Publishing your game for desktop only - where and how?

Hello,

Now the game I'm making requires the arrow keys and 4 other keys and plays best on desktop. Also, the game might be too heavy for mobile.

Hence I'm asking; where and how would one make the most money from games playable only on desktops?

I've read about Kongregate and Newgrounds, but I'd rather sell non-exclusive licenses rather than profit sharing from ads for example. Simply because you would get paid when sold, instead of waiting for many months or years for profit to accumulate. Or am I biased?

Does anyone make desktop/browser games and if so where do you sell them? Or how do you get profit out of them?

I did some reading around the web, and it seems like people are of the opinion that it's all about more simple mobile games these days, which seem to be much more likely to be sold.

Thing is, I enjoy making games - I want to make some thing cool and epic, rather than a '5-minute' entertainment piece.

Which websites/publishers would you recommend? And which profit setup would you recommend?

Thanks.

• R

Well Steam is the main one for distribution, they take 30% of sales but you keep the rest.

Hey,

on Steam you will need to sell the game, as in for < 5 bucks? What I'm making is a reasonably small game. I'd need to sell a lot of them. Not only that, but also go through Greenlight first. Seems like a lot of hassle + the 30% is pretty steep.

Why is Steam your choice if I may ask? It seems crowded there.

Thanks.

I can't think of any other place indie developers would go to except maybe GOG.com, which allows game submissions. Steam isn't a hassle at all, you post the initial teaser up on Greenlight, get it upvoted which is usually the case if it is half decent and then tell them when it is going to be ready. If you think you can get thousands of sales then Steam is probably the place.

Don't forget the initial $100 just to get the honor of having people vote for it.

I'm thinking my game is probably more catered to the browser game audience anyway.

I'd love to hear takes on making the most money with browser games, desktop oriented. Sometimes I wonder if I explain it correctly.

So basically I'm currently making games, not for mobile or tablet. I'm trying to keep the project as short as possible, am still learning programming with Construct 2, so I think the browser audience will be best suitable. But should I for revenue sharing, is it possible to sell these games to publishers, e.g. are they interested in buying 'desktop oriented' game licenses?

• R

@newt If I read it correctly, you pay a one time entry fee to Steam correct?

It goes to a charity, but since you don't get a choice a fee sounds correct to me.

Im not saying its not worth it. I will say its stupid.

For browser based you're probably looking at ads only model for revenue. You said you want to make an 'epic' game though so if it's big enough and good enough then try and get it greenlit on Steam.

If you're doing something that might not fit the steam system, you could try https://itch.io

Hmm, so many options! So there's;

• sell (exclusive) license
• in-game ads
• pre-roll ads
• sell game on platforms
• more..?

Did any of you guys make a browser game for pc/laptop? If so, what got you good profits?

• R