How do you get your game onto GarageGames?
by Tom Sullivan · in General Discussion · 08/22/2006 (2:19 pm) · 18 replies
Hi everyone, I was wondering how you were able to get your game onto:
GarageGames.com/Products/Game Store. I'm pretty sure your game has to be well made, because they are
only a handful of games displayed and for sale, when there are so many of us game developers. I was
wondering if anyone could tell me what was nessesary to display ones game and beable to sell it. And how
much was given to GarageGames and how much was kept.
Thanks alot, Tom S.
GarageGames.com/Products/Game Store. I'm pretty sure your game has to be well made, because they are
only a handful of games displayed and for sale, when there are so many of us game developers. I was
wondering if anyone could tell me what was nessesary to display ones game and beable to sell it. And how
much was given to GarageGames and how much was kept.
Thanks alot, Tom S.
#2
What exactly does GG consider a 'good enough game to publish', which I don't recall seeing mentioned on the Publishing Page.
What quality of game must it be?
Is it better to publish with another company?
Is it better to publish with multiple's, including GG?
08/23/2006 (6:00 pm)
I've got a similiar curious question related to Tom's ... more along the lines of;What exactly does GG consider a 'good enough game to publish', which I don't recall seeing mentioned on the Publishing Page.
What quality of game must it be?
Is it better to publish with another company?
Is it better to publish with multiple's, including GG?
#3
08/24/2006 (8:11 am)
I would imagine that GG's criteria is similar to most publishers. "Good enough" is subjective to a point, and yet if it is "fun" and "viral" enough to catch on, then they might deem it "good enough". Or not. You would have to pitch them the game and see what comes of it. Just like any other publisher.Quote:What quality of game must it be?Like most publishers, it must be a high-quality game. What "high quality" means depends on a million factors that are not set in stone.
Quote:Is it better to publish with another company?It depends on the company, the deal, and their distribution ratio. The answer may be an emphatic yes or an emphatic no. Or a "meh" in-between.
Quote:Is it better to publish with multiple's, including GG?It can be, though most any publisher will pay less if you are not exclusive.
#4
Jason
10/11/2006 (5:54 pm)
How long does it usually take Garage Games to review a submission? It states on the publishing page that GG will not individually respond to all emails submitting games. Due to the fact that there seems to be no "sorry but your game did not make the cut" email being sent to people that submitted games that failed to be accepted by GG I guess someone would just have to wait for some specified time to pass and if they haven't heard from GG by that time then they would assume their game was not accepted. I am trying to determine what that specified time is.Jason
#5
10/11/2006 (6:02 pm)
Yes, some information about the state of your submission would be great, so that, you know, can move on. If I make a business offer to a publisher who request such offers, I would at least expect some form of answer. "We are reviewing your submission" or "Sorry, we dont think it fits" or "We would like to discuss further". 
#6
The good news is - unless you have an overwhelming reason to go with an exclusive GG deal, there's no need to wait. You are an indie - BE INDEPENDENT! Release the game on your own site. See if any affiliates are interested! See if any other portals are interested! There's no reason to rely upon only one distribution channel for you to make your fortune.
As far as what GG will take as a game... well, I can't answer for them. But in general, the answer is, "What will sell well." Now figuring THAT out might take a bit of effort and experience... and then it's still more art than science. Also, in the past, GG has expressed a preference for games that are multiplatform (PC and Mac particularly, Linux a strong bonus), and an even greater preference for games made with Torque technology.
Beyond that, you'll have to talk to them.
10/11/2006 (7:17 pm)
Quote:How long does it usually take Garage Games to review a submission?It can take a long time. GG unfortunately hasn't really speedy in the past.
The good news is - unless you have an overwhelming reason to go with an exclusive GG deal, there's no need to wait. You are an indie - BE INDEPENDENT! Release the game on your own site. See if any affiliates are interested! See if any other portals are interested! There's no reason to rely upon only one distribution channel for you to make your fortune.
As far as what GG will take as a game... well, I can't answer for them. But in general, the answer is, "What will sell well." Now figuring THAT out might take a bit of effort and experience... and then it's still more art than science. Also, in the past, GG has expressed a preference for games that are multiplatform (PC and Mac particularly, Linux a strong bonus), and an even greater preference for games made with Torque technology.
Beyond that, you'll have to talk to them.
#7
Please download and play other games in our game store for a benchmark on the production quality we are looking for.
> Is it better to publish with another company?
There is NOBODY out there that cares about independents as much as GG.
> Is it better to publish with multiple's, including GG?
