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How To Publish A Game
Buy “How to Publish a Game” now
Practical advice to make you money
With 200 pages jam-packed with examples, illustrations and how-to guides, How To Publish A Game is a practical and logical guide that’s essential reading for anyone who wants to make money from videogames.
Written by GAMESbrief founder and respected games business consultant Nicholas Lovell, the book will give you a clear idea of how the roles of marketing, finance, sales and distribution work in games publishing, and how to effectively implement them – or outsource them – as a self-publisher. You’ll learn how to use “free” to get users and make money, how to retain your players and how to drive traffic to your game.
No matter what area of games you’re working with – mobile, social, free-to-play or indie development on traditional platforms – this book will show you how to make money.
Try out two chapters of How To Publish A Game absolutely free!
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Alice Taylor | Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
Nicholas Lovell is a deep knowledge specialist: he has all the data and insight you’ll need on the subject of how to do business in the emergent and ever-evolving field of social and online gaming. From microtransactions to marketing, he’s got it covered. Highly recommended.
Sean Kirkegaard | ZoopaHeroes.com
How to Publish A Game is THE book to buy (and read) if you are planning to go indie and produce your own games empire. This comprehensive playbook covers everything you’ll need to know, from funding sources, to marketing, to business models and more.
How To Publish A Game
Pricing: | ||
Digital Edition – | £99 ($156) | |
Hardback Edition – | £149 ($234) | |
Hardback copies include a free copy of the ebook version. |
a company license for the book, and you can share it freely
around your office.
Company License (eBook Only) – | £199 ($313) | |
Company License (Hardback + eBook) – | £249 ($392) |
Table of Contents
Testimonials | 3 | |
Foreword by Dr. Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO | 5 | |
Introduction | 6 | |
About me | 7 | |
About Gamesbrief (www.gamesbrief.com) | 7 | |
Contents | 8 | |
Chapter 1: How to Publish a Game | 12 | |
What is a game? | 13 | |
Games as a product | 14 | |
Games as a service | 16 | |
Is that it? Six types of game? | 18 | |
Chapter 2: The key roles of a publisher | 21 | |
What does a self-publishing developer need to know? | 39 | |
Chapter 3: Becoming a publisher | 41 | |
Does a developer always need a publisher? | 41 | |
So which skills should I focus on? | 43 | |
Chapter 4: Determining your business model | 47 | |
Making money | 47 | |
The eight ways to make money from a game | 47 | |
Are you Viral or are you Monetised? | 70 | |
Which business model should I choose? | 72 | |
Chapter 5: The power of free | 74 | |
If free is so great, why have we always charged so much for our games? | 75 | |
Why publishers are doomed | 77 | |
Why is free so successful? | 78 | |
If you’re not free, you’re competing with free | 80 | |
Is free the only option? | 80 | |
Chapter 6: Distribution | 84 | |
Maximise your routes to market | 84 | |
Distributing PC, mobile and console games | 85 | |
Distributing Flash-based games | 87 | |
Hosting your own game | 89 | |
Conclusion | 94 | |
Chapter 7: Sales | 96 | |
Billing | 96 | |
Advertising | 100 | |
Conclusion | 109 | |
Chapter 8: Marketing – An Introduction | 110 | |
Marketing games as a product | 110 | |
Marketing games as a service | 111 | |
What are you trying to achieve? | 114 | |
Chapter 9: Marketing – Feeding the funnel | 122 | |
Acquiring customers | 123 | |
Using social networks | 126 | |
Press and Public Relations | 135 | |
The power of virality | 139 | |
Feeding the funnel conclusion | 142 | |
Chapter 10: Marketing – Designing your website | 144 | |
The five great website design mistakes | 145 | |
Designing a website: before you start | 151 | |
Conclusion | 153 | |
Chapter 11: Finance | 156 | |
Sources of finance | 156 | |
Revenue | 156 | |
Funds | 161 | |
Banks | 173 | |
Venture capital and private equity | 174 | |
How to raise money | 177 | |
Finance conclusion | 180 | |
Chapter 12: Putting it all together | 184 | |
Feedback | 186 | |
Acknowledgements | 186 | |
Resources | 187 | |
Useful links | 187 | |
Notes on links | 188 | |
Bibliography | 190 | |
Blog roll | 190 | |
Softography | 190 | |
Glossary | 192 | |
List of Illustrations | 194 | |
Tables | 194 | |
Figures | 194 | |
Index of Lessons Learned | 195 | |
Index | 196 |
Testimonials
“We’re a console developer transitioning to the digital model, but how much could we learn from GAMESbrief’s insights and observations of the online business models? Turns out quite a lot!
Working with GAMESbrief widened our perspective from the physical goods model and helped us understand what traditionally seemed illogical (free) makes a lot of sense in the right circumstance.
Whatever your current business model, there are lessons to learn from GAMESbrief’s insight and analysis.”
Colin Bell, General Manager, THQ Digital Studios UK (formerly Juice Games)
“Publishing games is not as challenging as developing them, but that doesn’t mean that publishing is easy. There are many facets: marketing, distribution, sales, etc. and each of these areas requires real insight and effort to do well.
In the new world where publishers are nothing more than banks and should be avoided if at all possible, it’s crucial for developers to ensure that they have a handle on *all* of the work necessary to effectively publish their games. There’s a lot of information out there, but never before has it been collated into one volume that centres specifically on the business of publishing games.
Nicholas’ considered and well researched book really is publishing 101 – essential for those experienced in self publishing and those just starting out. It doesn’t contain all the answer, but, more importantly, it does contain all the questions.
I don’t traditionally buy e-books as I’m concerned that the content won’t be relevant or I can find the data elsewhere, but I can genuinely say that this publishing guide is well worth the price tag.”
Mark Morris, Managing Director, Introversion Software
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