[Enter the Story]

I am currently putting together a business case to get investment in a game I am making. So I am very interested in games that have done the same thing before me. The only example I can find is Gilbert Goodmate. As far as I can tell from Google, Goodmate was made by a team of amateurs for an investment of $380,000, and it went on to sell pretty well. Probably not well enough to cover its costs I suspect, though I could be wrong.

Does anyone know of any other "amateur" adventure games that have sold well on a commercial footing? Does anyone have any firm figures about Goodmates sales? One site says the PDA version was downloaded nearly 7,000 tiems at $19 a pop - which seems pretty impressive, though it had the advantage of being the first ever adventure game ported to PDA. But beyond that I have no idea how well it sold.

Where are the successful amateur games?

[GoT]

if the company involved had shareholders then you should be able to access any information on it that you want. if not then you might want to try email or write to the company.. or use the good old telephone...

dunno what else could help sorry.

GoT

[Enter the Story]

Originally Posted by GoT

if the company involved had shareholders then you should be able to access any information on it that you want. if not then you might want to try email or write to the company.. or use the good old telephone...
dunno what else could help sorry.
GoT

Thanks. As far as I can tell from interviews, the company was not public. Nillson (the team leader) got a job at EA games, and the investor, Clearwater, no longer exists. I tried phoning and got number unobtainable, and their web site is now cybersquatted. They may have merged merged with another company (Crystal-Interactive UK, not to be confused with the American company with a similar name) and focused on console games instead, but that was a few years ago now. I'm just piecing it together from Googled references. It sounds like all the people involved have moved on and forgotten about the game, though I could be wrong.

Either way, I am interested in finding other games like this - where making a game in your garage leads to fame and glory. I'll keep looking.

[Ariel Type]

Darkfall, Rhem, Scratches, Amber..

[colpet]

Quiet Weekend in Capri

[Enter the Story]

Thanks! I hadn't found those. I'll track them down.

I also found Dark Fall - that was a one man game and sold VERY well. The Adventures of Fatman was also offered for commercial sale, but it doesn't offer anything you can't get for free, so didn't sell well.

The one I can't understand is "Eye of The Kraken." It seems like an OK game, for a reasonable price ($15) yet it only sold 300 copies. Does anyone know why? I have my own theories, but I would like to know what others think. Did people even know about it?

[jannar85]

Last thing I heard, they was working on a sequel.
Gilbert Goodmate 2.

[Fien]

I hope Shadow Tor Studios will soon join the ranks of successful indies. I'm currently playing Barrow Hill and having a great time.

Read the AG review!

[colpet]

Here's a good resource page for indie games:
http://www.gameboomers.com/independentsday.html

[stuboy]

Originally Posted by jannar85

Last thing I heard, they was working on a sequel.
Gilbert Goodmate 2.

I am currently having a cardiac arrest with all the excitement that possibility is creating

[eriq]

Does anyone in the US have a copy of this they want to sell to me?

[Captain Blondebeard]

Originally Posted by eriq

Does anyone in the US have a copy of this they want to sell to me?

I do. Check your PMs.

[dazsin]

Gilbert Goodmate was originally planned for the Amiga I belive, and took several years to make, and was moved to the PC after the Amiga declined.

I absolutely LOVED Gilbert Goodmate, and if they do a sequel I will buy it the day its released.

[BerserkerTails]

What about Future Boy? I played the demo, and thought that was great. Never got around to buying it, but I wonder how it sold.

[Ariel Type]

BerserkerTails

What about Future Boy?

It is a shareware text adventure. I doubt it sold well (at least comparing to commercial titles)

[Agustin]

Are you certain about the 380k investment figure for Gilbert? I find that awfully hard to believe. Unless you mean gross revenues - that would be a tad more realistic.

There have been bigger titles developed for 200k. Heck, 60k is a resonable investment for an indie adventure and even professional adventures are being made for 150k.

Also, don't be deceived about the 7,000 downloads (unless that comes directly from their website). Portals can take a lot from that revenue - could be 40-60%. Probably worse in most cases (I hear for instance the cellphone market is a total crap in this regard).

You could probably try reaching them as someone else suggested!

[SirDave]

Some general comments:

Future Boy is marketed more as a commercial venture rather than a shareware product. For instance, even though it is not a particularly large game, originally, you had to order it on CDROM only. There was no download version until later on- too late IMO. I don't think that it has sold all that well- I think it would have done a lot better if it had been originally marketed as shareware and with downloading. I bought it myself and though I was impressed with the work that went into it as a text adventure, I was underwhelmed with it as a product that had the substance to be marketed as a major product the way it is.

http://www.cafepress.com/futureboy

One thing that should be mentioned about Gilbert Goodmate is that its PocketPC version has been a major seller. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if those sales have rivalled or surpassed the PC version. It's just one beautiful, fun game on a PPC PDA!

http://www.z-logics.com/index2.html

[crabapple]

Originally Posted by tolworthy

I am currently putting together a business case to get investment in a game I am making. So I am very interested in games that have done the same thing before me. The only example I can find is Gilbert Goodmate. As far as I can tell from Google, Goodmate was made by a team of amateurs for an investment of $380,000, and it went on to sell pretty well. Probably not well enough to cover its costs I suspect, though I could be wrong.

Not exactly a success story.
One of the developers posted
this
to the adventure game newsgroup back in 2001, not long after the game came out.

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by crabapple

Not exactly a success story.
One of the developers posted
this
to the adventure game newsgroup back in 2001, not long after the game came out.

As far as I read, the bankruptcy had little to do with Gilbert Goodmate sales.

--Erwin

[crabapple]

But a lot to do with whether the people who actually worked on the game got anything back on their investment.