Novice Shareware programmer needs help.
jeff vogel
Mac. It is about half done, it looks quite good, and I already have playtesters
lined up. Since it looks like it's going to happen, I'm starting to look
real hard at the marketing end, and I could really use some feedback.
1. Cost - Been bouncing between $20 and $25 dollars for a while, but I'm
looking pretty hard at $20. That seems pretty average.
2. Registration incentives - This has been the hardest one. The big question -
cripple or not. I am strongly tempted to not let characters get above a
certain (reasonably high) level in unregistered software. However, I keep
reading how uncrippled software gets more registrations. But then I read
that games are an exception to this, and should probably be hobbled in
some way.
I already have positive incentives for registration: hard copy of the
manual, and a hint booklet. There will be very modest and passable nag
screens. What have people's experiences have been with regards to hobbling
games?
There is one possible advantage I can see to not crippling...
3. The ASP - I am looking at joining, and would much appreciate it if
someone could E-mail me info. The main advantage I see in joining is
that it would be a help in distribution. I could really use the lists of
BBS's to send my game to. But the question is, if there is a benefit from
crippling my software, would it be sufficient to offset the advantages
I may get by joining? Speaking of which...
4. Distribution - Suppose I have a lists of BBS's. Or suppose I want to get
my game on Compuserve, or AOL. How do I do it? Snail mail a copy on disk?
5. Taxes - Is it ordinary income, or do special forms need to be filed?
Obviously, I have a lot of questions. I'm ready to put serious
work into the marketing end - I think this game will be very good, and I
don't want the effort to go to waste. I've been reading a book on marketing
shareware (forget the name, something like Making and Marketing Shareware,
2nd Edition), but it says little about games in specific, and doesn't
answer several of my questions. Any help anyone can give would be greatly
appreciated.
- Jeff Vogel
Novice Shareware Programmer
ANOTHER CO
vogel) has several questions about marketing a shareware game he is
creating:
Hi Jeff,
Don't cripple! If sysops and shareware distributors find out that
your game is crippled, they will often drop it from their collection.
Now, I must admit I am not experienced with the Mac end of the
shareware market, and I've only done 1 game (but 39 other shareware
products), but I have some ideas:
1. Keep track of your income and expenses from your shareware. Chances
are, especially if you do not currently have another home business, that
in your first year, you can actually pay less taxes than you would have
otherwise, even if you make a profit. This is because you can deduct the
expense of driving to the post office, the portion of your home used as
your office, phone bills, the cost of new computers, printers, etc. The
difference is more than the cost of hiring an accountant to figure it out!
2. Computer Shopper publishes a large list of BBSs every other month (or
at least they used to). You can buy this at a supermarket for $2.95, and
save yourself the cost of ASP.
3. To submit to any BBS, including CIS and AOL, simply upload your
program in Zipped or self-extracting format.
4. There are now several books which will help with marketing shareware.
They are worth far more than their cost, in improved profits. Make sure
you read one or two before you release your product. There are changes
you'll want to make, to get it just right. One such book is disk-based
(runs on IBM-compatibles, but you could view the text files on it with a
Mac) called "Success With Shareware." It sells for $29.95 including
postage to anywhere in the world. If you (or anyone reading this post)
want a copy, e-mail me for details, or you can phone me at 503-482-3611.
- Jeff Napier, d.b.a. Another Company -
Barry Diller
..
>1. Cost - Been bouncing between $20 and $25 dollars for a while, but I'm
>looking pretty hard at $20. That seems pretty average.
>
>2. Registration incentives - This has been the hardest one. The big question -
>cripple or not. I am strongly tempted to not let characters get above a
>certain (reasonably high) level in unregistered software. However, I keep
>reading how uncrippled software gets more registrations. But then I read
>that games are an exception to this, and should probably be hobbled in
>some way.
> I already have positive incentives for registration: hard copy of the
>manual, and a hint booklet. There will be very modest and passable nag
>screens. What have people's experiences have been with regards to hobbling
>games?
> There is one possible advantage I can see to not crippling...
>
>3. The ASP - I am looking at joining, and would much appreciate it if
>someone could E-mail me info. The main advantage I see in joining is
>that it would be a help in distribution. I could really use the lists of
>BBS's to send my game to. But the question is, if there is a benefit from
>crippling my software, would it be sufficient to offset the advantages
>I may get by joining? Speaking of which...
>
>4. Distribution - Suppose I have a lists of BBS's. Or suppose I want to get
>my game on Compuserve, or AOL. How do I do it? Snail mail a copy on disk?
>
>5. Taxes - Is it ordinary income, or do special forms need to be filed?
>
> - Jeff Vogel
> Novice Shareware Programmer
Wow. I could have written this, as these are the same questions I have.
