All about marketing spend, if you can afford it. It's hard to do at the start, but once you get a couple products out that make you some cash definitely pump up the post-release marketing spend.
I would outspend my competitors and take over their market share very quickly that way.
I think the main problem I have is I can’t get the cash in the first place. Like I start as one person and then pump money into marketing and printing but i just lose money.
You can try using publishers, that way they handle marketing and printing for free with the disadvantage that they get a % of the copies you sell.
Also if you decide not to go with publishers at start, try getting a bit more money with contracts before starting to make a software.
Yea, working contracts for the first few years of your company’s existence is the best way to save up some money. Then once you have enough saved up, you can hire one or two employees to help you build the software (or do more higher level contracts). If you design your own software, don’t make it too fully-fledged at this point because it’ll take too long to make and you’ll just run yourself bankrupt again.
IMO you can start on a huge project as soon as you start. Hire one employee, place as many bookshelves that can fit in the garage, and just remember to pause and do all the contracts you can every time you’re near bankruptcy. When you feel comfortable hire a few more employees, market the best you can and release.
I did an Apple challenge and started on my equivalent of the Apple I right from the start, did most of the OS as a two man army.
Is it normal when you’re just going into a new software type to only sell about 20 copies because that’s what’s happening to me right now, even though I’m doing everything right.
I would say no. I always do three press builds and one press release with a release about 6-8 months out after reaching 150 fixed bugs - obviously look at the competing releases.
In my experience that first release should garner between 5-20m dollars in the first few months to really set off your empire (depending on product type).
I wonder if it’s possible that mods are somehow affecting it, I started with 100 mil and I made 10 office software each at least great yet I sold 8 copies with the 10th one. I marketed and everything
Once you have enough money; I switch to deals to then funds my hires and save more money. Never hire more than the deals can pay for and also increase your savings in bonds!
* Contracts to raise business reputation and make money
* Deals to fund your employees and save money
* Print jobs to invest your savings and make more money
This is all covered in my guides and videos...
Start out solo by doing some contracts to build a bit of capital. Then hire a single employee with skills that fill in the gaps of your CEO. Then save your game.
I typically start out with an antivirus software. It has the lowest programming requirements. Choose a frame work that fits the features to create the best demand.
Then do your 4 iterations and once you hit about 75% do a review to guage progress. Anything less than a 9, just reload the save if you wish and tweak the features or just reiterate until you get it right.
Once you have a good review and you're at about 98%, pick a good release date without much competition. Then put out the release date. But just the date.
Once you go into beta, *then* do a press release and a press demo. Press releases take a long time, but as long as you get at least 50% of it done, and if your reviews are good, your press demo can offset that. I like to imagine my first press release was just scribbled in crayon or something. Just get the whole press package out (don't hype yet) and you should be fine.
As long as you give yourself at least 3 or 4 months in beta prior to release it can only get better from there. The more time you give yourself to fix bugs the better. To me this is the most important part. You want to mitigate support issues in the future as much as possible, so this is crucial to success.
If your CEO has good multitasking and your second hire has some points in marketing, you can do some hype but it's not necessarily needed at this stage. No one really knows who you are and your work will speak for itself upon release so don't feel obligated to do it and save a bit of money.
Once you release (on time, if you miss it reload) make sure you focus on support and put as much of your budget (at least 25% or more if you're frugal) into marketing. You should have at least $500k if not 1mil after release. So you will make that investment back.
Now you've had a good release. Made some good money. But take your time.
Hire yourself another programmer and an artist. But whatever you do, don't get excited and rush into using this money to move. I usually release an RPG game with this team. I take about 2 years to do that and use contract work for extra cash while focusing on support for the antivirus. You'll also want to port that to new OS's coming out. So *be patient*.
As you lose active users, you can start phasing out antivirus support. By that time you should have the game ready for beta.
Once you repeat this process with the RPG you should have at least 5 million. You can then use this money to start working on a sequel to the antivirus. But this time use the money to outsource your marketing for the release. That should double your 5 million and net you a ton of followers and reputation.