We don't usually do exclusives. See our publishing page FAQ linked above for details (thanks for the help David).
> How long does it usually take Garage Games to review a submission?
As noted it can sometimes take a while, we get more submissions than you would believe. We are working on a system that lets submitters know when they've been rejected, but stand by the practice of not sending those out for now. Send your self-made book/movie/game to any company and this is how it is.
> But in general, the answer is, "What will sell well."
High production quality & fun are two factors, but we're interested even in games that will not sell in huge numbers if they are interesting. We are willing to take risks that other publishers are not.
As a final note, get your game in front of us in more ways than just through the game submissions email! Blog your game, submit an IOTD, discuss what people think of your game in the forums. Cream rises to the top, and if your game is getting attention on our site, it will surely get our attention as well. The ideal situation is when WE come to YOU!
10/11/2006 (7:47 pm)
> What quality of game must it be?Please download and play other games in our game store for a benchmark on the production quality we are looking for.
> Is it better to publish with another company?
There is NOBODY out there that cares about independents as much as GG.
> Is it better to publish with multiple's, including GG?
We don't usually do exclusives. See our publishing page FAQ linked above for details (thanks for the help David).
> How long does it usually take Garage Games to review a submission?
As noted it can sometimes take a while, we get more submissions than you would believe. We are working on a system that lets submitters know when they've been rejected, but stand by the practice of not sending those out for now. Send your self-made book/movie/game to any company and this is how it is.
> But in general, the answer is, "What will sell well."
High production quality & fun are two factors, but we're interested even in games that will not sell in huge numbers if they are interesting. We are willing to take risks that other publishers are not.
As a final note, get your game in front of us in more ways than just through the game submissions email! Blog your game, submit an IOTD, discuss what people think of your game in the forums. Cream rises to the top, and if your game is getting attention on our site, it will surely get our attention as well. The ideal situation is when WE come to YOU!
#8
10/11/2006 (7:50 pm)
Ive been waiting a few weeks after emailing that publishing link, i guess that means i got rejected :( 
#9
This has never been a big part of the decision making process. We have always said we wanted games that are fun. And now we have even started accepting more experimental titles knowing full well they won't sell. Sometimes we have even published games that we didn't think would sell well because the developers behind the product were very active in the community.
We do not want exclusives unless we are working with the developer during the development process and it makes sense. GG does not want to be totally responsible for any developer's full revenue stream.
We simply do not have the time to respond to all submissions. That is stated in our FAQ, and is going to continue to be part of our process. Responding with a rejection opens us up to debate and we have no desire to debate our decisions.
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
Edit: Even if it has been a long time, we still may be contacting you. You have to imagine how much time it takes just to simply read the email, but then to download the demos, install them, and evaluate takes a lot of time.
10/11/2006 (10:32 pm)
@Jay: Quote:
"What will sell well."
This has never been a big part of the decision making process. We have always said we wanted games that are fun. And now we have even started accepting more experimental titles knowing full well they won't sell. Sometimes we have even published games that we didn't think would sell well because the developers behind the product were very active in the community.
We do not want exclusives unless we are working with the developer during the development process and it makes sense. GG does not want to be totally responsible for any developer's full revenue stream.
We simply do not have the time to respond to all submissions. That is stated in our FAQ, and is going to continue to be part of our process. Responding with a rejection opens us up to debate and we have no desire to debate our decisions.
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
Edit: Even if it has been a long time, we still may be contacting you. You have to imagine how much time it takes just to simply read the email, but then to download the demos, install them, and evaluate takes a lot of time.
#10
@Jeff & Joshua
"Send your self-made book/movie/game to any company and this is how it is."
Sending a rejection letter is a matter of courtesy... it doesnt mean you have to open your decision to debate. Ive been submitting author (written) material for a while now, and I do not know a single publisher that will not send a response to all submitee, including acceptance or rejection and the different reviewers comments. For about half of them there is no appeal. There is also *always* a deadline for receiving an answer.
It is not consistent to say you care for independants and then not even grace them with an answer. To quote your ads, *Are you serious about publishing games?*
I guess I will have no choice but to spend the money and open a eStore on my website, but it would make more sense to sell my TGE toolkit here.
10/12/2006 (6:02 am)
I can't say I like what Im hearing here...@Jeff & Joshua
"Send your self-made book/movie/game to any company and this is how it is."
Sending a rejection letter is a matter of courtesy... it doesnt mean you have to open your decision to debate. Ive been submitting author (written) material for a while now, and I do not know a single publisher that will not send a response to all submitee, including acceptance or rejection and the different reviewers comments. For about half of them there is no appeal. There is also *always* a deadline for receiving an answer.
