Interviews

We recently had the pleasure
to devour a book that should be must reading for every single independent
developer in the adventure game
community. Joseph Lieberman, the author, has collected his years
of experience in the gaming industry to provide an outline describing
how develop, market and publish your game from start to
finish.

Rather than review the
book – the title of which speaks for itself – we thought
you might instead enjoy this interview with the author.

Let’s start
with a little bit about yourself, who are you and what makes
you competent enough
to write a book?

Well, other than being
Named Joseph Lieberman, which has it’s
own game related political ramifications in the United States, I
have a number of other qualifications. My favorite of which is that
I have studied games since I was a kid. Not just played them in my
basement with friends, but actually took time as a kid to understand
the various game models and watch the evolution of games. On a scale
of 1-10 on obscure game knowledge I would give myself an 8.5. I paid
special attention to the multiplayer world, which I had been predicting
as the future of games before I was even in high school. Ok, so if
being a kid who loved video games didn’t impress anyone: I
also have a BSBA in Marketing from University of Florida (Go Gators!)
and founded my own marketing company while I was still a Junior there.
I immediately began working with independent dev elopers on building
contact networks and improving the marketability of their titles.
So ever since I was a junior at UF I have been building and learning
with each passing day what I hope is a reputation that gets as near
to impeccable as possible: So much so that I am the only PR service
which offers a 100% money back guarantee! Given that I feel MOST
PR companies charge far more than they’re worth (most, not
all), that is quite a boast.

What inspired you to start marketing indie games?

Well, two things really.
First, I didn’t have enough experience
to market anything else. Second, I became involved in a bustling
community (now www.indiegamer.com)
of indie developers who’s
extreme level of innovation was only matched by the extreme level
of marketing ignorance. Thus I saw a wonderful opportunity, and
what I had intended to start as a part time job while in college
quickly
turned into a fair paying full time job before I even graduated,
so much so that I THANKFULLY quit my college job as a manager
at Enterprise. I still remember my first paid press release though,
it was for Winter Wolves Software (www.winterwolves.com)
to the tune of $35. Also my first paid PR work was for Rampant
Games’ Void
War- which I believe to date has paid about $50 (despite getting
world wide coverage in both magazines and print- it just didn’t
sell so well).

What inspired
you to write The Indie Developer’s
Guide to Selling Games?

Well, as my popularity has grown so has the size of my clients and
the price they are willing to pay me for my services. Because of
this I began, over the last year or so, to have to start turning
away smaller indie developers. Unfortunately I have bills to pay,
a kid to feed, and a limited amount of time to devote. While VGSmart
still has the policy that advi ce is ALWAYS free and I still take
the time to answer questions people e-mail me, I hate telling people
that advice is all I can give them. So, instead of just leaving the
small guys behind I decided to write a guide that would help them
on their way.

Who are these clients that have bid up your time so much?

Well, they are primarily
a mix between three major clients and multiple smaller clients.
The major clients are ‘every month’ kind
of deals, the smaller clients hire me frequently on a 1-2 month basis;
this makes it cost effective for a company their size. I try not
to have any conflicts between clients interest, so you’ll notice
they all do different things.

The three major ones
are:
Matrix Games (Digital Strategy Publisher) www.matrixgames.com
Tri Synergy (Retail Publisher) www.trisynergy.com
ArcadeTown
(Online Portal) www.arcadetown.com

My smaller clients are pretty diverse, but the most consistent are:
Ninjabee Software / Wahoo Studios (www.ninjabee.com)
Caravel Games (www.caravelgames.com)
Amaranth Games (www.aveyond.com)

And multiple others who
have hired me for a couple months at a time and probably will again
the next time their game is ready.

Who is The Indie
Developer’s
Guide to Selling Games targeted at?

I would say this is a
beginner – intermediate book for small
companies, all the way down to one man development teams who are
selling their game ONLINE primarily.. I put special emphasis on non-casual
independent games, because those have more marketability (less reliance
on pre-established traffic streams, IE: Portals). If you’ve
got a business degree and several years experience in the game industry
there’s probably nothing new in this book. However, I do go
over one advanced concept in the final chapter that is my take on
what causes online purchasing of games.

So, care to share with us what your take on what causes online game
purchases?

Well, not to spoil the
surprise ending, but basically it all boils down to this: Motivation.
The theory I have, which I named Joseph
Lieberman’s Motivational Pyramid in hopes of someday being
as famous as Maslow, is that game purchases online are entirely emotion
based. The key factor in increasing sales is to uncover what is motivating
them to want to continue playing. I surmise that the higher their
motivation to want to continue after the demo ends, the more likely
they are to purchase and then break down what are the possible motivat
ional factors involved with games. This goes directly against the
idea that you can win over more sales with a logical argument on
why your game should be purchased. I think logic in this sense is
totally bunk. There’s no more logical reason people buy a game
than people buy a 25 cent pack of gum at the checkout line (I like
Big Red myself). You buy the pack of gum on impulse, with motivation
that relates to a variety of factors. I break down what factors those
are in games into three prime categories: Macro Motivations, Micro
Motivations, and Constant Motivations. Buy the book if you want the
whole scoop (See, I’m creating motivation!).

