Making Video Games

 

If you’ve been here before and read the career page, you know I had a decent run at selling games in the past but didn’t succeed in maintaining it in the long run.

Research and discussions with other game creators led to very interesting new ideas and a new business plan for the near future. In this page I will share it with you, and perhaps you will like to discuss it with me and others (that’s what the commenting option is for).

The plan breaks down as follows:

 

Start spreading the word while you develop the game.

 

With free press releases, you can keep a large community of game journalists and bloggers informed of your progress one one or several projects at the same time. This gives you a chance to find future players before the project is finished, get feedback and if necessary terminate a bad project idea before wasting weeks or months completing it.

Of course this requires one, or actually several websites (preferably one per project and a central site that links to each of them).

Get a webhost that allows you to:

- have as many websites as you need at no extra cost (other than domain registration).
- pay a low monthly fee (instead of having to pay for the whole year up front).

Note that your application to join gamespress will be rejected if you use free hosting services.

Even if you have only one project idea for now (or even none), others may come quickly and you will be glad to have options.

Use the Google Keyword Tool to find a good domain name that matches popular search queries. JoesArcadeGames.com for example will help attract people searching for arcade games. According to this tool, [arcade games] is searched 550 000 times on average each month. (Make sure you switch match type on the right from “Broad” to “Exact”). There are many other examples of popular search queries related to games.

Good press releases will have bloggers and journalists link to your site, using your domain or site name as anchor text. This and your domain name and using the keywords throughout your site (in titles especially) will gradually improve your search engine rankings for that phrase.

Use blogging software like Wordpress for easy updates and news releases (makingvideogames.com now runs on Wordpress). Wordpress is also more search engine friendly than static web pages.

Write a description of your project. Set a release date and attempt your first press release to see how the gaming world likes your idea. You may be worried about it being stolen, but a press release that is dated is a great way to prove it was yours to begin with. Once your game is released there is nothing you can do to prevent copying anyway, but copycats will have a hard time getting press reviews from the same journalists that previously wrote about you.

Publish a log of your progress that will keep you accountable. Use new press releases to announce the breaking of key milestones.

Offer the opportunity to join a newsletter and use it to occasionally announce progress. By the time the game is done, you have a good readership and potential customers (if your game is commercial). If you do not, you know the game might not be a great idea ahead of time.

Making a first freeware title, then a better commercial game (with better art, sound, music) based on the same concept sounds like the best way to start. You can monetize freeware with affiliate programs or contextual advertising if the press releases (and search engines) bring enough players. You can get players excited about the sequel by announcing it in the game and on your site, get feedback and some good social media buzz (Twitter, Facebook…).

Things have changed! No need to pay for advertising. The only cost is roughly $10 a month for hosting.

Resources:

Free games related PR.
Multi domain web hosting.
Wordpress.
Google Keyword Tool.

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