STATUS

Still considering trying to go commercial at some point maybe soon

  • unity
  • 04/19/2017 02:10 PM

Posts

Pages: 1
I am still in the conceptualization phase of the visualization process of the consideration of possibly thinking about going commercial.
Go for it! Your games are better than 99% of the commercial stuff out there anyway! I for sure would love to support the good work you're doing for rpg maker rep.
I've enjoyed your games more than most of the commercial RM games I've picked up; even the ones that are generally considered good.
Don't procrastinate. Just do it :)
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Go go go u-ni you know what I say
Go go go u-ni you'll make it one day


Er, I'll stop now.

(+1 Support and Morale?)
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=zDS
Go for it! Your games are better than 99% of the commercial stuff out there anyway! I for sure would love to support the good work you're doing for rpg maker rep.


author=SgtMettool
I've enjoyed your games more than most of the commercial RM games I've picked up; even the ones that are generally considered good.


author=Marrend
Go go go u-ni you know what I say
Go go go u-ni you'll make it one day


Er, I'll stop now.

(+1 Support and Morale?)


Thank you all so much! :D You give me the courage I need to go forward ^_^

author=eplipswich
Don't procrastinate. Just do it :)


Yeah, you're right! I've got to stop being so wishy-washy and just go for it! (After I finish my current project, that is, as I've already promised that one will be free)
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Jjjjjjoooooooooiiiiiiiinnnnnn uuuuuuuuusssssssss
Noooooo. Resist the dark side. The cookies are a lie. Keep your games accessible and fun for all.
Think about yourself on your deathbed. Do you want to reminisce about how your games were played and enjoyed by tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, or would you rather remember how you earned a month's wages from something you poured a year into and maybe a few thousand people played it?
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Dyhalto
Noooooo. Resist the dark side. The cookies are a lie. Keep your games accessible and fun for all.
Think about yourself on your deathbed. Do you want to reminisce about how your games were played and enjoyed by tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, or would you rather remember how you earned a month's wages from something you poured a year into and maybe a few thousand people played it?

You may very well be right. More than anything, I want people to play my games, and going commercial could have the exact opposite effect of what I want. I am very much hoping that doing so will get them more visibility, but it could ultimately fail and be a regrettable mistake.

But the ultimate stigma against going commercial confuses me a little. Does it devalue my work in your eyes to do so? I have a friend who's a writer, and recently signed a three-book deal, putting him closer than ever at his goal of being a full-time novelist. I can go into big book retailers and see his books on the shelves. Should he just work his 9 to 5 job he hates and give all the novels away for free, or am I different than him? Is it wrong of me to hope for the same, to see my games selling, even if I know its extremely unlikely I'd ever be able to support myself with them?
Honestly, it may be that fewer people may play it (of those who follow you around here) but at the same time you will get your extra special deserving pay for it (hopefully ; ) the more the better), but you WILL also reach out to people who wouldn't otherwise.

I look for games to buy in very different places than games to play for free (and I do like indie games as buy ones too).
And I used to not look for free game stuff at all.

Also, there is no stigma about going commercial. Period. there are different views from different people.
There are people who don't do good games - you do do good games so you are out of the loop. Maybe some people are used to getting and would love to continue playing your games for free. Their choice and it would be good for them indeed. There are those who would love to support you and would encourage the decision (patreon exists!). There will be those who don't really care either way.
There are plenty indies n games that are beloved and cherished, both from a play-fun and design perspective.

You are allowed to feel you deserve more. That's the first step to actually getting what you deserve.
We'll still love you and the free games you put out before (who knows if there'll still be the occasional jam game too!) are there for all to play and replay at their leisure.
Take up arms uni, and be ready. Stick to your beliefs, write em down. There will be people who disagree, for reasons that may or may not apply to you, but you do deserve your goals and dreams, so go for them even facing that : )

It's very right to hope for good things. Even better to work for it.
(also, I failed is so many times better than never trying : D it will give you so much knowledge about the process and all it works and you have the game-mak skills for it)

So rather than what we believe or others believe, what do YOU believe?
What do commercial games mean for you?
How do you value them?
How do you value your games?
Do you think they deserve a pricetag, what kind of price if so?
Would you like to try your hand at it?
Would you like to succeed at it?

(also cause it's so beautiful and I think of shuzo matsuoka motivational vid using the track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUmZMrA7ggk)
author=Dyhalto
Noooooo. Resist the dark side. The cookies are a lie. Keep your games accessible and fun for all.
Think about yourself on your deathbed. Do you want to reminisce about how your games were played and enjoyed by tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, or would you rather remember how you earned a month's wages from something you poured a year into and maybe a few thousand people played it?