I have two different software packages almost ready for release. I feel
that I have the technical aspects of my programs well in hand, but the
marketing aspects are killing me. Here's my take on Jeff's questions:
1. One of my programs has been around for a while, and my friends and
co-workers like it, so I have decided to add some new features to it
and release it. The program is a multi-threaded 32-bit OS/2 application,
which sort of limits the competition it'll face, but there are Windows
applications that do basically the same function for $50 and up. So, what
do I charge for my program? I'm thinking of $20, but maybe I'm too
conservative?
2. Same questions. I'll probably add a small nag, but I haven't decided
how to let the registered users avoid it. Do I create two programs, one
'unregistered' with the nag and one 'registered' without the nag, or do
I use a registration password to disable the nag? If I use the password
scheme for registration, do I really need to ship a diskette to users who
register?
3. Same questions. I have a CIS account, but I don't use it that much. I'm
not sure how much help ASP membership will be if I hardly ever use their
CIS forum.
4. Same questions.
5. Same question. Also, I can track my expenses, such as blank diskettes,
blank labels, envelopes, etc., pretty easy, but how do I calculate the
'expense' of my 3-year old computer, the hundreds of hours I spent working
on my programs, and so forth when I calculate my (ha ha) profits?
Other questions I have:
6. I have created limited warranty and license agreement statements based
on those I've seen in other shareware products. Is there a 'standard'
form for these anywhere?
7. How can I be reasonably sure that the names I choose for my programs
(and my company) won't infringe on anyone else? Nonsense names may help
protect me from legal action, but they might also cause potential users to
overlook my product.
8. Credit cards! I may use a clearinghouse to handle credit card orders by
phone, but I would still have to handle credit card orders by mail. I
suspect that I won't have an easy time getting my credit union to let me
handle credit card orders, and, even then, surcharges may kill me. Ugh.
9. A company has begun talking with me about a site license for my program.
What are some good rules of thumb for such licenses? Do I base the cost on
the maximum number of possible users times some percentage, or do I base it
on the average number of users, or what?
|| Barry R. Diller
|| Mail: brdi...@nuchat.sccsi.com
Chris Marriott
jvo...@math.rutgers.edu "jeff vogel" writes:
> I am currently writing a shareware fantasy role-playing game for the
>Mac. It is about half done, it looks quite good, and I already have playtesters
>lined up. Since it looks like it's going to happen, I'm starting to look
>real hard at the marketing end, and I could really use some feedback.
>
>1. Cost - Been bouncing between $20 and $25 dollars for a while, but I'm
>looking pretty hard at $20. That seems pretty average.
If your game is good (and I'm sure it is) is that really enough? How
much *profit* are you going to make on that $20, especially if you're
having to print a manual and a help booklet? Increasing the price will
probably not lower registrations (provided the price is under the cost of
commercial software, of course) and will obviously increase your income.
I'd think about $30 or even $40 if I were you. My own software goes for
between $40 and $80, depending on what options the user requests.
>2. Registration incentives - This has been the hardest one. The big question -
>cripple or not. I am strongly tempted to not let characters get above a
>certain (reasonably high) level in unregistered software. However, I keep
>reading how uncrippled software gets more registrations. But then I read
>that games are an exception to this, and should probably be hobbled in
>some way.
Games are a fairly unique type of software in that they do not, on the
whole, have a long useful life. People tend to play a game for a few
days or a few weeks, and then go on to something else. Compare this to
a word processor or a spreadsheet which will probably be used for years.
This means that unrestricted games do not, by and large, get registered.
You need incentives!
> I already have positive incentives for registration: hard copy of the
>manual, and a hint booklet. There will be very modest and passable nag
>screens. What have people's experiences have been with regards to hobbling
>games?
> There is one possible advantage I can see to not crippling...
>
>3. The ASP - I am looking at joining, and would much appreciate it if
>someone could E-mail me info. The main advantage I see in joining is
>that it would be a help in distribution. I could really use the lists of
>BBS's to send my game to. But the question is, if there is a benefit from
>crippling my software, would it be sufficient to offset the advantages
>I may get by joining? Speaking of which...
You seem to be under the impression that ASP membership means that you
can't "cripple" your software. Nothing could be further from the truth!
There are vast numbers of registration incentives which are perfectly OK
with the ASP. One popular registration incentive for games is to provide
extra levels with the registered version. This particular incentive,
popularly called "more of the same", is very commonly used for games and
can work very well.
The only thing you aren't allowed to do if you're an ASP member is to
withhold or disable features in the shareware version of a program - eg
you can't have a word processor which will only print 1 page, or a database
which will only store 5 records. When it boils down to it, though, whether or
not a particular program's registration incentives are acceptable or not
is decided on a case-by-case basis by the "author compliance committee".
>4. Distribution - Suppose I have a lists of BBS's. Or suppose I want to get
>my game on Compuserve, or AOL. How do I do it? Snail mail a copy on disk?
You don't mail software on disk unless you have a lot of money that you
particularly want to waste :-) Distribution is one *major* benefit of ASP
membership - the ASP CD-ROM gets distributed to hundreds of BBSs and disk
vendors all over the world. You also really need a CompuServe account - it's
my best single source of registrations, and will hugely more than pay for
itself!