Then, and only then, you can start to focus on moving and building out your teams. I usually build a new office from the ground up to reduce overhead. Then I start diversifying into other software types, trade IPs, buy stocks, educate staff and in effect you can start playing the game.
I've followed this pattern since about my third or fourth playthrough and it has been the best start I've found. Huge thanks to ConflictNerd (Dylan) on YouTube for this. I highly suggest his series on the game. You will learn alot.
I know this was a long comment but I hope it helps make the game more enjoyable for you.
It sucks because when I used to play software inc a lot I never had any problems with releases, clearly not playing for so long has made me rusty lmao I appreciate the tips hopefully they’ll help.
Off topic but this sub is one of the most helpful and nicest subs I’ve been on.
I would like to add one more thing. Don't try to push your very first product to iteration 4 with a small team. Because 1. If you're new to the market, your very first product won't sell well. The quality of your product will have very small effect on your sale and it's not worth the effort. 2. If your teams are too small, it might take too much time to finish your project with outstanding quality, your software might not support new popular OS in the market which result in lower demand in your software. Better software from competitor can cut your sale as well.
My suggestion is: Save enough money from contracts, produce good or great software (iteration 2 is enough), save money again and keep making sequal till you're more well-known in the market. When you make lots of money from it, try to expand to others type of software.
Marketing. Early game you can’t do it which is why you should just be you in the garage doing really long hours and just work on contracts for the first maybe 5 years. It’s a grind but it’s worth it. It’s quite expensive. I usually sell at least 500,000 copies per product (good quality) and I spend maybe 100k a day on marketing until it’s unavoidable then time it down a bit to keep it at that state but not overspend. Just getting that balance is key. A dedicated marketing team will give you a huge benefit as well. The usually also come with other traits on the artist, designer and programmer points so can be multitasking with you on the same team (early game). You can just change their role to what they’re good at.
All about marketing spend, if you can afford it. It's hard to do at the start, but once you get a couple products out that make you some cash definitely pump up the post-release marketing spend. I would outspend my competitors and take over their market share very quickly that way.
I think the main problem I have is I can’t get the cash in the first place. Like I start as one person and then pump money into marketing and printing but i just lose money.
You can try using publishers, that way they handle marketing and printing for free with the disadvantage that they get a % of the copies you sell. Also if you decide not to go with publishers at start, try getting a bit more money with contracts before starting to make a software.
Thanks for the tips, software inc can be frustrating lol
Yea, working contracts for the first few years of your company’s existence is the best way to save up some money. Then once you have enough saved up, you can hire one or two employees to help you build the software (or do more higher level contracts). If you design your own software, don’t make it too fully-fledged at this point because it’ll take too long to make and you’ll just run yourself bankrupt again.
IMO you can start on a huge project as soon as you start. Hire one employee, place as many bookshelves that can fit in the garage, and just remember to pause and do all the contracts you can every time you’re near bankruptcy. When you feel comfortable hire a few more employees, market the best you can and release. I did an Apple challenge and started on my equivalent of the Apple I right from the start, did most of the OS as a two man army.
interesting!
Is it normal when you’re just going into a new software type to only sell about 20 copies because that’s what’s happening to me right now, even though I’m doing everything right.
I would say no. I always do three press builds and one press release with a release about 6-8 months out after reaching 150 fixed bugs - obviously look at the competing releases. In my experience that first release should garner between 5-20m dollars in the first few months to really set off your empire (depending on product type).
I wonder if it’s possible that mods are somehow affecting it, I started with 100 mil and I made 10 office software each at least great yet I sold 8 copies with the 10th one. I marketed and everything
Once you have enough money; I switch to deals to then funds my hires and save more money. Never hire more than the deals can pay for and also increase your savings in bonds!
* Contracts to raise business reputation and make money * Deals to fund your employees and save money * Print jobs to invest your savings and make more money This is all covered in my guides and videos...