I admire your spirit. However, Steam's sheer size (or RMN's relative obscurity, if you are a glass half empty type) often (though by no means always) makes this a false dichtonomy (as far as player numbers are concerned, that is), if Steamspy is to be believed. Perhaps we'll make a great leap forward eventually to the point where this won't be the case (the reason I persist with reviews and occasional TVTropes activity for RM games), but it'll be a while before that happens.

@Uni I certainly wish you success if/when you do go for it! Without knowing more, that's probably all I can definitely say at this point.

NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
As sceptical as I am about the increasing tendency towards commercial game making among the RPG Maker community, for fairness's sake I will have to say that releasing a free game does not automatically mean wider exposure or more players. Just like commercial games, free games can also carry a stigma depending on where you look. There might be platforms where games with a price tag are much more visible (and perhaps seen as more reliable quality-wise?) than on RMN, because their focus isn't mainly on the hobbyist scene.

I'm not too fond of the idea of suddenly having to pay to play a game made by people who I feel I more or less know personally, and who used to make their work available to everyone without money getting in the way. But looking at it rationally, the argument of higher exposure really doesn't work here unfortunately.


P.S.: unity, my first (and somewhat tongue-in-cheek) advice for your friend would be to find a different job he doesn't hate, though that's obviously easier said than done. But your example accurately sums up what I meant: If his books were available for free, they wouldn't be in any book store, so most people wouldn't even know of their existence.

Edit: I post too slowly.
There's a huge difference between having novels published and put on bookshelves in stores vs having your game put on Steam. Physical shelf space is limited, whereas Steam market space is unlimited. The successful novelist who makes it to the shelves is akin to making it into the Major League, whereas a gamedev is always just playing community softball in the park. Granted, you might turn into an outstanding ballplayer, having a great winning streak or one memorable grand slam, but you'll always be one of millions playing softball on Saturdays.

As for stigma, there really is none in itself. The biggest source would be the commercial gamedevs themselves. You could do some extra sprite work, or overhaul the leveling system, or revamp the big climactic scene to make it more exciting, but you're on a schedule and you have a budget, so out it goes as is.

Speaking on a more personal level, I'm less interested in millenials, hipsters, and well-to-dos who often have meager attention spans and pass around cheap commercial games as convenient, thoughtless, last-minute gifts, and more interested in people who don't have easy access to games behind a paywall, no matter how low the price appears to us in the first world. It's one of the reasons I intend to have Valor Emblem, and any other games I make in the future, translated into other languages. I know I'm the last person to be talking like some altruistic badass, seeing as I have no completed games worth mentioning, but that's just my philosophy.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=unity
You may very well be right. More than anything, I want people to play my games, and going commercial could have the exact opposite effect of what I want. I am very much hoping that doing so will get them more visibility, but it could ultimately fail and be a regrettable mistake.

The fear of failure is natural, and it will be there no matter what route you decide to take. However, if visibility is your sole concern, and income is not, then a price tag isn't going to get more people to play your game.

Marketing is what will get more people to play your game. Really, marketing is a skill developers need whether or not they go commercial. If you ARE going commercial, a publisher with a lot of reach will take the marketing job off of your hands. It's possible to self-publish a commercial product, but then 100% of the marketing work will still be on your shoulders. If anything, it's MORE work for you since you have to convince people to give you money.

I don't want to push you either way. Take your time, talk with multiple people who have gone through this process, and make a decision you won't regret. If you later find out it was a mistake, fine. But don't ever regret an experience you can draw from in the future. Whatever you decide, we'll support you.
The important thing to remember is never let people make you feel like you're selling out or in the wrong for wanting to go commercial.

There are all sorts of degrees of going commercial. There's "AAA multi-billion dollar" commercial. There's "small start-up kickstarter" commercial. There's "one or two guys making some extra spending money" commercial. There is no one binary definition of what a commercial game includes other than the fact that you're charging money for it, so don't feel like you're following one fixed set of rules, scope, and expectations because you decided to cross the line.

The key is finding a level of commercialism that works for you. And never forget that, unless you're running a business out of it, you don't have to go "all in" right out of the gate. Your game can be commercial, but it doesn't have to be thought of as a "product" just because it costs money.
If you're worried about not hitting a potential audience by going commercial, you can always just go commercial and if there's no/diminishing sales after X amount of time, then switch it over to free (or keep cutting the price until sales fizzle out altogether).

I think that if you feel you're ready, then you should go commercial. I think the biggest potential cost--assuming that you're not putting more time/money into this game than you normally would--is the emotional one of having a small number of people buy your game or having the less hospitable world outside of the RPG Maker community shit all over your game, but, fuck it, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
It's a learning experience. I'm almost done a commercial game project while also maintaining a full time job at a studio but it's been killing me from the inside a bit. I don't think I want to make another commercial project in a long while.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
You've already gone commercial remember hehehehe

Edit: Even still, I love commercial RM games that are hi quality, and all of your games are hi quality enough to be sold. Go for it, I say.
Pages: 1