Edy Zahid Blog The Thoughts of One Game Developer

3 Ways to Minimize Commercial Indie Game Piracy

1) Provide long demo version of the game.
2) Provide continuously updated special game content after player purchase the game.
3) Provide tangible value to the game such as item or merchandise related to the game.

As you already know, piracy is a serious problem for software industry. Since games belong to the software industry, we get used to people pirating games. I used to hear commercial games from big games publisher such as Electronic Arts get pirated but I was surprised to hear that even commercial indie games get pirated.

Well, I guess as long as it is a commercial games no matter independent or not independently produced, there is always a chance of it get pirated. This is a fact and something that indie game developer have to accept it.

Can we do something about it? Of course there is always a solution for every problem. There are 2 approaches - by focusing the effort on either pirate or player themselves. For strategy that focus on pirate, the idea is to make the game harder for them to share it. This involves coming up with copy protection and digital right management (DRM) system built into the game. I don't want to discuss this strategy because a lot of people have discuss this stuff on many places on the Internet.

What I want to discuss is on player themselves. How can we indie game developer want to encourage people that is worthwhile for them to purchase our game instead of just getting it from pirate sites all across the Internet? This is my friend is 1 million dollar question because whoever managed to answer this question and apply it is sure going to reap the benefit.

Long Demo Version

I have played many commercial indie games and I lost count how many times I said "Huh? That's it?" when reaching the end of demo. Short game demo gives a bad impression to the indie game scenario and it gets worse as I've seen some of them only offer just 1 hour to try it. What kind of nonsense of this? Whose comes up with this idea? I think this is one of the reason why people be tempted to pirate the game because they don't get enough time to try it.

From my experience as gamer, I need at least several hours to try any game before I can form any opinion whether I want to buy it or not. The game might play good for the first hour but later rear its ugly head for the next hours playing it.

The idea is if game developer can provide several hours of game play for player in their demo version and player enjoy playing it, player might be tempted to purchase it because they have a good experience playing it. If they enjoy the demo version, they certainly enjoy the full version. You can't achieve this effect just providing a measly 1 hour of game play for demo version. You just can't!

Unfortunately, commercial indie games that provide long hours of game play is a rare stuff. I only remember 3 examples - Geneforge series from Spiderweb Software, Depths of Peril from Soldak Entertainment and Immortal Defense from RPG Creation. I've tried both Geneforge and Depths of Peril and intend to do the same for Immortal Defense, once I get the time. If there are other commercial indie games that provide long hours of demo, it will be a good idea if you can mention it in the comment area. Your cooperation is most welcomed!

Of course there is a side effect of offering long demo version as once people get to the end of the demo, they might decide they had enough of it and decided to play another stuff. This is a valid argument. But I think I rather have player who played the game for several hours and tell their friend about it rather than having player who played the game for just 1 hour, get confused by it and tell their friend the game sucks.

Continuously Updated Special Game Content

You try to sell your commercial indie games on the Internet for $20 price. At the same time, there are plenty of pirate sites on the Internet distributing your games for $0 price aka free. How can you convince player that is worthwhile for them shelling out $20 for your game instead of getting it for free from pirate sites?

This is the reason why you need to be creative. Give player something that pirate can't offer. If you can somehow provide special game content, player might be tempted to buy the game for you instead of getting it from pirate sites. There are many ways to provide special game content:

1) You must hide several game levels and features of your game and locked it. From time to time release it gradually by giving special unlock key to player who buys your game.
2) For strategy game, you can provide your own strategy guide in PDF format. You must update it from time to time as new feature has been unlocked.
3) For role-playing or adventure game, you can provide your own walk through in PDF format. You must update it from time to time as new game levels has been unlocked.
4) Game levels, wallpapers, short stories and soundtrack that will be send from time to time for player who buy the game.

Game Must Have Tangible Value!

I suggest indie developer provide tangible value to the games they sell. For instance, for each game customer buy, they will get item or merchandise related to the game such as T-shirt, baseball cap, key chain or anything appropriate. If plenty of developers starts doing this, then we can change people perception that buying indie games is worthwhile as they can get something they can touch when buying indie game.

For a typical $20 game, we can start charging for $30 game and include $10 worth of item or merchandise. For a typical $15 game, we can start charging for $22 game and include $7 worth of item or merchandise. For a typical $10 game, we can start charging for $15 game and include $5 worth of item or merchandise.

Do not underestimate the power of tangible items can bring to any indie games. In my opinion, this is indie game developer secret weapon to minimize the damage done by pirates. Providing tangible value to games can be an effective way to persuade player to buy indie game hence minimizing the effect of piracy.

When we talk about item or merchandise, it does not necessarily mean just T-shirt. T-shirt business has been done to death so let's try to be more creative and think other item that might interests player. The point is the item must have everyday use. The more player use it, the more valuable it becomes.

If you live in developed countries, probably it's a good idea to source item from third world countries such as China. That way you can cram as much value as possible to the item since it is cheap to manufacture. Don't make money out of the item. Just pass the cost. The idea is the item provide tangible value to the game. You are not profiting from the item. You are selling a game which comes bundled with item.

I've come out with suggestion on several items are might be worthy to be used as merchandise:

1) USB flash drive with game logo on it. This day almost everyone has USB flash drive so this might look like a redundant thing but it's not. You can pre load the content of the flash drive with the full version of the game, some wallpaper goodies and special game content.
2) Pocket knife which might suitable for combat related game. I don't know whether this stuff can be shipped through parcel or not but it's worth a try.
3) Stainless steel lighter with refillable fuel. This is quite handy for smoker.
4) Baseball cap with game logo on it. This is quite handy for any outdoor activities.
5) Stainless steel watch.
6) Sunglasses. Anybody wouldn't pass up the chance to look cool wearing sunglasses.

Feel free to add more items that I might miss in the comment area.

The first problem of executing this strategy is developer have to have enough money to buy inventory of item or merchandise before hand. So to have a stock of 100 items worth $10 each, they have to fork out $1000. This is a lot of money so might not suitable for small time developer.

The second problem of executing this strategy is shipping and handling cost. Since indie developers are effectively selling to the rest of the world, the shipping and handling cost can be high especially if they sell to far away countries. This can be minimized to the certain extent if the developer choose item or merchandise that is light such as cap or T-shirt. A heavy ceramic mug is definitely a bad choice.

The third problem is current on-line payment system that specializes in digital products such as RegNow, share-it! and many others don't have a system to handle item or merchandise that bundled with selling the games. Currently if the developer want to pursue this strategy, they have to take care of item and merchandise operation by themselves and this might involves lots of work. Maybe in the future the on-line payment system have an option to handle item or merchandise operation.

OK, that's cover up the discussion on ways to minimizing commercial indie game piracy. I hope this article can shed you some lights on some creative ways that you might miss or didn't even think about it. I'm dedicating this article to indie game developer community throughout the world. May us indie game developer prosper in this trying time.
Well, happy gaming to all you guys!