Adventure Game Market - Can you sell these games?

[pddavenp]

Hi,
I am new to the forum here and to AGS and I searched through the forum and found some related topics, but not the exact answer I am looking for.

My questions are:

1. I guess the Adventure Game genre is somewhat passe now for gamers, but how much of a market is there now for Adventure Games?  Seems like there is still quite an interest here on this forum and other websites.

2. Are folks actually selling games and doing ok with the sales?  Are there commercial companies using AGS for game development?

Thanks!

[MrColossal]

Hello,
You.

[AGA]

How,
doyoudo?

[pddavenp]

Sorry accidentally posted an incomplete post...modified it...hopefully someone will reply...
Thanks!

[AGA]

This was discussed awhile back here. Take a look.

[Joseph DiPerla]

If your interested in selling a game, look at the following sites:

www.lulu.com
www.cafepress.com
www.garagegames.com

[AgentLoaf]

Do not go with Cafe Press or Garage Games. Both have statements in their EULA's and publishing outlines which state that they, being CP / GG, will legally own, can use in other products or advertising and resell at their will all content, including the original package as a whole, from your products without your permission for up to five years (applies to GG, CP has no time limit) and not have to pay you anything.

In short, go with them and forfeit your IP rights.
Not sure about Lulu though.

[BlackMan890]

i think most people here are creating Adventure games for free for practising, i don't know about any commercial games (pretty new here) but i know about one, if i remeber it right, the game was a little bad so the owner made it an abandonware game
you see, when you buy a commercial game then you expect MUCH for it if it isn't so good, then people won't buy it

but games that are GREAT and good and commercial, i think they would be doing ok
(cause i don't think anyone here is doing it to get rich )

[Scummbuddy]

11. Does GG take ownership of my Intellectual Property?
NO! GarageGames will never attempt to tie up your intellectual property, copyrights, or any rights. We will not ask for "Right of first refusal" or "First Option". These are standard practices at many publishers, expecially in the box channel. These tactics by traditional publishers are the main reason that we felt GarageGames had to create an Indie game publishing channel that would give a fair shake to developers.

I'm not disagreeing with AgentLoaf, I don't know much about these companies, but theres at least something going on that may be counteracting what they say in the FAQ, and what they really do.

[jetxl]

How 'bout Ebay. Worked for Fatman. Didn't they sold every copy?

[Moox]

Geol, Fatman wasnt abandoned because it was bad, It was abandoned because of all the buisness aspects of going commercial. I believe there is currently a few commercial ones in the work. Quantum's game, unfortunatly lost, was going to be commercial, and I believe that Al Emmo is commercial.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Not to mention Bestowers of Eternity.

[AgentLoaf]

I'm not disagreeing with AgentLoaf, I don't know much about these companies, but theres at least something going on that may be counteracting what they say in the FAQ, and what they really do.

That there is. Trust me on this, I speak from personal experience here. Try and sell anything through them, either using Torque or your own homebrew stuff and they'll shove a contract under your nose which says they can use your content for anything they want hidden away in the small print. It's a nice loop hole in the system they're happy to exploit, since upon signing of the contract you forfeit your IP rights for five years. They may have gotten their act together and changed this in recent times, but if it's still there then legally there's not much you can do to stop it.

Fine tooth comb, people.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

As a user uploading your work to Lulu, you retain your copyright in the Content. You do, however, grant Lulu the right to post, display, copy, sell, and distribute that content within the limitations you set during the online publishing process.

We also reserve the right to excerpt your content for use in marketing materials (which should help you sell it, right?), providing that we credit you and/or the original artist, and to make minor modifications to the Content for technical reasons.

(this from Lulu)

Is this the sort of thing you mean, AgentLoaf? I don't know how GG and CP do it, but this one seems fair enough...

[AgentLoaf]

Pretty much, only without the "within the limitations you set" and "we credit you" parts.

Also, if their shirts are anything to go on, Cafepress uses very low quality materials and items to publish things on. I'd rather pay more and do it at home, at least then I'd know the quality of the discs the games would be burnt on.

[Toefur]

CafePress quality isn't really all that bad these days, I think. It's passable.

HOWEVER, their prices are not all that fantastic. If you're serious about selling a game, I would suggest looking into getting the CD's and whatnot pressed yourself.

Whereas CP charges a base rate of $8.99 for a CD in a jewel case ($4.99 in a sleeve) before you've even put any markup on it, and before you account for their highly expensive shipping costs, if you do it yourself prices will be a lot lower.

Meaing you can either
a) sell at the same price and make more
or
b) sell at a lower price, make the same, and sell more.

It's only a few hundred dollars to get a print of 300-500 CD's with jewel cases and full colour inserts, and if you're serious abouut selling your game then that's not really a whole lot of money.