>5. Taxes - Is it ordinary income, or do special forms need to be filed?
Shareware income is just income, like any other income. What you need to
do wrt taxes obviously depends what country you live in. Here in the UK
you pay income tax on it exactly like any other form of earned income.
> Obviously, I have a lot of questions. I'm ready to put serious
>work into the marketing end - I think this game will be very good, and I
>don't want the effort to go to waste. I've been reading a book on marketing
>shareware (forget the name, something like Making and Marketing Shareware,
>2nd Edition), but it says little about games in specific, and doesn't
>answer several of my questions. Any help anyone can give would be greatly
>appreciated.
Hope this information is of some interest to you. Good luck with the
software!
Chris
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Chris Marriott, Warrington, UK | Author of SkyMap v2 shareware |
| ch...@chrism.demon.co.uk | astronomy program for Windows. |
| Author member of Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith MacDonald
: Games are a fairly unique type of software in that they do not, on the
: whole, have a long useful life. People tend to play a game for a few
: days or a few weeks, and then go on to something else. Compare this to
: a word processor or a spreadsheet which will probably be used for years.
: This means that unrestricted games do not, by and large, get registered.
: You need incentives!
:The only thing you aren't allowed to do if you're an ASP member is to
:withhold or disable features in the shareware version of a program - eg
:you can't have a word processor which will only print 1 page, or a database
:which will only store 5 records. When it boils down to it, though, whether or
:not a particular program's registration incentives are acceptable or not
:is decided on a case-by-case basis by the "author compliance committee".
Is there really a difference in the above example? Printing all pages
v. only one page doesn't seem like a *feature* of a program to me. I would
consider (using the word processor example) search & replace a *feature*,
which I personally wouldn't disable for unregistered shareware because the
user does not have the opportunity to try out all aspects of the program.
I would have no problem limiting the # pages printed to 2 (this way the
user can see how page breaks, headers(not appearing on first page)... are
handled by the program.)
: You don't mail software on disk unless you have a lot of money that you
: particularly want to waste :-) Distribution is one *major* benefit of ASP
: membership - the ASP CD-ROM gets distributed to hundreds of BBSs and disk
: vendors all over the world. You also really need a CompuServe account - it's
: my best single source of registrations, and will hugely more than pay for
: itself!
An honest question - for the original poster (jvo...@math.rutgers.edu) and
myself who are writing Macintosh programs, is the ASP-CDROM of any use to
us? Is it sent to any Macintosh BBSs? If it has not yet been done: would the
ASP be prepared to add a Macintosh category/directory to the CD-ROM and
newsletter(for platform dependant issues)?
: Chris
: --
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
: | Chris Marriott, Warrington, UK | Author of SkyMap v2 shareware |
: | ch...@chrism.demon.co.uk | astronomy program for Windows. |
: | Author member of Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) |
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheers,
Keith
______________________________________________________________________
Keith MacDonald Computer Engineering
Concordia University
ikb_...@ECE.concordia.ca Montreal, QC, Canada
home page http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~ikb_macd/addr.html
Felinoid the Cat Mage
: In article <34mdu5$d...@math.rutgers.edu>, jvo...@math.rutgers.edu (jeff
: vogel) has several questions about marketing a shareware game he is
: creating:
: Hi Jeff,
: Don't cripple! If sysops and shareware distributors find out that
: your game is crippled, they will often drop it from their collection.
I hate to counter you especaly with that nifty sales pitch at the end...
Most On-Line games are cripled.... examples are TradeWars 2002
but not TradeWar 2, The Pit, Operation Overkill, LORD....
Note that TradeWar 2 has not been updated in a few years and is not
cripled... the origanl TradeWar was also not cripled and the auther
of TradeWars 2 reports the auther of TradeWar dumped the sorce code on him
for lack of return... No one regestured tradewar... TradeWars 2002 is a
copy of the origanl and while cripled it is one of the most populer on-line
games I know of...
The Pit is also cripled... and very popluer.. I have many on-line
games on my BBS alone and all of the populer ones are cripled in some
way... The Nagware and compleatly clean shareware don't get regestured
and is very unpopluer even Public domian and fully functioning bata tests
are not disributed or wanted... just cripled on-line games...
Yes many Sysops will not distrubute CripleWare... but if
the primary motive is regesturations... and most people will not
regesture non-cripleware... I have no choice...
I regret having to criple but it's eather that or nothing... and so
far I have been getting nothing.....
Jeff
Richard G. Harper
UUENCODE and mail out hundreds of copies for obvious reasons...
<G>
Send EMail to 72050...@compuserve.com and ask for the Author
Application Kit - be sure to enclose a return address for us to
mail it to!
Regarding taxes - better check with your local Chamber of
Commerce or some other such authority. Local and state laws vary
from place to place on this issue.
To cripple or not - let's see what the opinions of others are...
--
-----
"Will program for coffee - EMail for details."
Richard G. Harper CIS 76670,110
Internet rgha...@rghsoft.win.net