Re: Can I make money by w


Sun, 03 Dec 1995 14:07:00 -0500

AS>Although a crippled game isn't really an option, I would have thought
AS>that a viable approach would be to release about half the game as
AS>shareware - "if you're enjoying this, then register and get the
AS>remaining puzzles and the endgame." Certainly not as a viable
AS>strategy for making a million, but sufficient (I would have thought)
AS>for a useful hobby income.

The "Apogee model" of releasing games in three episodes, with the first
one being shareware and the next two available on registration, is the
standard for graphical games right now. Anybody making IF could follow
this or a similar format without two much trouble. The real problem, I
think, is the there aren't many people that would be interested in even
the shareware episode. But I really don't know how many people are
interested at all. I didn't think there was *anyone* interested until a
couple months ago, when I lucked into Gareth's home page. I wonder how
many others are out there who remember these games and just don't
realize anybody still makes them?

Maybe getting a game (say, Jigsaw) onto a compilation CD alongside Doom
or something would help. With a text file pointing people to either of
these newsgroups or the Web resources and XYZZYNews, we might pull in
more people. (I wonder if we can get Jigsaw on the next PC-Gamer CD-
ROM?)

Joe

---
þ CMPQwk #1.42þ UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY