 2D game with MMF and there’s a ton of 3rd party extensions that can be added into the engine. Multimedia Fusion has also recently been Java enabled, allowing you to create games for mobile devices and allowing you to port to Mac and Linux. There’s also Hardware Acceleration and Flash Export in the works. The problem with MMF2 is that to get the full set of features, you have to shell out for the Developer version. It can also be difficult to develop for Linux and Mac since MMF was originally built for Windows Only Development.

Adobe Flash/Air/Flex: $699+
Pros: Online standard, 2D/3D Games, All Computer Platforms, Other Revenue Streams Available, Great for Animation, Tons of examples/resources
Cons: Expensive, Coding/Scripting Language must be learned, Steep Learning Curve

Flash is the standard for online web games. Flash is incredibly flexible and allows an indie developer to sell their game as a downloadable for PC, Mac or Linux or generate cash thru licensing, sponsorship, or online advertising of a web-based game. If you make an ad-supported flash game there’s great opportunities to get it onto a ton of free flash game portals. Marketing a free flash game is somewhat viral andrelates to the quality of the game. It’s relatively easy to get your game on a ton of flash game sites, so if people like it and keep playing it – you can earn some nice advertising loot. You can always sell the game online at places like Flash Game License. Flash is an excellent animation tool and offers the flexibility to do 2D or 3D games. The problem with Flash is that there is a learning curve and its user interface and scripting language almost guarantees that you’ll be purchasing some books. Flash takes a significant monetary and time investment to get the hang of before your game will hit the top spot on Newgrounds. However, I believe it to be one of the most flexible tools available to an indie developer. Adobe Flex and AIR just further enhance Flash’s set of features.

Torque 2D/3D Engines: $100 -$300
Pros: Incredibly powerful, Impressive graphics, Flexibility, 2D or 3D Games, Content Packs ($), All computer platforms and can port to iPhone, Wii, Xbox, and more, Good Level and Graphics Editor
Cons: Documentation is poor, Must learn TorqueScript, Helpful to have C# or C++ Knowledge, Separate 2D and 3D versions

Torque is really the solution that sits somewhere between the strictly coding options below and the point & click options above. You’ll need to learn TorqueScript in order to actually code your game and take care of all your events, but you’ll be able to drag/drop game objects and design levels in a pretty good and intuitive user interface. Best of all, once you code your game you can pretty much release it on any platform – iPhone, Wii, Xbox. Torque is very impressive graphically and has built in particle effects and other graphical goodies. It’s annoying that the 2D and 3D versions are different and that you have to pay more for the source code, Torsion editor, content packs etc. Object Oriented Programming Knowledge is certainly helpful and can give you unlimited flexibility with the engine. The biggest downfall of Torque is that the documentation is poor. There are some decent tutorials to build specific games, but none of the documentation lays out everything about TorqueScript’s idiosyncrasies very well. If you want to learn how to code, but want some visual assistance laying game objects out, Torque is a good solution.

BlitzMax / Blitz3D: $60-$100
Pros: Built for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, 2D or 3D Games, Cheap Multiplatform Option, module customization, GUI package ($), Streamlined coding/debugging
Cons: Have to learn Blitz BASIC coding language, No visualization of graphics, levels, etc.

I have tried out the BlitzMax Demo but never really used the program. There are a lot of Indies out there that swear by it though. It is certainly flexible and offers a nice streamlined coding and debugging platform, but you’ll have to learn Blitz’s scripting and BASIC coding language. BlitzMax is the first solution on this list that has no visualization of the game space, your graphics, levels, etc. It’s purely a coding environment and that will make it difficult for beginners.

XNA Game Studio: Free – Creator’s club $99/year
Pros: Xbox and PC Platforms, 2D & 3D Games, Easily get on Xbox Community/Indie Games, Cheap, XBLA sales are Great!
Cons: Requires C# programming knowledge, Microsoft Only – absolutely no Mac or Linux, Xbox Community Games Sales have been Poor, Microsoft Certification can be expensive for XBLA

XNA Game Studio Express is free from Microsoft and has some decent tutorials, videos, forums, and documentation to get you started coding your very own Windows or Xbox game. Like BlitzMax, XNA Game Studio is pretty much all code – there are no game visualizations to help you along the way. If you’re considering doing a hardcore action type game, this is certainly something worth downloading and trying out. You’ll need to be dedicated since you’ll need to learn Programming in C# to use XNA, but you can make any type of game that you can imagine 2D or 3D. It’s great that you can make a game for Windows with the software for free and then signup for the Creators Club and work at getting your game on Xbox. The bad news is that PC games require a lot higher requirements when made with XNA and additional installations (.net framework, C# redistributable, etc) which can frustrate customers. There’s also no way that Microsoft is going to support Mac or Linux OS in the future. The good news is that your game is easily ported to Xbox! Well, you can easily get on the Community/Indie Games Channel, but games have been selling poorly there…the most popular downloads being controller massage programs. If your game is really well produced and of a high quality, you can attempt to go the Microsoft Certification route for XBLA, but it’s expensive and time consuming. It is where the money is though.

