The Big Leagues

The 2005 Independent Games Festival was a turning point for Metanet Software, the independent video game studio co-founded by Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard after the two met in a University of Toronto computer science class.

Metanet's first title, an elegant physics-based PC flash game called "N", had just won the festival's Audience Choice Award and was averaging between 2,000 and 3,000 downloads a day on Metanet's website, where it was offered free.

"N had racked up quite a following, and we had a user-base interested in whatever we did next," says Sheppard.

Metanet was facing the issue that all independent studios eventually have to deal with: how to convert all that loyalty and buzz into income.

Monetization can be a hard sell for indie developers who came up through the "freeware" scene, where games are created and swapped in an atmosphere of exchanging ideas.

For Burns and Sheppard, the motivation for making N profitable was so that they could realize the goal of developing video games full-time. But, it had to be on their terms.

Digital distribution has made it easier for small companies not only to share their products with customers but also to make money on them. That's because they no longer have to pay for packaging, shelf space, warehouse storage, shipping and the other costs associated with getting a game into a brick-and-mortar store.

One of the digital models Metanet first considered was PC shareware, where customers can download a demo of the game free on their computers, play it with certain restrictions – either a time limit or a limited set of features – and then pay to unlock the full version if they choose.

Another was microtransactions, where players can download the full-featured game free but pay small fees to unlock extras like bonus material and additional levels.

Full Article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/407375