What would you say if I told you that you could double your sales? How about triple them? It wouldn’t be easy, and it would probably take an entirely new approach to developing a game than you’re already used to. But, I’m getting ahead of myself — let’s start small. Let’s begin by following the natural progression of a visitor’s experience with a downloadable title:

1. Become aware of the game.
2. Visit the site.
3. Learn more about the game.
   1. View screen shots.
   2. Read copy.
   3. Read reviews…
      • …on local site.
      • …on remote site.
4. Download the game installer.
5. Find the game installer on the hard disk.
6. Run the game installer.
7. Progress through the installer wizard.
8. Run the game…
• …from the completed installer.
• …from the desktop shortcut.
• …from the Start Menu…
  • …find game folder…
    • …run game.
9. Enjoy the game.
10. Click, “Buy Now,” inside the game.
11. View website order form.
    • Potentially wait for the modem to connect.
12. Decide if the price is acceptable.
13. Proceed to the payment information page.
14. Physically find and get the form of payment.
15. Enter the payment information.
16. Wait for the payment authorization.
17. Check email for the key code or a download link.
18. Enter the key code into the application or download and install the full version.
19. Enjoy the registered full version.

There is a potential for 23 steps between first becoming aware of the game and enjoying the fully registered version…and this assumes nothing went wrong! From a credit card being declined, to a lost installer, this is certainly not a flawless process. Every step has the potential for complete and utter failure to convert a web-site visitor into a paying customer. Unfortunately, many independent developers and publishers fall into the trap of believing that once they’ve got a website and a game, they’re done. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be bringing you articles in which I explore ways we can whittle and polish our list to turn it into a finely tuned revenue generating machine. Today, I’ll be talking about why, “FREE,” is relative, and exploring other costs — costs besides money — that keep a potential customer from ever giving more than a cursory glance at your blood and sweat.

Developers can shout, “FREE,” as many times as they’d like, but when you’ve got the whole lot of them yelling it up in unison, all the visitor hears is a dull roar. Of course, ample use of, “FREE,” is important to cue the visitor they’re entering into zero-obligation space, but, “FREE,” alone isn’t enough. Why download your demo when they can get someone else’s, also for free? Now, for the purposes originally intended, “FREE,” is just shy of meaningless.

Our answer lies near the top of our list: “Learn more about the game.”

The first thing a visitor does before downloading a game is learn more about it. They’ll browse screen shots, read energetic copy, even read their peers’ reviews. Well, what are they waiting for? We’ve already made it clear that the download is completely free, so they’re probably not worried about a cost right now. They’ll go so far as to spend several minutes looking at screen shots and reading about the game, so why won’t they download it already?

Because it takes time and effort. Before they download and install the game, they are comfortably browsing the web. Everything is on their terms. They’re happy with their underlined links and their, “Back” button. And they are now faced with the option of jumping into an abyss of unknown. The user has to risk exposure to the Internet “elements:” Viruses, worms, spyware — all the nasties thrown around the media. The user may be a highly capable computer professional with the strongest anti-virus and the latest virus definitions, but there is still a strong element of the unknown.

“Will the download install stuff I don’t want?”
“Will the program work after I’ve taken the time and space to download it?”
“Could I be checking out other, better games while I’m tying my time up with this?”

And dial-up users have it worse! They’ve got to devote upwards of 15-20 minutes for even the smallest of demos…and they don’t even know if it’ll run on their computer — it might crash! Or worse: It may not be any fun! All that time wasted tying up their Internet, phone, and computer…and for what? A lousy pile of bits and bytes! Don’t underestimate the cost of initiating a download, finding an acceptable storage location for the installer, waiting for the download to complete, finding the installer, and sitting through the install process. For some, especially developers on broadband connections, it may seem like a trivial process, but for so many more, it’s a bigger commitment than you think.

As a try-before-you-buy software distributor, you have to be aware that the user is coming from an environment in which options can be chosen and acted upon in a matter of moments. Don’t like this page? “Back.” And it took less than a second. Follow this link? “Click.” And here we are, asking them to actually make a commitment! That’s pretty rude, considering we have have, “FREE,” plastered all over our site. “Time is money, pal!” There is a reason they spend so much time looking at screen shots and reading copy. Believe me, they’re not doing it because you’re such a great copy writer!

Between a potentially long download and the hassle of an install, there are a lot of points a visitor may just give up on your game; a lost sale. However, there are many things you can do about it, from shrinking your file size to streamlining your install. In the future we’ll discuss what you can do to encourage more downloads and greater sales from those downloads, as well as exploring alternatives to the familiar download paradigm.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.