Commercial Games

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:56 pm

Out of curiosity, has there ever been a commercial OHR game made? From what I've seen so far though, selling games doesn't quite seem to be in the spirit of the community, though I could be wrong.

I have no intention of selling Legacy or any other game I make for that matter. Even if I wanted to sell Legacy, I wouldn't be able to because of some of the music I've used. Despite not really interested in making money from making games, the idea of a commercial OHR game piqued my interest. I can see how it wouldn't really be marketable, considering retro games such as what the OHR is capable of aren't really as popular as they once were. Also, it's a very niche community/audience, so it's hard to see who would buy it.

All that notwithstanding though, what would it take to make a successful <edit>commercial</edit> OHR game if there hasn't been one already? Just a random thought.

Master K · Post by **Master K** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:27 pm

If you want to see successful games, then play Spellshard or something like that. Spellshard, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the best OHR games available.

All that notwithstanding though, what would it take to make a successful OHR game if there hasn't been one already? Just a random thought.

Three things.

1. Story
2. Graphics
3 Features

Allow me to explain. These three things are the core of a game. The story is what drives the game, the graphics are what make up the game dimension (There are exceptions) and features can add a unique touch to seperate the game from other OHR RPG's. You can put emphasis on some or the other, but the general consensus is these three things. You can make an amazing story and not have graphics, but you can't have graphics without a story. Features are unnecessary, but if you can make them/want them, by all means, go ahead. I added some features like a day/night system to Illusions to try and make it more unique and interesting. Graphics is highly varied. You can either shoot for a retro eight bit theme, but if you can make them more...um, better, for lack of a better word, then by all means, try.

And then theres the three things you need to have yourself.

1. Patience
2. Dedication
3. Creativity

You need patience to be able to work on a game. You're probably going to be doing remedial tasks over and over again to build games. Map out maps. Build dialogue. Script. You also need dedication to be able to stay with your game and not jump to another game within a flash, like I do. You also need creativity! RPG's built on cliches don't look the best. Be creative! Come up with unique plots, enemies, ect...

So there you have it, my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt if you wish.

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:06 pm

Ah, crikey, I should have specified that I meant successful <b>commercial</b> game. Editing my post now.

Aye, I've played Spellshard, and it is indeed amazing. I'm curious though, if the community is able to produce games like that, why haven't there haven't been commercial games thus far? Like I said before though, selling games doesn't quite seem to be in the spirit of the community, but surely someone out there in Internetland would be able to whip up a quality commercial game.

Hehe, I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this train of thought. Perhaps I should just go to sleep

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:42 pm

There's two games that always come up with this topic. The first is Fat Frog, which some guy (Possibly named Fat Frog) tried to sell for five dollars a pop back in ye olden days. I think somebody bought a copy as a laugh and I think someone else bought a copy and pirated it around to everyone else, but it was a little before my time. I'm probably getting mixed up.

I also know that Charbile and Fyre tried to sell Sword of Jade: Parallel Dreams, but I don't know how succesful they were. Someone in IRC thought they'd made about 50 bucks, but it could be much more or less than that. Still, for 5+ years work, that's barely any money at all.

I don't believe anyone's been what you would call commercially viable, though I think that's more an issue of audience than a reflection of OHR Game quality. The kind of people who hang around here know about making games, and aren't as interested in paying for stuff they could've made themselves.

Idiots outside of the community would probably be more than happy to pay a little bit here or there for some of the stuff we've made. Can't be worse than some of the stuff on Steam, in various App Stores, etc. Just gotta get yourself out there.

Fenrir-Lunaris · Post by **Fenrir-Lunaris** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:47 pm

I wouldn't know about SELLING games, but having people contribute money to help offset the time spent developing your game is absolutely a viable option. Vikings has made about $300 in donations to help offset the time I've had to spend making tiles and busting through to finally finishing it (which reminds me, I haven't finished it yet). And that game that was made for the "Gentlemen's Contest"? ~$2500. Which is.. pretty impressive actually!

The long story short is that I haven't YET sold one of my games, though I have taken donations for them. It's probably in good taste that if you take donations, you have some sort of "thank you" in your game, whether it be an NPC or even an entire sidequest as a shout-out to your benefactors. And of course, the best thanks you can give is to make sure your game receives the best effort you can!

Also just throwing this out there, but James should totally get the ball rolling on Wandering Hamster again and distribute it via Steam.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:16 pm

Haha! I should, but I am terrible :)

I am eager to see the first OHR game make it onto steam. I can't see any technical reason why it wouldn't be possible.

Unfortunately, when the reject a submission, they rarely provide any useful information about why. Sometimes they silently ignore rejected submissions, other times they give extremely short vague rejection letters.

Still, I am sure somebody could succeed.

I have a hunch that a lack of mouse support is probably an obstacle... although I am sure there are plenty of keyboard-only games in steam already, I guess?

Speaking of steam, does anybody know how to get into the Linux beta?

Post by **TMC** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:26 pm

Mouse support shouldn't be a problem, as I hear James is adding that soon.

For installing Steam without being in the Beta, read this (I haven't tired it): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4750629

Minnek · Post by **Minnek** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:38 pm

Cladun X2 is on Steam and has very limited mouse support. Same for Binding of Isaac. I could see the OHR making it on there at least as easily as the Flash games do. That'd be neat!

Mystic · Post by **Mystic** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:02 pm

Someone with a complete game should stick it up on Greenlight and see what happens.

Post by **Mogri** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:25 am

Motrya is on Greenlight (despite not currently being finished). There's an enormous barrier to entry there, though. GOG or something might be a better venue for an OHR game.

jcenterprises · Post by **jcenterprises** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:44 am

If anyone here did successfully sell any indie game, I'm curious as to what legal fees and obstacles they had to go through to do it. Did you have to pay for any business licenses or anything, or were you free to just post it on Desura or anywhere else anytime you wanted?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:55 am

jcenterprises wrote:If anyone here did successfully sell any indie game, I'm curious as to what legal fees and obstacles they had to go through to do it. Did you have to pay for any business licenses or anything, or were you free to just post it on Desura or anywhere else anytime you wanted?

I believe you're free to just submit your game to Desura, but I'm not sure if there are any fees incurred from the sale of it. I know with Steam you have to pay a $100 fee just to get into Greenlight, and then they take a percentage from sales.

jcenterprises · Post by **jcenterprises** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:00 am

I meant legal-wise, like fees from the state, which is Texas in my case.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:12 pm

Way back when my cousin and I sold the Games of the Hamster Republic CD, the only legal fee I remember paying was the Fictitious Business Name.

Basically, it gave us the right to put the copyright in the name of "Hamster Republic Productions" instead of "Brian Fisher & James Paige"

After a few years, the FBN expired, and rather than renew it, I just started copyrighting things under my own name. I can still use the "Hamster Republic Productions" name everywhere other than the copyright notice, or sometimes I write it as "(C) Copyright James Paige & Hamster Republic Productions"