Soapbox: About the Industry

10 Hurdles to Selling Your Game

by Sandy Antunes
Jun 11,2004

10 Hurdles to Selling Your Game

This is a self-evaluation for the aspiring self-publisher or small publisher. Before you decide whether to publish your game, answer these questions. Be honest. Heck, be brutal-- better to spare your ego now, than lose dollars due to a misjudgement. And if you can get through all 10 questions without flinching, you are in rare company (or on potent anti-psychotic medications).

1) How will you get non-tabletop people to notice and covet your game?

2) Why would a D20 player, with over $200 invested in D20, want to pay for your product?

3) Why would computer game players even look at your game?

4) It's Family Game Night-- why pick up your new game instead of the tried-and-true Monopoly[tm] or Apples-to-Apples[tm]?

5) Would someone's Mom buy this for their kid?

6) If someone buys your game, will their peers be envious?

7) How will your product displace the greatest games ever made in the hearts and minds of the gamer elite?

8) How much of your product can easily be reinvented by a clever GM?

9) What would motivate book chains or Walmart[tm] to carry your game?

10) How many friends can you talk into preordering a copy?

      10b) How many won't buy your game?

            10c) How many will expect you to give them a copy for free?

Until next month,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
freelance