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Indie Devs! Join the DRM-free revolution, reach more people, get an advance on royalties.

GOG.com, in our continued efforts to bring you all the best games in history for PC and Mac, is looking to make it easier for indie game devs to submit their game to GOG.com. To that end, we have launched a new portal on GOG.com today, containing the essential information on the way we work with our indie partners, and an easy entry form providing direct contact with our team. All this, and more, found under the URL:

www.gog.com/indie

For those of you who are fans of GOG.com the service, this doesn't mean much of a change, except that we hope we will have ever more exciting indie games to release while we continue our schedule of regular awesome classics as well. For those of you who are developing games, though, we hope to make this a painless process where you can be sure that you will hear honest feedback from us about your game and where we want it on GOG.com.

We are also disclosing our revenue share--a 70/30 share, as is industry standard--unless we offer you an advance on your royalties, in which case it's a 60/40 share until we have recouped the cost of your advance. There's been some speculation on the part of developers in the past as to what it is that we offer indie devs, and we wanted to make sure that was clear up front. We've invited some of our indie dev friends to talk briefly about the experience of putting their game on GOG,com, and here's what they had to say:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oqIc7vix2YU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you're a fan of classic games, brace yourself for a thundering great RPG on Thursday. If you're a dev, fill out the form today, to join the DRM-free revolution, reach more people with your work, and possibly get an advance on royalties!
Post edited August 20, 2013 by TheEnigmaticT
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Zoidberg: Humble store releases:
- DRM Free versions
- Steam key
- Same price in dollars
- Usually windows/mac/linux

Well, it still stays a "vitrine" for indie devs though, but as a client I prefer Humble releases.
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nijuu: humble can go drop dead.
Is it just a hateful response directed at me or do you intend to actually argument?
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SmashManiac: Love that simple form. When I'll go indie, I'll remember that.

Although, GOG.com keeps 30% for indie games? That's disappointing news to me. I was expecting a better deal considering the competition. Obviously I'm just talking at face value, but that's my impression.

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Austrobogulator: I want Gog trading cards! :o
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SmashManiac: I seriously hope you were sarcastic there. I hate this kind of psychological manipulation bullshit. It's the worst feature ever added to Steam since launch.
I disagree with you: I won between 25 and 30€ since I started selling them. :D
Post edited August 20, 2013 by Zoidberg
GOG, how could you?!?

In the "Meet our dev friends" list, I'm pretty sure you have a Finnish last name written wrong:

Anne & Ville Mönkönnen,
creators of Driftmoon

Should probably be:

Anne & Ville Mönkkönen,
creators of Driftmoon

I know the double-consonants and double-vowels are tricky to foreigners, but come on. Here, say this out loud 100 times, quickly:

Kokoo koko kokko kokoon.
Koko kokkoko?
Koko kokko.

And before you complain Finnish words and names are hard to write, come on, I remember when I tried to spell out Polish street names from the map when I was visiting Warsaw,,,
Post edited August 20, 2013 by timppu
The more options for Indies to release their games the better.

Look we live in a gaming world dominated by closed console systems and huge AAA studio's that really don't want anyone taking their share of the pie, even if there is plenty to go around. Unless you love war-themed FPS shooters, this is a pretty bleak gaming habitat (for the large part).

Steam is the pink elephant in the corner, pretending to not be like the AAA publishers (but really it is). So anything GoG can do to improve the 'democracy' of the gaming landscape, the better.

Indies are going to be the foot soldiers on this new front, and they will win us the war, not all of us know that now, but it is already underway (has been for a good few years now).

No indie has the resources of a AAA publisher, so things will start out rough, but it will improve, and one day your children will be able to play games that are NOT just military FPS shooters and the world will be a better place, full of all sorts of interesting and varied game experiences, and the quality will improve as the Indies get better at their craft.

In short, well done GoG, and this is going to be good for everyone (except the big AAA studios and Steam, so expect some push-back!).
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Shaolin_sKunk: I don't understand how not buying something is interesting.
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Zeewolf: I think he means that it's a much better deal to buy indies through Humble Store.
I find Humble Store's DRM-free installers (or lack there-of) lacking. Odd and incoherent naming (sometimes you can't even tell the name of the game from the filename), incoherent formatting (sometimes exe-installers, sometimes standalone zip files, sometimes zipped exe-installers, the installers are of various different kinds, etc. etc. etc.). Not to mention that I don't think they offer separate patches like GOG does, but always require you to re-download the whole game if it gets updated (at least I don't recall seeing them offering separate patches).

