I'm in talks with publishers I thought I lot of question will come up during this so I figured rather than make individual post ill group them in one thread for all the questions that may come along while I'm on the ride

First question.
Raising Capital

The costs of your game may be high, some publishers may not like the risk.
how about this idea, some small publishers may love your game but either don't have all the capital you ask for or feel they cannot carry the risk of the investment.

How about if rather than get the money from one publisher you split it across more than one publisher, if you split the money you need over two three or more publishers the smaller amount of money asked for may put you into a good bargaining position with a lot more publishers, they are risking less money plus if the title is a success they could make a good return on the investment with a much smaller risk, that way small publishers instead of investing small amounts on low cost games could then invest in bigger titles, the return as in royalty percentage may be lower than the small budget titles they usually publish but the title has a higher sale and so in the long run a much higher return, this could be very profitable for a small publisher working with a new studio that has a team of experienced designers signed to a new studio working on its first major game under the new label.

It makes sense to me, the rewards could be bigger for the small publisher and the developer will have a lot more publishers to bargain with and thus more competition for his title and so is in a better bargaining position.

Any ideas on this.

re you talking about different publishers in different territories (Europe, US, Asia) or different publishers in the same territory?

It could be different publishers in the same territory.
they may or may not be in the same territory.
I think you would have to find a separate distributor if that was the case perhaps, I make games not publish and distribute them so I'm looking for info.

I'm just looking a more ways to raise the capital to get projects done, as a dev you need capital to finish your game you have invested in, so you seek a publisher to get that capital, the big publishers are hard to contact and get your game to them, from my initial search I see loads and loads of small publishers, they are very keen and love your game, but some are small and don't have huge amounts of capital to invest , well not the full amount your are asking, or if they do have it its a risk to them being small if the project fails, I just see it as what if rather than having one publisher front the whole amount you want you break it down over more than one entity.
Just want to know how this can be done.

Quote:Original post by Dean Avanti
It could be different publishers in the same territory.

That certainly wouldn't work. Publishers aren't going to want to share a product in the same territory, especially if they are funding it. The concept that two competing publishers would co-fund a project and share the publishing in the same territory is a non-starter. Who would handle the marketing? who the distribution, the manufacture. Co-funding introduces too much risk because publisher A's profit depends on publisher B paying their share of the development fund and or doing a good job of the marketing (or whatever their responsibilities). If one of the publishers runs into financial trouble the other would be screwed and would lose any money already paid. Even two publishers for two different territories is very difficult for the same reason.

In addition to the above problems you would also have creative conflicts. If a publisher is funding or part funding development they will want to ensure that the product suits their idea of what the market needs. The US and European markets are quite different in what sells and this means you would have a US publisher wanting stuff done one way and a Euro publisher wanting something diferent - with you stuck in the middle.

Lastly you have to negotiate two deals with two seperate entities both of which would want approval of your other deal - this is both difficult and time consumming and, more importantly not something the publisher needs to do - There are simpler product deals out there for them to do, so they don't need the added hassle of yours.

The only way to "share publishing" would be with a 100% finished game where one publisher gets the rights in UK and other in France or Germany etc and they pay a guaranteed royalty advance on signing of the contract.

[Edited by - Obscure on January 20, 2006 12:53:06 PM]

I have another question

I have had interest from the arcade department of publishers in developing for their arcade game market

Does any one have any links or info on developing for arcade rather than console and PC, I know dev for the home market, I have some idea of how the market works but for arcade I'm pretty much in the dark, does anyone have any info on how this business works how a developer works within this industry how profitable it is etc, any info really, id like to learn more about this market as I think it could have the potential to be a good platform to develop for.

ive been asked this

is 360 Concept Approved by XBox?

what are they asking, the game engine can port to xbox360, is he asking this , or is he asking if i have some kind of permission from xbox or something

Couldn't tell you how the arcade business works. I have licensed games for conversion to home systems but never been involved in arcade development itself. Its a very different business model because the machines are sold to arcade sites, rather than to end users.

On the 360 question, yes he is asking if you are a 360 registered developer and have concept approval from Microsoft for the title to appear on that system.

Couldn't tell you how the arcade business works. I have licensed games for conversion to home systems but never been involved in arcade development itself. Its a very different business model because the machines are sold to arcade sites, rather than to end users.

-I thought it was something like that as I was informed that the machine has to cost under 5 grand UK, not sure if thats their manufacturing price or their retail price, ill find out more when I next speak to them.


he is asking if you are a 360 registered developer and have concept approval from Microsoft for the title to appear on that system.

- I'm learning there is too different skills going on in development, making games and the separate business of selling them.

well the unreal engine 3 does port games over to xbox 360 and ps3, so we know that is fine, I should think it does for the price of the engine, the engine makers epic have a dev kit from both and have made the engine capable of porting over to those systems so thats not a problem getting it onto those systems.

But being a registered developer, off the top of my head knowing human nature, taking a guess, I think that will be on the lines of submit massive file on company and huge report on game them submit large cash amount, hmm off the top of my head low 5 figure, say 10,000 usd, then one is a registered developer, then as we are not one of these the publisher will make a huge ding dong about it, like its only a formality anyway at the end of the dev, plus we don't have 5 figure amounts to start slinging about without having the knowledge of having a publisher behind the title, actualy we do have one, or have offers we just want a better deal, I mean the best deal we can get.

Am I right, or is it easier than that to be a registered developer. perhaps I'm being cynical, but I doubt it, infact it wouldn't suprise me if its a bigger cash amount like 25,000 usd.

Quote:Original post by Dean Avanti
- I'm learning there is too different skills going on in development, making games and the separate business of selling them.

It is scary how often I hear this. If someone wants to make a game as art and give it away, fine. If they want to do it to learn or for fun and give it away (freeware), fine. But as soon as they even think about making money then it becomes a business. The number of developers who set up a business without actually giving any thought to the actual business practices required always amazes (and scares) me.