Astraware Publishing

Publishing: What can Astraware do for you?

Simple : We aim to increase the profits you make from a game

Why would using Astraware as a publisher be better than self-publishing?

Good Question! It boils down to whether or not you are a real games developer!

Well, what do YOU want to be spending your time on ?

YES: Designing cool games
YES: Hardcore coding
YES: Seeing your creation come to life
YES: Adding cool features

NO: Preparing marketing materials and writing promotional copy
NO: Organising distribution via dozens of vendors
NO: Updating and maintining download website after download website
NO: Handling sales emails and sending out registrations to users
NO: Giving yet another novice user step by step instructions on how to download a zip file

One way or another, if you want to concentrate on the YES items and avoid the NOs, then you're going to end up hiring someone else to allow you to focus on what you're best at!

Quick Astraware History

• Formed (as Astrasoft) in 1993, writing software for Atari ST computers
• First successful shareware software released in 1993 DeskTracker player
• First commercial success in 1994 with StormTracker editor
• First PC shareware game in 1995 - Bzzz!
• First Palm games released in 1998 and more following each year
• Incorporated as "Astraware" in Spring 2000.
• Howard and David leave their existing jobs to concentrate on Astraware in 2000
• First additional employees in 2001
• First two-player bluetooth game for Palm, "Biplane Ace", demoed by CTO of Palm during PalmSource conference, Spring 2001.
• First licensed game, Bejeweled, released in April 2001.
• Summer 2001 - Major development for Pocket Express and Midway, developing Palm versions of Spyhunter, Joust and more.
• Summer 2001, Astraware takes on professional external PR agent
• Fall 2001, Diamond Mine, our first game for Pocket PC released.
• December 2001 - Astraware launches its own shop, selling Palm and Pocket PC software, and also PC versions of the games on behalf of our licensors.
• Entered offices January 2002, taking on additional full time staff covering support
• Fall 2002 - first publishing deals for external developers

Astraware has been through all of the steps and challenges of self publishing - and we know just how much work it takes not only to develop a game, but also to take it through testing, and get it to market in a way that makes money!

As of Spring 2003, our team is 14 strong with a great mix of skills covering multi-platform development, art and design, web expertise, testing experience, and customer service. We have offices at Keele University Science Park, in the Midlands, UK. We have internet based sales in over 100 countries, products on sale in retail throughout USA, Canada and Europe.

Success Stories

Astraware has over 30 games in its catalogue, with around half of those available for multiple platforms! Here are just a few of our most notable successes:

Zap!2000 - the first vertical-scrolling shoot-em-up game for the Palm, and still the game that all others try to match! Zap!2000 was released in greyscale on January 1st 2000, and was upgraded with a color version when the first color Palms were released in April of that year. Senior executives at Palm contacted us to ask permission to use the game to show off the capabilities of the new devices as games platforms.
Three years on, Zap!2000 is more popular than ever, having added extra levels, cool sounds, options for higher colour depth graphics, and hordes of other features.

Bejeweled (a.k.a. "Diamond Mine") was developed by PopCap Inc. as a web game, and achieved mass appeal when it appeared on the MSN Zone. The Palm version was developed under license and released in April 2001, and rapidly became the most successful game ever for PDAs. It has enjoyed not only #1 game position in terms of sales throughout this time, but also has been the #1 Palm product for several months too, beating productivity software! Bejeweled has now been bundled as a demo with several Palm devices, and has just been OEMed in the ROM on the Sony Clié SJ33 entertainment device! Since Bejeweled, we have worked with PopCap on over a dozen further games, all under license.

ChromaGames is a package of Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon for Palm. It was developed by WhiteHorse Games, and has been a successful product having a demo bundled with most Palm products over the past three years. ChromaGames was licensed to Astraware with the objective of both increasing the web exposure for the product, but also to take off the administrative burden of dealing with sales and support, while the authors could concentrate on their own core development. ChromaGames was released onto the Astraware website at the end of January 2003.

