Demos and Review Copies
by Scott Casey · in Torque Game Engine · 02/14/2002 (6:16 pm) · 5 replies
I understand that Demos must be posted on GarageGames.
Could a demo be made available for inclusion on a CD that is packaged with a gaming magazine (assuming of course the editor wants to {or is there payolla here too?})?
Extending this, could I send my title to the same magazines for review?
Not that I have anything ready yet, I was taking a break and had a thought.
Thanks.
Could a demo be made available for inclusion on a CD that is packaged with a gaming magazine (assuming of course the editor wants to {or is there payolla here too?})?
Extending this, could I send my title to the same magazines for review?
Not that I have anything ready yet, I was taking a break and had a thought.
Thanks.
#2
02/15/2002 (3:53 am)
It is never too early to start thinking about marketing. Getting a buzz started early is a great tool that we have been using with our band, Ezra Stone (shameless ;p). Halo is a great example of this too (I remember first seeing at the GDC in 2000).
#3
2. Will buzz be good for your project?
If you don't have someting to show off, or a track record (like Bungie did, a newbie dev team trying to get attention before things are ready to show off won't do much cept get people to avoid the game)
Have something to show off, or a reason for people to be interested.
Saying your name will only jade people looking for the "next big thing". Unless you have a reason for them to come look at your stuff, they won't come back. "buzz" and "return fans" are two different things. Buzz might get you a few more visits to your site, but with nothing there to back it up you'll scare away those people.
I can say this with experience (well a bit of it) after our lead guy sent out a game announcement to a site. The page did a little preview of the project, but since we didn't have too much on the site (very very little) they basically said "It sounds like a cool idea, but there isn't really much to see there now".
Stuuupiiiddd! Hehe, if I knew he was sending it out i'd have asked him not to.
02/15/2002 (4:44 am)
1. Do you have someting to generate buzz about?2. Will buzz be good for your project?
If you don't have someting to show off, or a track record (like Bungie did, a newbie dev team trying to get attention before things are ready to show off won't do much cept get people to avoid the game)
Have something to show off, or a reason for people to be interested.
Saying your name will only jade people looking for the "next big thing". Unless you have a reason for them to come look at your stuff, they won't come back. "buzz" and "return fans" are two different things. Buzz might get you a few more visits to your site, but with nothing there to back it up you'll scare away those people.
I can say this with experience (well a bit of it) after our lead guy sent out a game announcement to a site. The page did a little preview of the project, but since we didn't have too much on the site (very very little) they basically said "It sounds like a cool idea, but there isn't really much to see there now".
Stuuupiiiddd! Hehe, if I knew he was sending it out i'd have asked him not to.
#4
Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer(1997, is in the Guiness Book of World Records)
Jane's Fleet Command(1999, was even on ABC News)
Sub Command(2001, developed with our own money for higher royalty - and it worked!)
I have something to 'buzz' about, Dev Snapshots will be available in the next couple of months - I've been flying under the radar for many reasons. ;)
02/15/2002 (6:32 am)
Sonalysts has done three commercial games for EA,Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer(1997, is in the Guiness Book of World Records)
Jane's Fleet Command(1999, was even on ABC News)
Sub Command(2001, developed with our own money for higher royalty - and it worked!)
I have something to 'buzz' about, Dev Snapshots will be available in the next couple of months - I've been flying under the radar for many reasons. ;)
#5
No problem putting your demo on cover mount magazine CD's. Also, sending out your own products to magazine reviewers is not a problem.
Due to our licensing agreement with Sierra, the only thing we need to do is actually publish the game at GarageGames. That means we need to control the ultimate final product download and collect the money. Once your product is published on GG, we can represent it to traditional box publishers to get it into the retail channel.
The last thing we want to do is become bandwidth "bankrupt", so we do not intend to freely host the downloads of demos for all Torque products. Our only requirement for demos is that we have links pointing to their FTP location. Of course, that would not apply to cover CD's.
Jeff Tunnell GG
02/15/2002 (7:33 am)
Scott,No problem putting your demo on cover mount magazine CD's. Also, sending out your own products to magazine reviewers is not a problem.
Due to our licensing agreement with Sierra, the only thing we need to do is actually publish the game at GarageGames. That means we need to control the ultimate final product download and collect the money. Once your product is published on GG, we can represent it to traditional box publishers to get it into the retail channel.
The last thing we want to do is become bandwidth "bankrupt", so we do not intend to freely host the downloads of demos for all Torque products. Our only requirement for demos is that we have links pointing to their FTP location. Of course, that would not apply to cover CD's.
Jeff Tunnell GG
Torque Owner Matt W
While it's nice to see how energetic you are about this, worrying about getting stuff to PC game magazines is pry the last thing you'll have to worry about the next 9+ months.