Offered £800 for Jungle Bug rights

UtopianGames

Had a mail today from a guy who seems serious about buying Jungle Bug rights lock stock and barrel for £800.

Wondering your thoughts and suggestions.

If we sold for £800 i would lose 3 months work and also the work from musician and artists but as its not really selling too well $60 since release i'm thinking what have i got to lose?



Darren.

BarkBarkCo

Try a counter offer with royalties included. I'd start at least 50%. He's obviously serious about the game and must have a marketing plan...plus, he'll need someone to manage the GameSalad side of things. Unless he plans to have it re-coded in xCode.

AfterBurnett

I still find it odd that it's not selling. It's a great game. I think you should really jump on every forum known to man and push it like hell, show videos etc.

gyroscope

Hi Darren, I can't understand why it's not selling either; professional offering indeed, looks interesting and fun to play.

As for £800, your game's not worth that....................................
................... it's worth £2000? £3000 or more? A game's worth includes its selling "capabilities" but also the potential to sell. That's a really catchy title, that would spark ideas in any marketing man's head, I reckon. How many hours of work was involved? And at what rate? £15, 20, £30 per hour? Plus cost of outsourcing resources; cost of heating, lighting, etc (whether or not you work from home, sole proprietor or not). Even the game genre is pretty much original, etc. etc.

If I was to commission someone to make a game and for me to own it as well, lock, stock and barrel, for £800? I'd be thinking: where's the catch? Don't undersell yourself, I reckon; POLYGAMe's suggestion of really pushing it is worth more than a shot, and doesn't all cost money as you know; free PRs, sending copies to game websites for reviews, etc. This could be a slow burner. And any more games you make, adding to your portfolio, will add attraction value to; someone playing another game might seek out something else you've made.

Even if you're "strapped for cash" I wouldn't give away this particular hard work of yours for 800 quid, no way. £500 for exclusive usage rights to the name maybe...

BarkBarkCo

Have you tried releasing a free ad supported version?

expired_012

You'll be sad when he takes it from you and puts it in the top 10. In my opinion I think you should keep it because if you really did some serious advertising it could be a hit

JamesZeppelin

My suggestion is to make an iPad too. Only increases your odds of a feature by apple.
If you do sell
Don't be sad unless you were about to sink 10k into marketing.

It's easy to lose sight of add costs.

We think games are making millions when often they haven't even turned a profit yet.

UtopianGames

Cheers guys,

Yeah i'm not in the business of selling out (unless its a great price of course).

We will upsell inside Bumps and then if that doesn't work look into iAds.

Yeah i agree its worth a lot more than £800.

Thanks for the advice.

Darren.

AfterBurnett

As the black cop in Chase HQ says, "More, push it more!".

butterbean

It's all perspective, it's a great game, and is probably worth double that amount he offered, but realistically, you've made a grand total of 60 so far right?

Try to negotiate, say you'll take X amount of money down, and royalties and see where that gets you. I wouldn't bite at the first offer, they probably low balled to see if you would take it.

Negotiate

Photics

Heh... the British Pound... I had to do some conversion. That's like $1250. I think that's cool, but not worth three months of work. So, how to make more than $1250 on your game?

1) It looks like a strong match for iAds. Use it as a loss-leader. While iAds has a horrible fill rate, you could put banner ads in for your own games. put your own rotating banners under the iAds location.

2) If you give up the rights now, you'd lose the ability to put it on your website or on other platforms. In the future, a game like this might make more money on Android or your own website with banner ads.

3) Build a brand, not destroy it. Even if this game does nothing but make your game library bigger, then maybe that's what it should do.

4) If you still own the rights, your game assets can be recycled. Heh, if Jungle Bug doesn't do well now, you could still release Jungle Bug 2 around the holiday times.

AfterBurnett

I'm with Photics (but that's not how he got iAds, I'm clean). Keep your game.
I myself have written a book and produced a movie. Both of which have had excellent reviews but because I have no funding to push them, they haven't sold well at all. I'm not worried though as I really just did them for fun and who knows... in the future if my games do well, I might be able to advertise them! You think getting an iPhone game noticed is hard? TRY A FEATURE FILM!!!! LOL.

AfterBurnett

Oh and I should add... MONTHS after being finished... the film looks like it's going to get a small theatrical release... so hang in there until it gets noticed!

Photics

POLYGAMe said:
I'm with Photics (but that's not how he got iAds, I'm clean)

There's that lame joke again. If there was active moderation on this forum, you might be in trouble.

AfterBurnett

*quakes in boots*

Rob2

VoidedSky

if you don't mind me asking, what are your daily sales on that game?

AfterBurnett

@Rob2 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

UtopianGames

CowTechMan said:
if you don't mind me asking, what are your daily sales on that game?

Daily sales 0-1

Darren.

vegasmike1

DO NOT SELL< 800 pounds is nothing.

Here is my assessment the game is an upside down doodle jump, the graphics are great but the dilemma in the game is too low, it needs more feedback and probably a faster speed, its too calm there is no nerves that get janggled, so......Rev the game, but make it less calming, I bought it and played it and it was in a word, boring, but I love the idea, and the graphics are very good, change the platforms from wood, to stone, to glass, to iron, to whatever but add some stuff that changes, and the thing I notice is that I go on or I die. Why not add a level system, I am they guy who did the worthless program called KEEP THE PANTS OFF THE GROUND, it was a HUGE spanking FLOP. But I learned this, levels works, Doodle Jump has levels, now maybe I did not get tot that point with your program but that is a problem, if I did not get there, WHY, was it too hard or just took too long.

Dont sell it, improve it, stick to your effort. You are in my opinion, close, shoot me an email if you want more input.

Never give up, you can do that when you die.
Mike

quantumsheep

vegasmike1 said:
But I learned this, levels works

100% agree!

Having an endless game means you stop playing when you're tired of it. Having levels:

breaks up the play time into more manageable chunks.
Gives the player a feeling of progression.
Allows for distinct variations (classic example - lava level, jungle level etc in platformers).
Allows you to introduce new enemies/obstacles.
Allows you to introduce new gameplay mechanics

(I realise you can do the last three without levels, but confining the introduction of new elements into distinct levels helps with a sense of progression and identification - e.g. have you got to the level with the giant enemy crab yet???

Additionally, having a level select screen gives players instant access to later levels where they may have died (due to a new enemy coming on for example). It allows them to practice just that level, and to progress past it without playing through the whole game from the start.

Which can be laborious.

Hope that's of some use,

QS

gyroscope

vegasmike1 said:
Never give up, you can do that when you die.
Mike

Classic. :-]

quantumsheep

gyroscope said:
Classic. :-]

This is why I never sleep