selling a small game

Hello everyone

I was wondering something. Right now I am in the middle of creating a game I really like so far, it has a nice story, gameplay, tons of side objectives and cool non combat quests. Now I was wondering, if the game is done, whould I be able to sell my game? Now it is more out of curiousity than anything else (and of course I know I will NEVER get rich with an rpg maker game). But starting a company and getting all the things needed to sell a game are very expansive. Do you guys know of a way to sell your game for let's say $0.50 to $1.00? Nothing fancy, just a way to distribute it, with an automatic unlocking code after payment. Most of all: whould I need a permit to sell something like this if I expect to make a shocking $2.00 a month with it?'

Kind regards,
Drakenkanon

You mean you want players to pay $2.00 a month or you're only expecting to earn $2.00 a month?

If you want to start your own gaming company just make sure you have
Skills - No one wants to work with someone who can't pull their own weight, not even if they're the CEO. The means you need to be more than an ideas man (You're either an Artist, Programmer or Musician).


For selling your game, don't bother with RM sites. People around have played more than enough RM Games to justify thinking any one of them is a piece of shit regardless of how nice the screenshots might look.
You'd be better off posting it in a more less-informed userbase forum.

Oh I was not trying to sell my game here (even though if I whould decide to sell it I whould probably post something on here too about the game), nor was I planning on starting a gaming company.

My idea was to finish a game, and then sell it for a one time payment of say $1.00. I realize an rpg maker game whould never be able to sell for a price much above that, so I was thinking to just set a low price and expect to hardly earn anything with it.

Because of this I was wondering if it is possible to do this without making a lot of costs, especially without starting my own company.

Most people in general won't even play RM game they see lying around, (unless you do as D&P3 said and find a less-informed group, people know you, or the game looks really, really nice). Also, the less people play your game, the less opportunity for feedback to improve future games.

So...I don't recommend selling your game. It's just more of a hassle than a profit. You have to worry about copyright stuff and what resources you use and so on.

Of course...it IS doable, though.

Sure, you can sell it as long as you have no ripped resources, have right to use everything commercially and such. But before you can sell it you NEED to get a business license even if you'd sell it for only 1$, which if it's as big as you explain, is incredibly underpriced for absolute no reason and would most likely make customers AVOID your game because they'd think there's some reason it is such a low price, already at the start. Also, if you sell it for 1$, and after the cut the people distributing your game will take (8-10% cut!!!) along with the tax, you'll not be left with almost any money at all. Realize that even if you'd cut corners in just about everywhere, you'll still have to pay at least several hundred dollars AND you will have to have the license to sell the game for profit. How little money you make has nothing to do with it, you need to have a permit to sell the product you own and to do that, you have to get a business license and market your game as a product you're selling.

If you say you're not looking for profit and are practically willing to sell for free, why not release it free? You know nothing about the market or about RPG maker games that are commercial if you say games don't sell for more than 1$ when most games I found were over 10$, some even going 20$.

Why do you want to sell the game you've worked really hard on for just 1$? If you don't think it's worth more, then don't sell it.

Some things to realize:

Asking about commercial ventures in a forum of hobbyists is like asking farmers about what stores sell the best produce. Most of us in an RM forum will never think about buying or selling an RM game. Of the ones that do wish to sell, even less ever make it that far.

Naturally, we tend to be a lot more biased in these discussions because we've used the system to no end and we can easily be bored seeing the same things over and over again, unlike somebody with no familiarity with the product. It's easy for us to compare a commercial game with a non-commercial game and give reasons why the non-commercial one is much more superior, and as such question why somebody would spend money on a product when there is a better one for free.

As for being able to sell your game with the least amount of expense, I really don't think there is an easy solution. You can try and self publish your game, but then you need a way to host the game, a website or blog to host it on, and you need a way to market your game, all of which can be highly expensive upfront but allow you to earn a higher profit in the long run. Or you can use a site like Desura to host it on, but then you have to pay out fees for using their services, and a lot of those sites will demand a cut from each sale; and often times you are still responsible for your own marketing.

Do your homework, check out the various sites available, and if needed get a lawyer that can clue you in on any of the details that you may not be certain of (especially concerning copyright).