Dave Gilbert’s gamedev blog

Phew! Finishing this game took a heck of a lot out of me. After four months of development hell, I finally feel like I can breathe. I’ve spent the last several days holed up in my apartment, catching up on sleep and playing the new Zelda game for the Gamecube. It’s the first video game I’ve seriously played in years, and I’ve been enjoying every unproductive second of it.

Anyway, I have received a number of requests asking how Blackwell and Shivah are doing, sales-wise. Obviously, I don’t feel comfortable giving out specific information or data, but I do feel a post-mortem is in order. This whole “going commercial” thing has been a continuous learning process for me, and I think people could learn from my mistakes. Oh yes, I have made a few key mistakes/bad choices along the way. And now, you lucky people, you get to discover what they are.

It’s too early to talk about Blackwell yet, but for now, let’s use Shivah as an example:

What Dave Did Wrong #1 – Originally releasing it for free.

This wasn’t a “mistake” per se, as I originally didn’t intend for this game to be sold. However, it was definitely a factor. With the free version out there, many people didn’t see the point of purchasing the game. That was the main reason why I decided to remove the freeware version from my website to begin with. This annoyed some people, but it was a vocal minority that soon quieted down.

However, the damage was done. While the game was freeware, it got mentioned on boingboing and got linked to over a hundred jewish blogs that sent thousands of people to my site. Over 20,000 people had downloaded the game during the 2 months it was freeware. That’s 20,000 potential people who could have BOUGHT the game. Even at the usual 1%-5% conversion rate, that’s a lot of dough.

Even though the commercial version is much better than the freeware one, many of the previous players didn’t see the point in buying the game when they’d already played it for free. The AGS community had played the game for free, and a whole chunk of the Jewish blog scene had played the game for free. Those were my two biggest markets, and so I had to start ALL OVER. It was tough going, and I eventually found a bigger audience that didn’t even know the game was free to begin with, but it goes without saying that I would have been much better off had I not released the game for free in the first place.

What Dave Did Wrong #2 – The low price.

Since the game was originally freeware, I didn’t feel like I could charge a whole lot. However, I think I might have gone too low. Yeah, $4.99 seems like a bargain, but it soon got the reputation of being a “cheap” game. Many people compared the game to being worth the price of a sandwich, or a pack of smokes, and that definitely effects peoples’ perception of the product. Personally, I still grimace when people referred to the game as “cheap”. It’s a natural perception. If you see that something that is priced cheaply, you naturally think of it as a cheap product. If it’s being sold for higher, you tend to take more notice.

Also, at so low a price, it was high-nigh impossible to make any kind of money from it. Shivah got more publicity than I could have hoped for, but even still it was impossible to generate any kind of living from it. I used it to pay for my groceries every month, and the occasional night out, but that’s about all.

So, enough of the mistakes. These weren’t total show-stoppers, by any means. In some respects, they introduced my games to a wider audience who wouldn’t have heard of them otherwise. So they could be conceived of as blessings in disguise. Anyway, to balance things off, here’s what I did right:

What Dave Did Right #1 – Having savings

Many of you have asked me if you could make a living from this. Well, I can’t answer that yet. I’ve been at this since May and I haven’t earned enough to make a living from it yet. Growing any business takes a loooong time, and if you’re going to go for it you need to have some seed money to start with. Me, I was lucky. I spent a year working in Asia, getting a monthly salary and getting rent money on my apartment in NYC. My expenses in Asia were very small, so when I returned home I had a healthy amount of money left over. This was sufficient padding to avoid getting a “day job” and concentrate on game-making full time. I managed to stretch my savings out for nine months, and it’s just about worn down to the bone. I’ve got enough profit from my games now to be back in the black, and hopefully that trend will continue.

Suffice to say, if you want to go at this full time, make sure you have something to fall back on.

What Dave Did Right #2 – meeting people in the industry

News flash: you can’t do it alone. I learned this very quick. There’s only so far you can go while sitting at your computer chatting with people on the internet. You have to get out there and meet people in the industry. Go to events, hand out cards, talk to people, network, etc. This has helped me out to no end. I joined the New York chapter of the IGDA (Independent Game Developer’s Association) and it goes without saying that if it wasn’t for the IGDA, I would not be where I am. You need people to get advice from, to chat with about your projects, and to cheer you on if you are successful. Having a “game developer” life OUTSIDE of the internet makes it more real, more substantial, and more inspiring.

It’s been a crazy, exausting, nerve-wrecking year, but seeing my stuff out there – and getting NOTICED – makes it all worth it. If you’re seriously considering doing this for a living, remember that it’s a ton of work with very little financial reward, at least in the short term. I plan on riding this train as far as it’ll take me, and I’m happy to share whatever experiences and advice I can.