[casual_games] Advice to a developer about distribution

[Lennard Feddersen]

I have personally turned down deals where a middleman represents you to 
all of the portals. They take a huge chunk of the pie for doing some 
emailing and leveraging a rolodex and the portals are already going to 
give you a pretty small % - if those guys are interested it's probably 
because you have made something worth their time, might as well take the 
time to send the portals your emails directly.

My take is that, long term, it's important to be building your own 
website traffic with your content. Do deals directly with portals if it 
makes sense for you - they are pretty approachable in my experience and 
they do get a lot of traffic. Ultimately you are going to be asked to 
nudge the game this way or that - you might as well be working directly 
with the portals because that is going to take more energy than the 
initial contact did anyhow and then you don't have a middleman in the way.

BTW, would be happy if you sent me a link when the game is actually up 
on your website.

Good luck!

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
P. July & August 518-863-2317
5014 Walsh, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4H2



Matthew Ford wrote:

>

> Hello all,

>

> My game Taboo Snaps (www.taboosnaps.com <http://www.taboosnaps.com>) 

> is nearly done so I am looking ahead to distribution options. At Game 

> Connection at GDC I made contact with a few would-be distributors who 

> kindly expressed interest. I am completely green in this area—though I 

> worked for game companies as a producer/designer for more than 15 

> years, I never forged this kind of deal. So I would really, really 

> appreciate your advice.

>

> To give you an idea of the scale of my game, Taboo Snaps is a game 

> with a casual entry—Flash-based and you can learn how to play it in a 

> minute—but has a considerable amount of gameplay under the hood and a 

> continually updated content stream, so a player who likes it might 

> play for a solid hour per session, and come back week after week to 

> get new content.

>

> At GC I met a few would-be distributors: a person who would get 

> exclusive rights to:

>

> 1) Work with portals to get the best possible deal for my game.

>

> 2) Find properties, such as a men’s magazine, which would want to buy 

> a skinned version of my game, rebranded to fit their site and show 

> their content.

>

> I don’t need any funding. I just am deciding whether to have a 

> middleman do the work of cutting deals and working his/her 

> connections, or to do it all myself. On one hand, I want to maximize 

> revenue. On the other hand, I really want to focus my time and effort 

> on development.

>

> So I have a few really basic questions:

>

> 1) What should I consider as I decide whether to work with such a 

> distributor, or just be my own agent in working with portals and 

> properties such as magazines?

>

> 2) What is a fair percentage for the distributor to get from the 

> game’s revenues?

>

> 3) Is it reasonable for the deal to be such that I get the revenue 

> checks, from which I give a cut to the distributor, or must I expect 

> it to be vice-versa?

>

> 4) What are reasonable limits to expect the deal to have? Time of 

> exclusivity, exceptions if I dig up a portal or property that the 

> distributor did not, and such?

>

> I know that my first time selling my own game will be a learning 

> experience, but I’d greatly appreciate it if you all can help me avoid 

> at least a few of the pitfalls I know I have ahead of me. J

>

> I don’t mind if replies go to the list, but if you wish to send me a 

> private reply, that’s fine!

>

> Many thanks,

>

> Matthew Ford

>

> * * *

>

> Matthew Ford - matthew at fordfam dot com - 

> http://www.fordfam.com/matthew

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

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