About the subject though. It's the same as always, you have to fight to make a name for yourself. A groups' first product almost never sells well! Then the word of mouth does its job and by the time you release your 2nd or 3rd product people will know you and more easily buy your stuff.
About feedback... It's difficult. As a programmer, I like hearing from people that use my products, even if it is negative. But as a user, I do not feel like emailing an author when I like his program either. I tend to think "he probably has enough other things to do with his time".

I think the 'no sales, no feedback' argument is just a poor excuse for reasons they do not want to express.

snout,

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many interesting MSX groups like Bandwagon, Mark Jelsma and TeddyWareZ stopped creating new products for MSX as there were low/no sales and mostly only negative feedback.

count me out, i do not meet that profile so no "poor excuses" from me!

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> many interesting MSX groups like Bandwagon, Mark Jelsma and TeddyWareZ stopped creating new products for MSX as there were low/no sales and mostly only negative feedback. count me out, i do not meet that profile so no "poor excuses" from me!

What? You've made it quite clear in other messages on this forum and elsewhere that you quit because your first and only game didn't sell well!
Now you say that's not the case, then what is your excuse?

i am not going to give u an excuse. And btw: my first game (and not the only) sold very well (not that im proud of it LOL).

u amuse me with this lack of knowledge.

Why don't you just make sure you write proper english? Do try not to contradict yourself either.

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Wouldn't it be nice if some new people would help on those issues? Maybe it's a good idea to place an ad in stead of just the 'Join our Team' in the menu.

We consider doing this in a later stage of this 'project'.

Well, I don't know how are things on Europe, but I'll tell you my experience as a MSX-game developer here in Brazil.

First, I just signed the MSX Brazilian mail list, and started to talk with people there. Then, I started to show up on the IRC channel, and started to chat on a daily base with everyone.

One of those days, an idea came up - as a joke - that we could make the "Show do milhão" (a brazilian show like "who wants to be a millionaire" on MSX, just like the PC version. We made a lot of jokes, but the idea was stuck on my mind.

I spent all the time doing the program, and decided to go to a fair and show it. I had no real MSX, so I was only working on emulators, and I knew noone for real. Just some "nicks" over the internet.

On MSX-RJ 2001, I ran the first version of the game on Adriano's (UZIX author) Turbo-R. He loved the program, and told me he would help me out putting some voices on it. Just a few people saw the "demo", but they all thought it was cool.

Next year, with the help of Adriano, I had the final working version. Made a box for the game, printed some and took it to MSX-RJ 2002. In the mean time, I also made Breakfree, and took it also with me to the fair.

Well, there was like 50-80 people there, and I sold more than 10 copies of each game. People stopped before my MSX and started to comment about the game! If THAT isn't a good and motivating feedback, I don't know what it is =)

People were so interested on my games, and how I did them, I even gave a lecture on the fair about the games, and how to develop them.

Also, last year I also went to MSX-Jau 2002 - and I sold almos every copy I had on my hands.

The bottom line is: If you want feedback, go to MSX fairs, announce your programs in mail lists, etc. Also, developing new things also helps a lot.

I totally agree that is rather difficult to buy any new game if you dont go to fairs, but then again it cost money to setup some "selling site". I know that the costs to setup an online store here in Brazil is way more than I will ever make selling my games (each one cost R$10, something like US$3)

I'm right now developing another MSX Game I started last month [SECRET!][SECRET!] and the few people who saw it, really liked. I hope to show it on MSX-RJ 2003, But as it is I still don't know if I will be able to make or not the game =P

Well, I think that's it =))

I think one of the problems in the NL is that we had kind of an golden age when it comes to MSX. Things were way out of proportion back then. For instance, we of Flying Bytes would take 200 Not Again! games with us and were sold out at something like 15.00. Selling 'only' 20 copies in later fairs soon becomes some sort of a disappointment.

But I agree. Announce your products on the major mailinglists and websites, and you will get some attention, feedback and customers for sure.

Registering with Paypal is slow... it took me a month before I could complete my registration. Once you've got it it's easy to use though (although it's not too cheap if you're on the receiving end)(not too expensive either ).

~Grauw

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Registering with Paypal is slow... it took me a month before I could complete my registration.

My registration went A LOT faster, I think it was less than a week. All I can say is thank god for paypal!

..either way, our plans are starting to get interesting lately...
still, we have some other priorities which have to be dealt first, but we'll introduce something nice this year. I think... errr.. I promise!! no err... probably