Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Show Me The Sales

cliffski

Today marks the launch of the first Show Me The Sales promotion. This is a big bunch of high quality indie games all being sold at a discount. it’s not like a normal games bundle, where there is a central seller taking a cut, and you have all-or-nothing. It’s essentially a collection of indie games sold direct by the developer, which are all on sale at the same time. Plus every one has handy videos:

http://www.showmethegames.com/sales.php

This is my little side project, and is a way to encourage indie pc devs to sell direct, and for gamers to remember what it’s like to buy direct. It’s really no hassle at all, and you get the satisfaction of ALL of the money going to the developer.

Anyone who is suspicious and thinks I must be making money from it somehow, I’m not. I see it as being in my long term indirect self-interest to maintain a healthy direct sales channel for indie developers. That’s all.

Please tell your friends, there are some great games there at great prices, and it’s only lasting 14 days.

8 thoughts on Show Me The Sales

  1. Hi there Cliff,

    I checked your “show me the games” site, which I find to be a very cool idea. I also checked “show me the sales”.

    Now, while I think buying straight from the devs, as you state to be the case with the site, is an extraordinary thing I found out however that some games offered as “on sale” on your site actually turn out to be more expensive than buying the same game in other places (like Gamersgate or Impulse).

    For example Frozen Synapse. Buying from “show me the sales” with a 60% discount costs you $24.99 (the regular version). I could not find the place to put the promo code… while at Impulse you can get Frozen Synapse + Soundtrack (better than the regular version I think) for $17.22 (on a current sale period). In gamersgate you can buy the regular version for $19.95 (I don’t think it is on sale ..) So, what’s going on? Maybe I could not find the place to put the promo code?

    Another example would be AI War Alien Bundle. Through “show me the sales” it costs you $14.99 but at Impulse (current has that on sale) it also costs you $14.99. Ok, maybe it’s a temporary price at Impulse, but it is also a temporary price at “show me the games” also right?

    With Gratuitous Space Battles (your game) I get this message when I try to buy “The discount code you provided cannot be used at this time. (The discount scheme, to which this code belongs, is not active). Your order was not processed.”

    So, while “buying straight from the devs” is a noble and advisable thing to do, it seems that games can turn out to be more expensive when bought from here than buying someplace else. I confirm that other games (like SPAZ) you do get a discount, but with other titles that does not seem to be the case.

    Please don’t interpret this comment of mine in a bad way, I’m just trying to figure out if this is as good as it sounds :) Maybe I did something wrong, if so please let me know. Cheers.

  2. I’ve just changed the GSB discount code so it starts from yesterday, because I suspect it’s set to US time, and it might therefore not be active yet. It should eb fine now, thanks for letting me know.
    Each dev is handling his own discount stuff, it may be that the discount code gets entered differently on difeerent order forms?

  3. Yeah, I also checked some of the links. You can’t enter the discount codes for all of the games because at some developers pages there are no spaces to enter the codes, and going to paypal doesn’t let a space appear either. So I’m not sure if I get a discount on some of those games because it doesn’t show up on the respective pages anywhere (and I mean pages where there IS a discount code, I’m aware some of the sellers don’t use one(it’s indicated on some of the buttons)). Maybe you should contact them again.
    Regarding buying directly from the developers: That’s the way I go most of the time, starting with Gratuitous Space Battles (and all addons except the campaign). I always try buying from the developer’s websites when they offer their games there, I avoid using Steam etc.

  5. Could you please add links to the website of the games, other than just the video? Now the option is ‘watch video’ or ‘buy game’ – I actually prefer to /read/ a bit about the games :)

  7. *sigh*. Tried everything, can’t get Frozen Synapse with the discount. Been waiting for an opportunity like this. Guess I’ll have to wait for the Steam chrissy sale and hope Frozen Synapse is on there :(

  8. Hah, I seem to have cunningly avoided the sale, but I’m very glad to know about the site. Looks like I won’t have much money for christmas presents this year.

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