There’s really way too many options to list here. Unity recently went free and Unreal Engine has adjusted its pricing too. There’s certainly the pure programming route (C++, Java, etc.) too. If you’re not a programmer, you’ll certainly be more successful staying near the top of the list, though Flash is an excellent starting point. Ultimately, whichever coding platform you choose will affect where you can take your game when it’s finished. Mac and Linux are consistently ignored by developers and Indies have seen that they have significantly higher sales and conversion rates from these users (though there are less of them). If you’re just starting Indie Game Development, it’s probably best that you stick to computers and keep the flexibility of some of the other choices in mind.

By copying an existing indie or casual game, you will be assured that there is an audience willing to pay to enjoy the game mechanic. You’ll even know which portals and websites to submit your game to for publishing and distribution once it is completed, but more on that topic later. Cloning cuts out a lot of the preparation, market studies, and prototype work and gets you right to coding and marketing your game. These are the two things that a successful indie developer spends the majority of their time on. It’s assumed that an indie developer does a lot of coding, but a lot of beginners miss out on the marketing.

Marketing can begin before you’ve even settled on what game you’re producing. These next couple tips aren’t required per se, but they certainly will help you if you plan to sell your game on your own website. Obviously, if you want that to be an option, you have to have a website. It’s never too early to create a website and start generating some traffic. Starting a development blog can be a great marketing tool as well since you can start generating excitement for your title by announcing the game (when you finally decide on it), revealing screenshots, or even releasing alpha and beta builds. If you want to make some money while you code, you could even sign up as an affiliate with a larger game portal or with other indie developers and sell games on your site. Don’t expect big sales, but if you’re decent at marketing and get a steady traffic flow you can make something.

Another reason to start your website ASAP is because that the longer a site has been in existence, the better its page rank will be, the more incoming links it will have, and the more time you’ll have to optimize your pages with the search engines. Starting your website now will give you time to get feedback and ensure the site looks professional; People won’t buy anything from a sketchy or unprofessional website. Building a website, expecting people to find it and releasing a game on it is never a winning strategy. A website is not a brick and mortar store; people won’t drive by it and stop in. You have to market it and it’s never too early to start.

Once you have a website, market the hell out of it. But a link in your forum signature, submit it to the free online directories, post about it on facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. Start networking and connecting with potential customers. You can build a fanbase and community for your game before it is even released. Your website is a crucial marketing tool. Generating traffic for your site and excitement for your game will assure better sales.

Is creating a website and marketing it effectively crucial to making an indie game? No. But to be truly independent, a developer shouldn’t rely on a portal or publisher to peddle their game. Distributing your game thru other channels can be great, but you pay for it. You’ll collect 90%+ of a sale on your own website, with a fraction taken out from the payment processor. Most publisher deals will only give you around a 40% cut because you are using their marketing power, web traffic, expertise, and brand. Don’t let the publishers and portals make or break you.

HOMEWORK:
Build your Website – optimize it, start a blog, make it look professional, start selling games on it by affiliating with a portal or other indie game developers.

Market your Website – build a fanbase and community for your game. Create excitement before it’s even released.

Wakeup call, every developer thinks their game idea is genius. As confident as you are in your game concept, new indie developers constantly make the mistake of thinking they can produce, code and be successful with a unique game concept out of the gate. Have you even considered how you are going to market and sell this innovativegame? What’s your game’s demographic? How long will it take to produce? How much will art, music and other assets cost? What platform will it launch on? What engine will the game run on?

If you don’t know the answer to all those questions, it’s time to cool down. I’ve never met a game developer who doesn’t have hundreds of game ideas. The question becomes, which of these ideas will be the most profitable. The reality is that your innovative and groundbreaking game idea is expensive and risky to make. The hardest thing about making an indie game isn’t coming up with the concept; it’s executing and finishing it. Many aspiring indie game developers never finish their great game idea because it was too grandiose to start out with. You’re not going to come out with the next “World of Goo” if you’re new to the industry. If you’ve never worked for a big game publisher, table your great game idea till you get at least 1 profitable indie game under your belt. The innovative and risky game will always be there for later.

This advice has been given ad nauseam on so many indie game forums. Regardless, the noob is stubborn, doesn’t listen, and never completes their gaming opus. The other common scenario is that they do finish and the game is mediocre (at best) and could use a lot more polish. Trust me I’ve been there. It sucks to finish a game and have lackluster sales. Everybody wants to sell hundreds of copies that first day of release, but you’re not releasing the next Halo, Warcraft, or Nintendo title.

Unfortunately it’s tough to pay for all the art, music and assets that go into an indie game. And that’s not even taking into account all your blood, sweat and tears. Convinced yet? Are you so passionate about your game idea that you’re willing to pay thousands of dollars just to have it made? If you are, go for it. You may break-even or even luck out and make some money, just be prepared for the loss.

If you want to be a lasting indie developer, you need to make money. So now that you’ve let go of your illustrious game, what do you do? The next step is finding an established game genre that you’re passionate about or enjoy. Visit one of the casual portals, play some free demos and find a game that’s really fun for you. If casual is not your thing, check out Steam or Direct2Drive for some of the more hardcore indie titles. Casual’s the easier route if you ask me, but there’s a good niche with hardcore strategy titles, RPGs, sims, etc. as well.

Do your homework. Find that game. Study it and prepare to copy it. It sucks, but cloning an indie game is an excellent way to get some experience, learn about developing, and assure that your game has potential customers. Go for a subtle tweaked clone or original spin on a proven game concept rather than your ambitious, risky and expensive game idea.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Download and play a ton of indie and casual games. Find a core game mechanic that you enjoy