Sorry your browser is not supported!

Hi all,

In a few weeks I'll release my new game written in AGK. It will available for win/mac & android.
A few months ago I left the Apple's store (for MAC OSX) due some Apple affaires that you must accept in order to publish on it.
Of course your one-man game dies in the top AAA games sea...
So I'm thinking about release it as shareware. The user can download the full game (fully playable and functional) from my web. In order to gain access to certain game extras, he must pay a one-time very little fee (only one pay for the 3 versions of the game):
For instance, the registered version of the game includes:
-no initial nag screen that unregistered version shows
-includes a new endless mode (only arcade mode in the unregistered version)
-includes an editor for endless mode (allow the player customize how the endless mode will work)
-allows game saving (when a level is finished) to continue later from here (in unregistered version if you leave the game you must begin for level 1 next time)

I've read about PayPal micropayments (<4 euros). It has a low commision (5% of the game price + 0,05 USD). It seems a good payment method for shareware.

-Please, can you tell me what's you oppinion about shareware model I'll use (it works, years ago, for lots of programmers, but now...)?
-Anybody has tried the micropayments option? Works well? Is there some alternatives?

I hope that the questions I have asked aren't too open...


Thanks in advance and excuse my english!

I think shareware used to work well before the days of mass online piracy. Although copying games was easy, you had to know someone with the game so you could borrow their discs. The demos were available from more sources, so it seemed to work. I think it died a death when the internet made piracy very easy.

To be honest I think any good game that isn't protected by an online play/login system (user verification) will be pirated within an inch of it's life. These days the best model for indie developers appears to be a free game with advertisement and in-game purchases, protected by a mobile marketplace. How you protect a standalone PC game I have no idea.

Thanks for your thoughts, Fallout.
I'm not worried about piracy, in fact I will not put more protection than just a serial code to see if the game is registered or not, no online check or anything like that. The main idea is to see if I can distribute games outside large stores, earning enough to produce the next game with this earnins (my productions cost are 20-30 euros per game, so I think it is possible) getting a self-funded hobby, outside of large structures and making more use of player-developer contact.

I'll tell you my experience in case it might be useful to someone.

Fully protecting a standalone PC game is simply impossible.
If a talented enough hacker puts enough time into it he will definitely crack it.
The trick is to make it so difficult that they quit their efforts

As for payments in-game, I can't help you there

I've only got experience [publishing] on Android

I think this is an OK idea. PayPal is popular and probably the most widely accepted method of payment for anything on the web.

You can use something like this:
http://www.withinweb.com/global/sell_software_licences.php
to manage license codes. You would have to have a server set up to hand out the codes though.

Or if you don't care about piracy then just hardcode a handful of codes into the game and randomly choose one at check out. I'm not sure if PayPal offers an automated way to do this. Let us know if it does.