How to Sell Your Doom Game

[Halfblind]

When making your own game using the Zdoom engine or one of it's child ports there are several ways not to sell your Doom game. These include but are not limited by;

 

1. Actually selling the game
2. Inserting ads into the game
3. Making physical copies and selling them

 

Here are some ways to sell your Doom game without selling the game itself.

 

1. Design a website, for the game, and host donations to keep the website up and running.
2. On your website host Ads, for other games, and earn money from the advertisements.
3. Create a YouTube video series and have fun showing people your fun Doom game.
4. Host game competitions in your area. the winner gets a percentage of the pot and so do you.
5. Sell the art, from the game, on T-shirts, prints, hats and other paraphernalia.
6. Write a book or graphic novel telling the story in your game and sell them.

 

By being creative you can make money from your game. Even if you can't sell the game itself you can sell what is rightfully yours by selling your art, your stories and your time. The possibilities are out there, you just need to see what works best for you.

 

Note: These are just ideas, I have not made any money yet from any of these. This is just an informative article and that is all.

[Scuba Steve]

Part of the hesitation in selling Urban Brawl was the ZDoom license; with so much borrowed code it was dubious whether it could be sold. I believe, since 2008, GZDoom and a few other ZDoom derivative ports removed the offending code so it should no longer be an issue, but I'd still advise against ZDoom itself as a port used in a financial transaction.

[Gez]

Yes, GZDoom is now under the GPL and can thus be used commercially, since v3.0.

[Guest Unregistered account]

37 minutes ago, Gez said:

Yes, GZDoom is now under the GPL and can thus be used commercially, since v3.0.

That's something I was worried about and am glad to hear. tHanKS gEz

[Halfblind]

Is Zandronum also under the GPL, because that would be my port of choice. I only use Zdoom as a starting point and to play single player maps. Zandronum has multiplayer via the internet so that's my selling point. Plus Zandronum still works on low end PC,s. That being said does anyone else know any other ways to make money off of a Doom engine game without actually selling the game.

[Maisth]

I do believe that if you are gonna sell a game based on any Doom source port you'll need to have everything original like Textures, Enemies , Powerups, Story ,etc.

[Jayextee]

4 minutes ago, Maisth said:

I do believe that if you are gonna sell a game based on any Doom source port you'll need to have everything original like Textures, Enemies , Powerups, Story ,etc.

Yeah but that needn't be a whole ton of work. My own SLaVE is totally-custom (even if some of the enemy behaviours are almost 1:1 with their DOOM counterparts) and most of the graphics were done over a weekend. Runs on 3DGE, by the way. Another port that will allow you to sell your own game due to being under the GPL.

[Maisth]

4 minutes ago, Jayextee said:

Yeah but that needn't be a whole ton of work. My own SLaVE is totally-custom (even if some of the enemy behaviours are almost 1:1 with their DOOM counterparts) and most of the graphics were done over a weekend. Runs on 3DGE, by the way. Another port that will allow you to sell your own game due to being under the GPL.

This is true, in my country people usually sell Pirated games for 1 or 2 Dollars and Sometimes Mods usually for GTA San andreas

[Halfblind]

4 minutes ago, Jayextee said:

Yeah but that needn't be a whole ton of work. My own SLaVE is totally-custom

This looks really fun I would play it, however, I would work on your sector brightness. Some sectors and perhaps the skybox would look better lit and some would look better dark. I think that maybe some decoration sprites would make it look a little better also.

[Jayextee]

Thanks, but I'm not soliciting feedback since (a) some of those don't work with the aesthetic I was aiming for, (b) the game has been basically complete for upwards of a year (and is being ported to Dreamcast by the Isotope/TDGmods guys) and (c) was only posted here as an example of original content that didn't take an age to create.

 

Basically, if you're creative with your aesthetic and assets, an entirely-new game in the DOOM engine (or, you know, source ports thereof) needn't be a few thousand man-hours of work.

[Halfblind]

4 minutes ago, Maisth said:

This is true, in my country people usually sell Pirated games for 1 or 2 Dollars

Let's not pirate doom, let's sell legitimate products at a legitimate price. If you have a bunch of copies, of the actual game, go ahead and sell those that's fine but, this forum is not about pirating games in any way.

[Halfblind]

@Jayextee thanks a lot.

[Gez]

49 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

Is Zandronum also under the GPL, because that would be my port of choice.

Not at the moment. I suppose they will have to move to the GPL once they catch up with the GZDoom 3 codebase, but AFAIK that's still a faraway prospect. Zandronum 3.0 (currently in-development last time I checked) is about catching up with the codebase from ZDoom 2.7.0; so catching up with GZDoom 3.0 will be for Zandronum 4.0 or perhaps 5.0.

[geo]

2 hours ago, Scuba Steve said:

Part of the hesitation in selling Urban Brawl was the ZDoom license; with so much borrowed code it was dubious whether it could be sold. I believe, since 2008, GZDoom and a few other ZDoom derivative ports removed the offending code so it should no longer be an issue, but I'd still advise against ZDoom itself as a port used in a financial transaction.

I enjoyed your Action Dooms. You should get money for them.

 

[EmotionalFelineinaMadstate]

52 minutes ago, Gez said:

Zandronum 3.0 (currently in-development last time I checked) is about catching up with the codebase from ZDoom 2.7.0; so catching up with GZDoom 3.0 will be for Zandronum 4.0 or perhaps 5.0.

I can't wait to play Zandronum 4.0 in 3,000,000 years.