This post is a continuation of The Indie Infrastructure, a series for those thinking about “going indie” or still getting their bearings once casting off from salaried shores.

• The Indie Infrastructure #1: Game Engines

There’s a lot of ways you can go about selling your game directly from your website.  So what are the considerations when you are looking for an e-commerce provider?

Options to consider:

• Google Checkout
• Paypal
• BMT
• Plimus
• eSellerate
• FastSpring
• Reflexive
• Real/Trymedia

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a list of the ones I know anything about.  If you have experience with these or others, I’d love to hear about them!

These essentially fall into 3 categories — simple e-commerce systems with no DRM integration but very low fees (Google, Paypal), e-commerce systems built for shareware, some with built in DRM and an affiliate program (BMT, Plimus, eSellerate, Fastspring), and full-service “whitebox” distribution systems, with pre-built web design elements, large back catalogs of other games you can sell alongside your own, but higher fees.

Affiliate Program

Some e-commerce providers are also an affiliate program, allowing you to sell other people’s games from your site and your own games from other people’s sites (with your permission).  BMT, Plimus, and eSellerate all fit into this category.  In fact, it may even be in your interest to sell the game from your own site through a company like Real or Reflexive, though you will be required to put your game up on their affiliate program and you will have no control over who can sell your game.  Generally, more managed experiences like Reflexive will lead to a lower royalty rate for yourself, but may be easier to set up and maintain, and you may get wider distribution.  Other e-commerce providers like Paypal provide no affiliate program.

If the provider DOES have an affiliate network, does it have other games you might be interested in selling?  I use eSellerate but their afiiliate network for games is incredibly weak.  Trymedia/Real has a great catalog of games like mine.  Reflexive’s stuff is mostly casual.  I can’t speak for BMT and Plimus.

DRM integration

If you go with the Google or Paypal route, you will likely need to create your own DRM solution.  Either customers can download a separate, full version of the game after purchase (linked to in the receipt), or you can provide an unlock code that they can use to unlock the full version from the demo.  Without a built in solution, you will have to code this yourself or use a DRM solution like Armadillo.

Some providers include DRM in API format, which you can integrate into your code or wrap around the software.  This can allow your to include an unlock feature directly inside the game.  esellerate and the larger affiliate systems like Reflexive and Real allow for this.  I’m not sure about Plimus or BMT.  It’s also worth noting that these prepackaged DRM solutions are not particularly difficult to crack: Reflexive’s DRM is notoriously porous (though they claim it doesn’t really matter).

Royalty rate

Each of these providers will take a percentage of your sales.  The percentage generally scales from 35% for the most feature rich of the services to ~2% for paypal or Google Checkout.  BMT, eSellerate and Plimus are all in the 10-15% range.  Reflexive takes 20% (?) if you are selling from your own site.

File Hosting

Will the provider host the demo file for you?  If so, you can save yourself from having to get a dedicated server or pay for a file hosting service like Amazon S3 (which incidentally has a great reputation).  Be careful, though, the provider might charge for bandwidth, which is NEVER good, distributors and e-commerce providers LOVE to take advantage of customers by charging exorbitant bandwidth fees.  I got screwed by eSellerate on this one.

Sales Reports

What does their online reporting look like?  What kind of data can you get on your customers?  Is it easy to send out a newsletter to customers that want to be contacted?

Storefront

Is it easy to set up a storefront that is branded to look like your website?  Is their default stuff attractive?  The key here is clean and simple.  The more complex this stuff gets, the more likely your customers will get confused or bored and will give up on their purchase.

Other Fees

I used to hear a lot of complaining about the way Plimus handled chargebacks (chargebacks result in a fee to the publisher, meaning you).  Pay attention to any clauses that state that you can be charged for something… often those clauses will be vague.  Make sure you clear those up and speak with other people using the service to find out how often they see those types of charges.

Other Features

Other features that may be of interest to you:

• Coupons
• Cross-sell discounts
• Multiple item discounts
• Platform (I use esellerate because their DRM solution is PC/Mac, the only one in the business to my knowledge)

And finally, you should look into the reputation of their customer service.  Smaller companies like BMT, Plimus, and eSellerate generally work pretty hard to keep their publishers happy.  Paypal, of course, has an awful reputation in this regard.  In any case, choose the solution that’s right for you, but remember, you can always switch!

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