Marketing ideas?

[bladeofluigi]

 I suggest this game be entered in independent game contests... you qualify as you are not of a major company. Some have even won 20,000$ from them... this could benefit you in marketing your game, or even advertising it. Although it costs 95$ to participate, it advertises the game itself giving games more attention. Also, Amazon hosts digital downloads and sells online games better than anywhere else. I also recommend trying to get it sold on steam. Has this been considered?

Also, I know it'd be hard, but translating the language extends the amount of buyers.

sources:

http://www.igf.com/03submit.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff.html

[CraigStern]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I've thought about submitting TSoG to the IGF before, but $95 is not a trivial amount of money to me at the moment, and I'm not particularly confident that it will end up a finalist. The number of games submitted to the IGF increases every year, with--I think--last year's draw being somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 games. That's a lot of competition for comparatively few spots.

As for Amazon, Direct2Drive, Impulse, Steam--those are all places I intend to sell TSoG, if I can convince them to feature the game. (Steam, especially, is incredibly difficult to get a game onto.)

[bladeofluigi]

 Well, I personally think you can be a finalist because your game is a strategy rpg with a deep storyline, wheras most indie games are silly puzzle games...

And I forgot to mention something that should definitely help capitalize your game: licensing the engine.

If you require the engine be advertised at the beginning of the game, indie developers and players will try to pay you for your game engine to create their own games. It should really help you in getting money.

I think your using flash right? Well, most engines go free, but you can license our engine out to other developers for money and stuff:

source: http://www.flashrealtime.com/flash-game-library-engine-list/

Also, consider releasing a demo on Kongregate and Newgrounds and other sites so that more ppl find out about it. Personally I think your game is underrated, but the main reason that is is because not enough ppl hear about it.

[Ertxiem]

Some time ago (perhaps when TSoG was still called TRPG3) weren't you, Craig, considering put a browser based beta version available on sites like Newgrounds and Kongregate? Or was that a suggestion made by someone on the old forums?

[CraigStern]

I believe I was considering that. It's still a possibility, but if I go that route, it won't be until I'm closer to release of the finished game.

[bugfartboy]

Smart. Don't want people on good 'ole Kong complaining about how they bought a game when it wasn't even finished yet, and has more bugs than the corner of my non-existent cellar.

[ArtDrake]

Oh, its doesn't have that many. Do you plan to sell via CD-ROMs as well as downloads, ever?

[bladeofluigi]

To be honest, I wanted to buy Telepath RPG 2 complete edition, but I didn't have a credit card then, and my parents didn't trust the internet with their credit cards. Now that I do have a card, I've read online how paypal should not be trusted. I've limited my purchases, and only buy from Amazon right now (will buy from steam and D2D sooner or later though, when I get around to it...)

Anyway, you might want to do some money by mail too.

[bugfartboy]

Have you looked at the page that you can actually buy it from? You can.

[CraigStern]

BMT Micro, the service I sell my games through, is extremely trustworthy. The majority of indie game devs use them.

You can order any game through BMT Micro service as a pure download, or you can have them mail it to you on a CD. (There's an extra charge for the CD versions, since BMT Micro creates the CDs themselves.)

Also, if I recall, BMT Micro actually allows you to pay them in cash.

[bladeofluigi]

BMT Micro, the service I sell my games through, is extremely trustworthy. The majority of indie game devs use them.

You can order any game through BMT Micro service as a pure download, or you can have them mail it to you on a CD. (There's an extra charge for the CD versions, since BMT Micro creates the CDs themselves.)

Also, if I recall, BMT Micro actually allows you to pay them in cash.

Can we expect to dl telepath 2 full on amazon?

[CraigStern]

The Sinister Design version of TRPG2 is going to remain free to play on the website. I do not intend to release a downloadable version of it.