Hello,

I'm the lead producer at Paper Child Studios ( http://paperchild.com ) and we are close to releasing our first game. As such, we're trying to address the concerns of piracy and so have written an open letter to try and combat it somewhat. I'd like to hear any thoughts on our letter and strategies you've used successfully against piracy.

Our letter is at: http://j.mp/grtUrK (Facebook login required; IndieDB link coming soon)

Please let me know what you think of our strategy and of our game (demo is coming soon!). I wasn't sure which area of the forum would be best for this... so here goes.

Thanks
Michael Lubker
Producer, Paper Child Studios
http://paperchild.com / @zratchet | @paperchildllc

Agreed. If you want to fight piracy, game development isn't for you. It's just going to be there. The way you could decrease it is only by better marketing and by making the game so good that it basically sells itself.

We hope we're doing that - the game has a lot of good features that other matching-puzzles don't, and we've gotten good feedback at preview events. We just want to make sure the game sells well. :)

From whay I have been told (anecdotally of course), the piracy rate will be fairly high and there is an even higher chance that your pleas to not steal the game out right will go unheard. Why? Because many of the pirates don't speak your language.

Your goal should be to get the game on as many portals as possible to increase legit downloads and advertising income. It may not be huge amounts, but over time it could start to add up. You should also look into some of the indie groups that are helping cross-promote titles and see if they have a way of increasing buzz.

Good luck and congrats on shipping your first title!

Don't waste your time chasing pirates. Connect with your fans, and offer them positive incentives to buy.