It seems the DRM-free installers, and the whole Humble Store overall (which is still in beta, after all this time), is just a second thought to HB. Maybe they make so much more money as a Steam/Origin key sellers that they couldn't care less anymore about their own store and infrastructure.

So for someone like me who is not only (or at all) after the Steam keys, GOG installers are preferable. Naturally, you can't beat Humble Bundles "pay what you want" pricing, but those deals are time-limited, and usually mean you end up buying the same games several times on overlapping bundles.
Post edited August 20, 2013 by timppu
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Barry_Woodward: I'd like to see GOG get into the indie bundle business. It would be an effective way to release titles that have been around the block a few times but that still deserve a place in the catalog. Some games that fit the bill: […]
Interesting. I am only buying Humble Bundles since December 2011 and I already have got 11 out of the 14 games you mentioned (Trine 2 only on Steam but was cheap).
But some of the games do not sell as DRM-free versions, except from the temporary Humble Bundles. I exemplarily looked at Trine2, which is sold for 20$ as DRM-free Linux version and as Steam key for Windows/Mac.

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SmashManiac: Although, GOG.com keeps 30% for indie games? That's disappointing news to me. I was expecting a better deal considering the competition. Obviously I'm just talking at face value, but that's my impression.
I was sure since GOG started with indie games that they will take around 30%. It’s just a standard and a reasonable share.
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timppu: I find Humble Store's DRM-free installers (or lack there-of) lacking. Odd and incoherent naming (sometimes you can't even tell the name of the game from the filename), incoherent formatting (sometimes exe-installers, sometimes standalone zip files, sometimes zipped exe-installers, the installers are of various different kinds, etc. etc. etc.). Not to mention that I don't think they offer separate patches like GOG does, but always require you to re-download the whole game if it gets updated (at least I don't recall seeing them offering separate patches).

It seems the DRM-free installers, and the whole Humble Store overall (which is still in beta, after all this time), is just a second thought to HB. Maybe they make so much more money as a Steam/Origin key sellers that they couldn't care less anymore about their own store and infrastructure.
I'm pretty sure that the packaging of games on the Humble Store is entirely up to the developers/publishers and the Humble Store simply hosts them.
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tfishell: Still, I hope at GDC some of the staff have time to talk to rights holders of classic titles, or the big three publishers we still need. (I still can't believe you guys apparently lost one of them; not your fault of course, but who pulls out at the last second?!)
I hope not Privateer 2?
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timppu: GOG, how could you?!?

In the "Meet our dev friends" list, I'm pretty sure you have a Finnish last name written wrong:

Anne & Ville Mönkönnen,
creators of Driftmoon

Should probably be:

Anne & Ville Mönkkönen,
creators of Driftmoon

I know the double-consonants and double-vowels are tricky to foreigners, but come on. Here, say this out loud 100 times, quickly:

Kokoo koko kokko kokoon.
Koko kokkoko?
Koko kokko.

And before you complain Finnish words and names are hard to write, come on, I remember when I tried to spell out Polish street names from the map when I was visiting Warsaw,,,
I passed that on. Should be fixed soon. Sorry about that.
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adamhm: I'm pretty sure that the packaging of games on the Humble Store is entirely up to the developers/publishers and the Humble Store simply hosts them.
Exactly. So, HB obviously doesn't really care to maintain them themselves, like GOG does. All the more reason to suspect that maybe they go full "keys to other services only" at some point, and closing down their own download servers as obsolete (or at least not adding more games to them).

Offering GOG keys (in HB) would be pretty nice too. In my opinion HB could make it so that in order to get keys to several services at the same time, you'd have to pay a little bit of extra. In that case I would choose only GOG keys, where applicable.

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JudasIscariot: I passed that on. Should be fixed soon. Sorry about that.
Sorry, forgot a smiley. :)
Post edited August 20, 2013 by timppu
This is amazing! Great to see a real push. Never mind "indie," this is about variety on the service, something GOG is quickly leading the pack in!

