Good Money in Gaming?

#61 Word of mouth is the best marketing. Instea dof a big paper doll with "Buy My Game" written all over it,your more likely to get sales when someone tells their schoolfriends "Have you played ? No? Dude, get the demo, and then buy it! Seriously, It's awesome!". That's how Deus Ex got most fo it's advertising in my city. There wera a few articles in PC Gamer and PC Powerplay, and word spread form there. But word of Mouth can also be the death of a game, like Invisible War, when people said it wasn't worth buying.

#62 What about massive emailing? That might not be a good investment but who knows?

Also, I was wondering if a drawing tablet would be a wise investment for working in 3ds max?
Thanks.

#63 I would not recommend buying a tablet for 3dsmax as the mouse does the job pretty well. (same for most 3d apps, except Zbrush). BUT, a tablet is EXTREMELY useful when it comes to texturing or anything involving painting on computer.

Just a side note on contents pack: those takes hours and hours to do and it's true that it takes time to reach decent sales. Globally, an art contract would earn as much in less time. But the good point is that it sells "forever" and will seriously increase your site traffic.
Something to try ;)

#64 Mass emailing would do more harm than good to marketing your game I would think. People hate spam, if they happen to come across your game and remember a piece of spam they got about the game then they'll be a lot less likely to buy it.

#65 Regarding the tablet with 3DS Max... this should probably be going into another thread, but I use a Spaceball with Maya, and I love the thing. After seeing the 3DConnexion booth at GDC '04, they sent me one free for a month or so. But I got an unbelievable discount for being an educator (which Colton if you are a student you can too, check Journey).

But be careful of relying on these kinds of things. Could make it hard sometime when you have to work without them. ;)

Russell Fincher
Lead Artist | Co-owner
Sickhead Games

#66 Yeah I seen the spaceball thing and it looks pretty cool. I'll won't get it until I find that I must really need it. I might try to get a tablet just in case and try it out. You can buy some cheap ones on ebay but I have my doubts with those. The mass emailing thing might be a dumb way to market, but I got an email from some company that said something about for $60 a month you can send out like a butt-load of emails a day without them being thought as spam. I'm wanting to say the butt-load was over a million addresses but I'm bot sure. I'm also thinking about getting a 3d digitzer (if I can find a cheap one) to kinda speed up the process of creating most the CG art for our game. SO, is anybody getting a PS3 when they are out? I didn't get the xbox 360 but I think I'm gonna camp out for the ps3 just to even have a chance to get one. Would you recomind a 3d digitzer, like one from solutionix?

#67 Colton I'm an indie and it's been years since I worked with a large developer, but my gut tells me that these digitizers really aren't used a lot in game development, especially by startups I would imagine. Seems like an awfully large expense when good modelers are plentiful, not to mention the learning curve and upkeep on this kind of equipment. When the time comes, put the word out that you need modelers and you'll find them.

Russell Fincher
Lead Artist | Co-owner
Sickhead Games

#68 Well, I'm the 3d modeler and level creater on my indie team and I just thought it would be useful time wise. Oh, just one question, I'm about to do my first game and can't decide to do a RPG or a Baja racing game? I don't know what people like the most but my programmer really wants to do a RPG first cause he thinks he can do it but I tell him that a racing game would most likly be easier for a first game. Which would be a smarter choice? Thanks

#69 Colton - You're asking a question you already know the answer to.

#70 Ok. So I should go with the racing game.... since it's easier. But me and my programmer still argue cause we want what we think would be easier for the other person.

#71 The RPG won't be easier for either of you.

#72 Yeah, but it would be on me since I'm not the programmer.

#73 The RPG will require more code and more art.

The racer will be easier for both of you.

#74 So we will just do that then.

#75 If you dont pick a game you both feel very passionately about, you probably wont finish it.

#76 Trust me, I freakin love cars. Mabye even more than games since cars was my first passion. Which that is one reason I'm doing the game thing so I might be able to get a nicer ride. My programmer likes cars but I don't think he loves them.

#77 It's not a matter of liking or loving cars...

It's a matter of loving your game idea. Being so enthralled with it that you'd chop off your left arm to develop it :)

#78 Your right chris. And russell, you posted that messeage already. I'm pretty sure I'll have a driven passion to get our game done though.

#79 Sorry, not sure how that got posted again. I deleted the re-post.

Russell Fincher
Lead Artist | Co-owner
Sickhead Games

#80 Hey,
I'm colton's programmer, Alex
So, you guys think we should go ahead and do the racing game first? Cause I think I can do the RPG but colton is a little scepitcal about it.

Thanks