Archive for May, 2010

1. Self-publishing lessons learned from James Brown of Ancient Workshop

   May 27, 2010

   Welcome to the first in a series of 12 posts from games developers who have taken the brave step into self-publishing. They have all contributed to How to Publish a Game, and you can get the first two chapters absolutely free here. James Brown spent ten years working for various British game companies before moving [...]

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   Posted in: Lessons Learned

   Tagged with: ancient frog, ancient workshop, iphone, james brown, self-publishing

   3 Comments

2. Five reasons why Steam will destroy the PC games industry

   May 26, 2010

   In the feedback for How to Publish a Game, one element stood out. I had suggested that it made sense for a developer making PC games to work hard to get on all the distribution platforms. Not just Steam, but GamersGate, Metaboli, Direct2Drive and so on. Bollocks came the resounding response. No-one wanted to be [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution, Featured

   Tagged with: monopoly, pc, starred, steam, valve

   90 Comments

3. Buy How to Publish a Game now

   May 26, 2010

   How to Publish a Game is here! All of sudden, anyone can publish (even me). But there are a lot of skills you need to publish: sales, marketing, distribution, finance… In this world of digital distribution, anyone who makes games suddenly needs to learn a whole bunch of new skills. Which is where How to [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: gamesbrief, how to publish a game, self-publishing

   6 Comments

4. And the winner is…

   May 21, 2010

   Thank you for your feedback. You’ve voted in your, well, dozens, and there was a clear winner. With 70% of the vote (and more if I include all the comments), my ebook will look like this: Well, it will look a bit like this, only higher res and better quality. Oh, and there will be [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: gamesbrief, how to publish a game, self-publishing

   2 Comments

5. GAMESbrief is changing

   May 21, 2010

   Regular readers will know that I am about to publish my ebook, a 200 page guide called How to Publish a Game. It’s due out on Tuesday 25th May. It will mark a transition for GAMESbrief. I’ve been writing GAMESbrief for about 18 months now. It’s been fun. My posts have got shorter, quicker to [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: gamesbrief, self-publishing

   4 Comments

6. DRM: necessary evil or consumer insult

   May 21, 2010

   I was recently interviewed by Will Porter (@batsphinx) for PC Zone’s feature on DRM, and particularly Ubisoft’s draconian measures. I’ve transcribed my bit below. You should read the full article on PC DRM on GamesRadar. Nicholas Lovell, founder of Gamesbrief, is an expert in the business of gaming. We got in touch to find out [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution, Featured

   Tagged with: digital rights management, drm, interview, pc zone, piracy, starred, ubisoft

   3 Comments

7. Are EA trying to emulate Evony?

   May 20, 2010

   I saw this ad on GAMESbrief today: It’s a rotating ad, and when I watched it rotate through its (too long) sequence, I discovered it was for Lord of Ultima, EA’s free to play version of my favourite game of all time. (Ultima IV, in case you wondered). The problem is that I expected it [...]

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   Posted in: Marketing

   Tagged with: evony, lord of ultima

   3 Comments