Distributing a commercial game?

[Zenithal]

As the title suggests, I have a question relating to releasing commercial games. I'm not sure whether this is the right part of the forum for it, but this seemed like the 'most right' place to me. I'd also like to apologise in case there already is a thread related to this, I looked around a bit, but couldn't find any...

Anyway, what I'd like to know is basically how I would go about releasing a game commercially. Obviously, I would need something like a PayPal account. This is no problem in itself, but should I use my personal PayPal? Should I make a new PayPal account as a company? Do I actually have to create a company, or can I simply think up a name, and then write that the game is copyrighted to that company, even though it doesn't really exist? Are there any important legal issues with it that I should be aware of?

I'm currently still far away from anything that could even be considered for commercial release, but I'd still like to get these questions answered. I like to be informed, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to find too much on this anywhere else.

So thanks in advance if any of you could help me out here. In case you need clarification, here's a summary of what I'm actually asking:

What do I need to do/prepare, before I can actually sell a game (A VN, more specifically) on the internet?

[Rosstin2]

Good question! I'm curious as well. Most people to my knowledge use BMT Micro to sell, although I can't say I know what that entails.

[Allegra Hughes]

I too am very interested in what to do when you don't have an official company. As a labeled name looks a lot better then saying "A Sakura Hughes Production"

Love to hear these thoughts!

[jack_norton]

Don't have much time but:
1) you use a vendor like BMT or Fastspring or Humble Widget (they won't accept anyone though).
2) you setup the various product, and then put the links to your site. Check my site to see how it works if you want
3) monthly or when you decide they pay you by paypal/wire/ach etc

is better to use a vendor because they handle fraud, refunds, some support etc. Also affiliates, which are very important for people that are just starting out.

[Zenithal]

Thanks for your replies!

I had a look at the vendors (I wasn't aware these type of services even existed), and they do seem ideal for this kind of thing. Though Fastspring seems to require you having an actual company, BMT Micro doesn't have this limitation. It should definitely be able to handle anything I might plan in the immediate future.

And I'm guessing that I wouldn't be able to get any real information on how to start my own company (should I decide I want to do that) here? After all, I doubt any of you know how that works in my country. Never mind.

Anyway, does anyone else have different/more information on this? I'd like to get an answer from a few more people, I like being well-informed.

[Vin Howard]

On a side note, it's always a major plus to get your game on Steam considering how millions of millions of people use it. I'm not sure how you would go about doing that, but Valve is moving to make steam a more open system, and I think I've heard them talking about making selling games of Steam completely open (they even mentioned allowing people to have "storefronts")

[vividXP]

I've heard good things about itch.io. It's free too and currently you get all the profit from your sales (apparently it's usually 10%). But of course, if you use paypal or other services to receive funds, they still get a cut.

WRT Steam, it's not that easy to get on, so maybe Desura can be an alternative? Not entirely sure how their approval process works, but it could be worth a shot.

[Vin Howard]

I've heard good things about itch.io. It's free too and currently you get all the profit from your sales (apparently it's usually 10%). But of course, if you use paypal or other services to receive funds, they still get a cut.

WRT Steam, it's not that easy to get on, so maybe Desura can be an alternative? Not entirely sure how their approval process works, but it could be worth a shot.

Yah, riding the indie wave will do you wonders.

[papillon]

The other benefit to using BMT Micro is that the majority of us already selling VNs are using it and making use of the 'affiliate' system, so if you set your game up for that, those of us who already have sites will be able to list your game for our existing audiences in exchange for a cut of profits, which can be helpful if you're just starting up and don't know how to do any marketing to get people interested. Of course, this only works if your product is a good match for the existing site audiences. Games do not sell equally well on different sites!

Trying to get onto Steam at the moment requires dealing with Greenlight, which will cost you a little bit of upfront money and a good bit of marketing time (you'll need several thousand votes to get in under the current system). It is probably better to hold off until you have a little experience dealing with publicity management so that you can make an effective push.

[Rosstin2]

The other benefit to using BMT Micro is that the majority of us already selling VNs are using it and making use of the 'affiliate' system, so if you set your game up for that, those of us who already have sites will be able to list your game for our existing audiences in exchange for a cut of profits, which can be helpful if you're just starting up and don't know how to do any marketing to get people interested. Of course, this only works if your product is a good match for the existing site audiences. Games do not sell equally well on different sites!

Trying to get onto Steam at the moment requires dealing with Greenlight, which will cost you a little bit of upfront money and a good bit of marketing time (you'll need several thousand votes to get in under the current system). It is probably better to hold off until you have a little experience dealing with publicity management so that you can make an effective push.

Listen to Papillon, she knows all.

[Steamgirl]

Out of curiosity... do BMT Micro sort out the bit that you need to add into your ren'py game to activate the full version or did you (Papillon, Jack) write something for this yourself or is there some standard code somewhere?

[jack_norton]

What most people use is "fullversion download", and that's rather easy to setup, you just upload the full game, and keep the demo on your site.
I prefer serial/activation (which I custom-coded myself but with python is rather easy) because once you start to be a bit popular, the amount of support is too much - people constantly losing the emails with the download links, and then they'll ask you and you have to resend them the link. In the end too much support for my tastes

[Vin Howard]

Trying to get onto Steam at the moment requires dealing with Greenlight, which will cost you a little bit of upfront money and a good bit of marketing time (you'll need several thousand votes to get in under the current system). It is probably better to hold off until you have a little experience dealing with publicity management so that you can make an effective push.

I was under the impression that you could still circumnavigate greenlight (although I would have no idea how you would do this).


And no idea how much longer greenlight will even be around: "Our goal is to make Greenlight go away. Not because it's not useful, but because we're evolving." - Gabe Newell

[papillon]

Sure, there are ways around greenlight, like winning certain major industry awards, signing with a major publisher, or having one of a very small number of important people at Valve really, really, really like your game. Are these practical things that anyone making a VN should be counting on as part of their gameplan? NO.

But yes, that's why I said 'at the moment'. It's expected that Greenlight will go away eventually, but no one knows when or how the system will work after that point.

[Steamgirl]

What most people use is "fullversion download", and that's rather easy to setup, you just upload the full game, and keep the demo on your site.
I prefer serial/activation (which I custom-coded myself but with python is rather easy) because once you start to be a bit popular, the amount of support is too much - people constantly losing the emails with the download links, and then they'll ask you and you have to resend them the link. In the end too much support for my tastes

Yeah I like the way you do your games, where you don't need to redownload the game or anything and can carry on from the last savegame. If I ever made a commercial project that's the approach I'd ideally use - though I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to start with python!