This month's newsletter deviates a bit from our usual approach of sharing some of the awesome activity on the Caravel Forum. There be
time-sensitive material here, so read on! We plan to return to a normal newsletter format in June, but for this month, we have a
special offer I'd like to share with our dedicated fanbase. If you want to skip the pontifications on evangelizing DROD and indie games in general below, you can just
skip to the bottom for the meaty part.
The Pontifications
There are many steps along the way to making an indie game successful. So you design your very own special game with solid gameplay, unique premise and engaging story. The hallmark of indie game development is innovation, but "
success"
hinges on more than this crucial element. To make sure people look twice, there's naturally the need for nice graphics and a striking visual style. However, success is typically framed in terms of market penetration. As many before me have argued, the greatest obstacle to success is obscurity.
Caravel has a nice, growing suite of DROD titles. One reason I myself have spent so much time with DROD is because of the way it pulled me in from the start with its unique gameplay. When Erik Hermansen announced an enhancement to his original (Webfoot) DROD around 2002, I embraced his vision and supported it wholeheartedly. From that time, DROD has held a special place in my gamer's heart. This story has been repeated for many other developers and players, including those of you who have experienced and championed DROD in some shape or form. Though DROD is a niche franchise by design, many of you would probably agree with the sentiment that the greatest obstacle to DROD's success is still obscurity.
While we've rarely worked with dedicated marketers, we've experimented with a few different distribution models, including your usual gamut of game portals. As you can imagine, just putting DROD as another spot on the endless wallpaper of games on a big game portal doesn't bring in most of the sales. What has been effective at getting the word out is, as you might expect, word-of-mouth: some love shared in a write-up on someone's blog, a kind mention at a gaming venue, a personal promotion on a well-travelled gaming site. Knowing that DROD brings joy to someone is our main motivation. And that brings us to the meat of our Illumination...
The Offer
I'm pleased to announce a one-time limited offer to acquire the DROD games at
half-price this week, only on Game du Jour!
Game du Jour (GDJ) is the first "
One Deal a Day"
website (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_deal_a_day ) dedicated to indie and casual games for the PC. GDJ's home page features a different game every day at a steep discount (typically 40% to 60%.)
The following games will be discounted this week on
Game du Jour, the first 'one-deal-a-day' website dedicated to indie and casual games:
*** Tue. May 26th: 50% off on
DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale
*** Wed. May 27th: 50% off on
DROD: The City Beneath
*** Thu. May 28th: 50% off on
DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
*** Fri. May 29th: 50% off on
DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon
If you don't have one or more of these DROD titles yet, or have been thinking of getting a copy or three for a friend or family member, this is a great time to buy! We are providing this promotion as another step in bringing DROD out of obscurity, and I'm mentioning it here as a bonus to dedicated players who love the game but might not have enough cash to buy at full price. Buying a title for this promotion helps support the Game du Jour site as well as Caravel Games in bringing you new DROD titles in the future.
Till next month, happy smiting!
-Mike
Edit: You can purchase Windows, Mac or Linux versions of these games through this offer on GDJ.
____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
[Last edited by mrimer at 05-27-2009 04:55 AM]
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