The benefits of Direct2Drive for Indie Game Developers

The benefits of Direct2Drive…

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/direct-to-drive-podcast.mp3

Or listen to it here…

Show Notes:
Interviewer: I’m at the San Francisco Game Developers Conference, and with me today is a special guest. How about you introduce yourself.

Damon: Hi, my name is Damon Marshall and I’m Director of Content Acquisition for Direct2Drive.

Interviewer: What exactly is Direct2Drive?

Damon: Direct2Drive is a marketplace for the IGN Network whereby people can go to our site, purchase and download video games of many different genres.

Interviewer: Is it just downloadable? Is it also flash and multi-player?

Damon: Typically, they are specifically downloads. Some of the games do incorporate multi-player if that functionality has been invented and integrated into the game itself.

Interviewer: How would indies benefit from this? I mean, what kind of games do you distribute? If an indie developer wants to get on to your guys’ portal, how do they go about doing it?

Damon: So, there’s a big benefit for indie developers. A lot of indie guys that make their games, after it’s been completed they have a challenge to market and promote their game. They can contact Direct2Drive on which there is an email form that you can fill out on our website. We will take a look at every individual game. We tend to like high quality games even in the indie category.

We will reach out to them, acquire the assets and the files necessary to post them on Direct2Drive, and then we have the opportunity to market and promote those games through the IGN Network, so IGN.com, GameSpy. And getting the IGN editorials involved to see if they want to review the game. Those types of things are available not only to the AAA guys but also to the indie community.

Interviewer: How long does the process take to try to get approved, to get it on the distribution channels, stuff like that?

Damon: We usually take a look at the game within one to two days of getting a submission. Once that’s been completed and approved, all we need from the indie developer is the executable or if they want to build their own installer, we can take the full installer and post that on Direct2Drive. It’s literally a purchase and download. No client involved or anything like that, just a straight download.

Interviewer: What types of games do you look for?

Damon: Certainly, unique games but we are experimenting with all various types. A game that just came out last week called The Path is being touted as more of an art exploration as opposed to a game. But, we also have games like PuzzleGetting which, you know, is more of a puzzle oriented multi-player combat sort of game, role playing games, first person shooter platform, whatever.

Indie is such an open art form and the barriers or the “rules” bend and some of the bigger guys because they feel like it sells well, sort of go out the window. We’re looking for just different and unique and somewhat crazy and fun. We’ll try to promote it in the correct way to let people know that, hey there’s more to gaming than just your average textbook first person shooter.

Interviewer: Since you’re distributing a lot of games, if someone submits to you, how do they differentiate themselves from all of the other games and how does that promotion work?

Damon: Well, I would recommend that when you submit to Direct2Drive that you have either a workable demo or the full game that we can review. Screenshots are always helpful as well as a trailer that we can take a look at, but we’ll go through the game play. We have a team that takes a look at the games and makes their own opinion.

Also, if you’ve already had some press, maybe, some reviews from various sites that we can look at so that we know that not just our team is taking a look at it and likes it. That also helps. We go through that full process. If we like what we see, we get back to these guys and let them know that we are ready to roll.

Interviewer: You guys recently had a contest. Are you going to have another contest, and can you talk about that contest some more? I think it’s related to indie game development, or was it something different?

Damon: Well, we are a sponsor of the Independent Game Festival. I think that might be what you are referring to. We are giving out an award this evening at the show. It’s called the Direct2Drive Vision Award, and essentially we went through a judging process similar to what the IGF does in their various categories and came up with four finalists of which we will award the $10,000 prize to the winner this evening.

Yes is the answer to whether we want to continue doing this sort of thing. The reason for the award, the reason to get involved is really sending a message to the independent community saying, we want to help you guys not just with this $10,000 cash prize to the winner so that there will be additional great games but to tell the indie community that we are another channel by which they can promote and distribute their games.

Interviewer: I think GameSpy has some special indie program now. Can you talk about that some more?

Damon: Absolutely. So, again, the message to the indie community that we are trying to support and help them. GameSpy technology which typically has been utilized by all the AAA publishers which include hefty licensing fees to use the technology, we have decided to offer up the same technology to indie developers at no cost. So that they can get familiar with our tact integrated and down the road as they grow and potentially become bigger, they will continue to use the GameSpy technology.

Interviewer: Where can they find out more information about this and the tools that are available?

Damon: Powerbygamespy.com is the first place to go for information on the various SDKs that we offer.

Interviewer: Any last info then for other indies who want to potentially leverage your distribution channel?

Damon: Just continue to make great games and don’t be afraid to contact us. We’re looking at everything. We’re very open minded, and we’re very well invested in the success of these indie developers. We really believe that it’s the independent game movement that will continue to push the PC gaming platform to greater and bigger markets.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.