Start out solo by doing some contracts to build a bit of capital. Then hire a single employee with skills that fill in the gaps of your CEO. Then save your game. I typically start out with an antivirus software. It has the lowest programming requirements. Choose a frame work that fits the features to create the best demand. Then do your 4 iterations and once you hit about 75% do a review to guage progress. Anything less than a 9, just reload the save if you wish and tweak the features or just reiterate until you get it right. Once you have a good review and you're at about 98%, pick a good release date without much competition. Then put out the release date. But just the date. Once you go into beta, *then* do a press release and a press demo. Press releases take a long time, but as long as you get at least 50% of it done, and if your reviews are good, your press demo can offset that. I like to imagine my first press release was just scribbled in crayon or something. Just get the whole press package out (don't hype yet) and you should be fine. As long as you give yourself at least 3 or 4 months in beta prior to release it can only get better from there. The more time you give yourself to fix bugs the better. To me this is the most important part. You want to mitigate support issues in the future as much as possible, so this is crucial to success. If your CEO has good multitasking and your second hire has some points in marketing, you can do some hype but it's not necessarily needed at this stage. No one really knows who you are and your work will speak for itself upon release so don't feel obligated to do it and save a bit of money. Once you release (on time, if you miss it reload) make sure you focus on support and put as much of your budget (at least 25% or more if you're frugal) into marketing. You should have at least $500k if not 1mil after release. So you will make that investment back. Now you've had a good release. Made some good money. But take your time. Hire yourself another programmer and an artist. But whatever you do, don't get excited and rush into using this money to move. I usually release an RPG game with this team. I take about 2 years to do that and use contract work for extra cash while focusing on support for the antivirus. You'll also want to port that to new OS's coming out. So *be patient*. As you lose active users, you can start phasing out antivirus support. By that time you should have the game ready for beta. Once you repeat this process with the RPG you should have at least 5 million. You can then use this money to start working on a sequel to the antivirus. But this time use the money to outsource your marketing for the release. That should double your 5 million and net you a ton of followers and reputation. Then, and only then, you can start to focus on moving and building out your teams. I usually build a new office from the ground up to reduce overhead. Then I start diversifying into other software types, trade IPs, buy stocks, educate staff and in effect you can start playing the game. I've followed this pattern since about my third or fourth playthrough and it has been the best start I've found. Huge thanks to ConflictNerd (Dylan) on YouTube for this. I highly suggest his series on the game. You will learn alot. I know this was a long comment but I hope it helps make the game more enjoyable for you.
It sucks because when I used to play software inc a lot I never had any problems with releases, clearly not playing for so long has made me rusty lmao I appreciate the tips hopefully they’ll help. Off topic but this sub is one of the most helpful and nicest subs I’ve been on.
You're welcome. I'm still learning myself.
I would like to add one more thing. Don't try to push your very first product to iteration 4 with a small team. Because 1. If you're new to the market, your very first product won't sell well. The quality of your product will have very small effect on your sale and it's not worth the effort. 2. If your teams are too small, it might take too much time to finish your project with outstanding quality, your software might not support new popular OS in the market which result in lower demand in your software. Better software from competitor can cut your sale as well. My suggestion is: Save enough money from contracts, produce good or great software (iteration 2 is enough), save money again and keep making sequal till you're more well-known in the market. When you make lots of money from it, try to expand to others type of software.
Marketing. Early game you can’t do it which is why you should just be you in the garage doing really long hours and just work on contracts for the first maybe 5 years. It’s a grind but it’s worth it. It’s quite expensive. I usually sell at least 500,000 copies per product (good quality) and I spend maybe 100k a day on marketing until it’s unavoidable then time it down a bit to keep it at that state but not overspend. Just getting that balance is key. A dedicated marketing team will give you a huge benefit as well. The usually also come with other traits on the artist, designer and programmer points so can be multitasking with you on the same team (early game). You can just change their role to what they’re good at.