It is not consistent to say you care for independants and then not even grace them with an answer. To quote your ads, *Are you serious about publishing games?*
I guess I will have no choice but to spend the money and open a eStore on my website, but it would make more sense to sell my TGE toolkit here.
#11
10/12/2006 (9:22 am)
What about free games? are the requirements or criteria different for distribution of free games on this site?
#12
There is a LOT going on at the Garage, a fraction of which is visible to the community (TGE 1.5, TATE, Constructor, etc). GG is itself an indie, like indies we do not have vast resources, but we are working hard and doing our best. I know that there are some people that will not understand this, but please try to, we are worth the effort. Please don't read between the lines and think it's because we don't care, nothing could be further from the truth.
@Sean, it'd be rare for us to publish a free game, but we have had two in the past; in any case, the requirements or criteria would not be different.
10/12/2006 (10:34 am)
We state upfront on our publishing page "We hope you can understand that due to the number of submissions we receive, we will not be able to reply individually to every email." We are honest about letting you know what to expect; we do not promise one thing then do another.There is a LOT going on at the Garage, a fraction of which is visible to the community (TGE 1.5, TATE, Constructor, etc). GG is itself an indie, like indies we do not have vast resources, but we are working hard and doing our best. I know that there are some people that will not understand this, but please try to, we are worth the effort. Please don't read between the lines and think it's because we don't care, nothing could be further from the truth.
@Sean, it'd be rare for us to publish a free game, but we have had two in the past; in any case, the requirements or criteria would not be different.
#13
Just how much time is "a while" ? Days, weeks, months?
Caring is important, but appearance of caring is even more.
10/12/2006 (10:44 am)
@Joshua, nobody accused GG of misleading, sorry if it sounded like that. We just say the current practice is a big problem. If its a big problem for your clients, then it should be a big problem for you. If at least we could have an official deadline. "Past this time, your product is rejected for publication". You dont have to reply individually to every email, just a template email would be fine too.Just how much time is "a while" ? Days, weeks, months?
Caring is important, but appearance of caring is even more.
#14
10/12/2006 (12:14 pm)
I appreciate the feedback. You felt the process was frustrating and we appreciate people sharing their feelings. Just please don't ramp up and say we don't care about indies when there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Common sense should dictate that if you haven't heard back from us in 45 days that we likely are not interested. Again, there are many ways to submit a game to us, including drawing attention to it through blogs, dev snapshots, forum discussions with other users. If you've got a seriously good game or tool we definitely want to know about it.
#15
In these days of spam filters, it is not a good idea to get too indignant when somebody does not reply to an email.
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
10/12/2006 (1:14 pm)
@Mathieu: We just got a re-ping of your submission in the email list. None of us have any record of the original submission. Your submission was something that we are every interested in. On another note, your submission was for a development tool, and that is something that we reply to every single request. You should get an email from Tim Aste asap.In these days of spam filters, it is not a good idea to get too indignant when somebody does not reply to an email.
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
#16
Thanks! Thats quite wierd, since I sent both from the same email address. I guess automated confirmation emails have a use after all, beside generating traffic :)
Im glad I re-contacted you then, I really hope this project is gonna take off.
@Joshua,
Thanks for giving everyone some kind of deadline. You would be surprised of how they can vary from publisher to publisher, and in various media (Ive seen from 3 days to 8 months).
10/12/2006 (1:34 pm)
@Jeff Thanks! Thats quite wierd, since I sent both from the same email address. I guess automated confirmation emails have a use after all, beside generating traffic :)
Im glad I re-contacted you then, I really hope this project is gonna take off.
@Joshua,
Thanks for giving everyone some kind of deadline. You would be surprised of how they can vary from publisher to publisher, and in various media (Ive seen from 3 days to 8 months).
#17
10/12/2006 (2:39 pm)
I don't know if this is what happened to yours, but there was a big email system switch a while ago at GG. Some emails didn't make it for a while (which made getting the intern housing keys my first day in Eugene kinda interesting) so maybe that's what happened.
#18
But since they said they don't do exclusives you have the pleasure of sending the idea to every portal you can think of while your waiting
11/13/2006 (8:20 am)
I would say it's better not to have a deadline, I know it sucks not to know for sure but there are downsides to deadlines. In order to make deadlines they might not be able to give a submission proper attention they might have to go off first appearance or even the description in order to save time. But since they said they don't do exclusives you have the pleasure of sending the idea to every portal you can think of while your waiting
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
Contact GG for more specific information as your project nears the end of its dev cycle.