Just remember, the best way to deal with "indie" games now is how you've done so all along with titles like FTL, Legend of Grimrock and Hotline Miami - nothing less than what the "big guys" get. You look like you're sticking to that, which is good.

BTW, there's no need - at all - to go the humble bundle route. You're better off having indies included in the proper sales and having those more frequently. GOG users know good games wherever they come from.
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HunterZ: GOG.com needs to buy the GIG.com (get it? "Good Indie Games") domain and use it to form a sister site for selling indie games.

Selling indie games on an "old games" site is diluting the brand a bit.
Nah, I prefer downloading and maintaining all my GOG games, new or old, from one site, not several.

That is a similar demand as that Steam should have indie and AAA titles on two different services and clients, like "steampowered.com" and "nuclearenabled.com". I'm pretty sure Steam users rather have all their Steam games in one service.
Post edited August 20, 2013 by timppu
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adamhm: I'm pretty sure that the packaging of games on the Humble Store is entirely up to the developers/publishers and the Humble Store simply hosts them.
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timppu: Exactly. So, HB obviously doesn't really care to maintain them themselves, like GOG does. All the more reason to suspect that maybe they go full "keys to other services only" at some point, and closing down their own download servers as obsolete (or at least not adding more games to them).

Offering GOG keys (in HB) would be pretty nice too. In my opinion HB could make it so that in order to get keys to several services at the same time, you'd have to pay a little bit of extra. In that case I would choose only GOG keys, where applicable.

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JudasIscariot: I passed that on. Should be fixed soon. Sorry about that.
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timppu: Sorry, forgot a smiley. :)
Aaaaaaand fixed :P
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Mivas: Awesome news. I really like to see and hear how forthcoming you are towards your indie partners. That's why I'm buying every interesting indie game without Linux version here. :) Now where is Cognition and pre-order button for Blackwell Epiphany? :P

Oh, and by the way, the initial post didn't interpret iframe tag properly.
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Novotnus: I don't think Dave is ready to put the game on pre-order, haven't heared anything specific about release date other than fall \ winter 2013. I hope he'll have a demo for pre-orderers, like he did with Resonance and Primordia :)
Cognition - I'm still waiting for Episode 4 - they keep us hanging on that cliff far too long :)
Oh, and Downfall needs to be here :)
Yeah, I know. He has posted like 2 screens and is still working on it. I'd just like to fast forward and Pre-order gives the illussion of "Soon". :)
I so agree about Cognition. However Katie said in a Pinkerton's forum that it should be out this Fall hopefully. I belive that bringing Phoenix Studios in the house would be a wise move because they are starting to publish other indie games like WadjetEye does. The latest addition was Face Noir from an Italian developer. Welcoming them would mean getting an access to more "brands".

Speaking of new indie devs, I'd like to see Winter Wolves here. The developer is super customer-friendly and Loren is a great crossover between visual novel and RPG.

EDIT: I think it makes more sense to offer demo to general public. Pre-ordering people have already played previous episodes and know what to expect unless a new customer who needs to be convinced.
Post edited August 20, 2013 by Mivas
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tfishell: Well, then, hopefully they'll be able to convince more big publishers to bring their AAA games here (and their classics), if they expect to compete with Steam.
Hope so. But at least this move shows that GOG is still determined to be at least some kind of competitor or at least alternative to Steam and keep improving their own service/infrastructure, unlike the likes of Greenmangaming, GamersGate, Amazon and HumbleStore which seem to be in a process of slowly but surely running down their own services, and rather just sell keys to other digital stores (like Steam and/or Origin)
.
When was the last time someone has bought a game from Greenmangaming that is not a Steam key, but a game using GMG's own "capsule" service?

(sound of crickets in the background, oh and someone apparently dropped her pin back there as well)
Post edited August 20, 2013 by timppu
Nearly a year ago I tweeted Nicalis (developer/publisher of games like Cave Story+ and The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth) about releasing their games on GOG.

They responded:

"We'd be on their service if they could match everyone's standard 70/30 rev share."

Now that the rev share is public knowledge, I'll be sure to send them the link but it'd be nice if someone from GOG could contact them personally to get them on board.
Post edited August 20, 2013 by Barry_Woodward