That sounds very intriguing. What other concepts are covered?

Well, you can see the
entire Table of Contents at www.indiegameguide.com. In general
the key chapters are: Pre-Development Marketing (Finding
a target audience, defining what your ga me should have and shouldn’t
have, what style of demo you intend to use), Developmental Marketing
(Building a website, creating traffic, garnering interest), Release
Marketing (Getting Press Coverage, Advertising, Portals and Publishing),
Post-Release Marketing (Updates, Upgrades, Re-releases), and The
Future (Some silver-lining style thoughts on what the future of the
online industry is like. The final chapter is on advanced theories
like the one above, grass roots and viral marketing, and others.

What is your goal with this book?

My goal for the readership
is that people use it to either learn or remind themselves of what
steps they should be taking at what
times. It isn’t a text book. I don’t intend for it to
replace actually taking some marketing classes. However, I tried
to write it in a far more entertaining and easy to read method than
you would find in a text book. My intention in doing so is that even
the most marketing adverse developers cou ld use it and understand
the concepts without being bored to tears (as I was for four years).
My next phase after directly reaching current developers is to shop
this book around to some of the game teachers out there as recommended
reading.

My goal in sales is to sell a mere 300 copies, which is what I need
to repay me at a fair rate for the time it took to write and edit
it. I made a post on my blog (vgsmart.blogspot.com) that 300 copies
is about $6,000 profit- which is pretty slim. As of the day I am
writing this the book has finally broken even in sales, so its all
downhill from here.

Are you planning any other books?

Well, I have been asked
to do a chapter in another book, but I am unsure if I have the
time to commit to that project. Otherwise I
plan to update this book every-so-often. Most notably, every year
I intend to update all the resource sections with new contacts and
contact information. The resource sections are handy for anyone in
the game industry. They include the contact info for Artists, Musicians,
Sound-effect people, and online publishers, as well as a list of “indie
friendly press” and a list of power words (a marketing thing).
Each year I intend to put together an updated list, removing any
of the people who have vanished and adding in anyone who is interested
in taking part. I plan on selling this updated resource as a PDF
for a really low price, probably $5-$10 depending on how long it
takes me to put it together.

What has been your crowning achievement so far?

I’ve done a lot in a short time. My crowning achievement could
be considered this book! However, I don’t think that is what
you meant. I think this year’s showing at the Independent Games
Festival is a good one, in one fashion or another I had worked with
6 of the games nominated as finalists for the IGF to help promote
them. Getting to go to the GDC and shake hands with the people I
helped (at least in some small way) was really cool. Second to that,
possibly, is my first speaking appearance at a conference. Last year
at the Independent Games Conference in Eugene a guest speaker didn’t
show (we would later learn his car exploded on the freeway- but he’s
ok). Well, I just happened to be there and made my first impromptu
appearance at a conference as a guest speaker- not surprisingly on
the marketing panel. I just wish I could have had my book done by
then! Sadly it wasn’t even thought of at that time.

What would you say is the most common mistake of independent developers?

Easy. Giving up. Look,
the fact is very few people make any money at all on their first
game. Don’t consider a game that doesn’t
sell a failure. Learn as much as you can from it and go make a better
(selling) game. Use it to help build a community, even if that means
giving it away for free or for free with any purchase of your next
game (unless its so bad it would hurt your reputation to have anyone
play it). Don’t just give up on a product, and don’t
just give up on making games. The games that are selling best on
portals are doing so because of extreme levels of quality in design,
graphics, and sound. However, there are many things that these games
aren’t doing and many resources yet untapped. The key is don’t
give up. Take a page from Outpost Kaloki from Ninajbee (I mentioned
them as a recurring client)- Outpost Kaloki by all sales standards
is a failure. They didn’t give up though, their game got recognized
by all kinds of places. Not only did it result in a slew of contract
work, but it also got noticed by Microsoft and is one of the top
selling games on Xbox 360 Live Arcade now. If they had just pulled
out of making games entirely none of these opportunities would have
opened for them- so keep at it even after failure!

Anything else to add?

Buy my book? www.indiegameguide.com – or
at least read my blog: http://vgsmart.blogspot.com

Thanks! All profit will
go to feeding my gaming addiction… or
at least feeding my daughter and HER gaming addiction