BIGFISH.com does anybody here sell on there?

Questions
#1

I dont here much about www.bigfish.com these days- though some of my favorite games over the past 13 years came from them(Zuma, Diner Dash, Plants vs Zombies, Mystery Case Files). PopCap released most of their games on there.

In my tower game I wanted to switch up on the maps one map tower defense like bloons another like Zuma (you have attack marbles coming at you, you have to match three or more like bubble pop)

So logged into my old account to download zuma, and was surprised how fun these old games still are. And I was surprised they were still around. And seem to be still the leader in hidden object games that I love.

Anyone know of anybody selling on their platform? I like their sale model play for free for 5 or 10 minutes then you purchase. And its not as unmoderated gamepocalypse as itch.io or steam, but is it viable?

#2

Do you mean Big Fish Games?

The golden days are over. All of the $ moved to mobile. You can still make some money… but you can make more selling direct on Steam (although there are always exceptions, some games still do really well on BFG and can’t sell at all on Steam). Or even on itch. Don’t think that selling on a site like BFG will solve the marketing problems. They have nowhere near the traffic they used to have, it takes far fewer sales to reach the top 10 than it used to.

I’m not saying it’s not worth to do it. There is money on the table there for you if you have a good game for their audience. There are other portals too which you should consider if you want to focus on the casual niche. GameHouse for example is one that still has some life blood in it. But at the same time, most of the other portals are dead.

I do believe that the “midcore leaning casual” audience that PopCap targeted is underserved but it’s also not the biggest audience out there. If you really want to make money you need to look at what people are actually buying and learn from that. And of course you need to be able to reach audiences, you need to do the marketing work yourself. Even when selling on Steam.

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#3

Hmmm. I remember watching several game devs go under as they could not get any exposure on steam after steam stropped their curating.

Before I got cancer I was still building and selling handmade wood furniture. And I ended up doing more on the smaller markets than the big ones. I may not have had as many sells but I could ask more and I was not having to compete with cheap importers.

Surely there must be a similar way in gaming , not expecting blockbuster sales just healthy ones.

Back when I had income I made open source apps for linux (novel writing software) and windows construction and enginnering. Didnt need the money and I did it for a hobby. Now its me trying to transform from hobbyist to needing some income. I mean just an extra $50 to $200 a month would help a bunch.
:slight_smile:

#4

Hmm BigFish just laid off 250 staff in sept and is no longer accepting developer or game submissions.

so I guess that answers one of my questions.

#5

I would look at web game portals as well. Defold has really good support for HTML5 exports and we have many developers making good money on sites such as Poki.com. @AGulev released a Poki extension for Defold just a week or so ago.

And we recently welcomed GameDistribution as a corporate partner (GameDistribution joins the Defold Foundation). We will soon share a Defold integration with the GD SDK.

4 Likes
#6

There have been very many games released not only on PC but Mobile too that are well made, highly polished, but also games that no one asked for, games without a real market.

Steam is important because it still has the potential to sell many copies. But Steam is also ruthless - it only promotes what sells. So if your game does not align with their core demographics in some way, it will be demoted.

Look up some of the games you remember not selling on http://steamlikes.com/ and see how many other game pages that game is on. That will give you an idea of how well the developer made the game for market, and promoted it enough to teach Steam that it was worth promoting. It’s not easy, especially for highly niche / experimental games for developers just starting out who have no way of sending people to the platform.

I mean just an extra $50 to $200 a month would help a bunch.

This is doable. Especially with someone who has experience and is motivated. Success favors perseverance. :slight_smile:

Your reference to PopCap is a good one. PopCap got going by being largely inspired by older games and bringing their good ideas to new audiences hungry for content. You can do that too, just look to see what is possible, what is in demand, what people want more of, what audiences are being underserved, where there are market opportunities.

2 Likes
#7

I agree with Björn, I would recommend to pay attention web portals. It’s definitely doable.
I know about nice results for devs on Poki (SDK) and Yandex Games (SDK). I know not so much about GameDistribution, but it sounds good as well, looking forward for SDK.

5 Likes
#8

Beta version is here: https://github.com/GameDistribution/gd-defold

4 Likes
#9

Just read the the link and seems pretty simple. :slight_smile:

thanks Bjorn

1 Like