GTS Racing Challenge is a fast and slick 3D racing game, developed for the Palm and Pocket PC platforms by Pazzazz Games, a professional group who have developed for consoles and GameBoy platforms. They chose Astraware in order to maximise the web sales of the game, and make a huge splash for them, whilst shielding them from the levels of admin and support needed for a popular and exciting new game. GTS Racing Challenge for Palm was launched in February 2003, with Pocket PC versions following shortly.

What Astraware Can Offer:

During Development

• UI Advice
• Development Assistance
• Device accomodation advice and solutions for limits. (i.e. what device and OS range to target)

Before Release

• Internal Alpha-testing with excellent feedback
• Enthusiastic and loyal Beta test group, and specific forums on our community board for beta testing. (All beta testers are under NDA, as is their access to the board.)
• Competent, systematic and extremely thorough compatibility and game testing from our internal test team, with full reporting on tests complete.

Astraware Registration System

• Tried and tested registration system object code libraries to use.
• Integrates neatly with our shop and sales system.
• Configurable trial period, number of games, nag delays, etc.
• Registration locked to user's device to reduce piracy.
• User tolerant code entry system. (i.e. as helpful as possible!)
• Modules already available for GCC, CodeWarrior, Embedded Visual C++.
• System allows products to be registered separately or as part of a pack.
• Asymmetric key-based code generation makes it very hard for pirates to create a keygen.

For First Release

• Creation and addition into the Astraware system of web pages and resources
• Graphics developed for web pages (Screenshots, banners, buttons, etc.)
• Creation of Product documentation (overview, how to install, how to play, how to buy, etc)
• Packaging into .zips, .sits, and creation of complete .exe installers.

Publicity

• Creation of Press Kit
• Creation and distribution of press release, using our PR agent.
• Promotion via our Previews page, and teasers carefully timed to generate advance interest.
• Distribution and personal recommendation to dozens of reviewers.
• Potential OEM bundling with hardware, either as demo or full version.
• Advertising options include online advertising, featured product placement, print advertising, in-box advertising with devices and accessories, etc.

Creating Sales

• Astraware mailshot : 100k happy Astraware customers receive notice of the product, and an offer to buy.
• Promotion via the AW site : A third of a Million PDA owning and game loving visitors monthly, and rising!
• Upload and maintainance of dozens of download and vendor sites
• Premier partnership agreements with Handango and Palmgear, giving access to the Palm store, the Sony website, PalmSource's website, HP/Compaq's ESD sales site, Casio, Handspring, etc.
• Retail possibilities - possible retail distribution on CD, SD card, etc.

Astraware Shop

• Established and successful shop system, refined for PDA product sales.
• Promo codes, offers, discounts all possible
• Access to our affiliate system, and earn on referred sales from your own site.across all Astraware products
• Realtime code and registration generation, with codes delivered to the user's browser and by email
• Processing of sales by internet, and also phone, fax, and post.

Handling Sales

• Sales accepted and processed from all major vendors, and interfacing with their sales system and support systems.
• Sales generated and sent promptly by email and/or regular post.
• Option of sending floppy disk / CD with software included.

Handling Customer Support

• Polite and knowledgeable customer support by phone, email, Astraware real-time chat-support system, and even ICQ!
• Autoresponse system.
• Personal Customer support response within 24 hours during week, and often during the weekend.
• Articles and support available via our extensive user knowledge-base
• Escalation to our second-line technical customer support, with prompt follow-up,
• Chasing of "bounced" registrations by phone, and followup by physical mail.

Sales Reports

• Full quarterly sales reports, listing sales for each product, through each channel, at each price, and a breakdown of all costs.
• Prompt payment by wire transfer of royalties each quarter.
• More frequent reports by requests - for instance each week for the month following a release.

Licensing

• No up-front costs
• Option of Guaranteed minimum royalty
• Option of Royalty Advance
• Revenue share negotiable depending on just how much you want Astraware to do!

Contact Astraware!

Contact Howard Tomlinson (CEO)
By email:
By Phone: International +44 1782 667821 ; Within UK: 01782 667821

Astraware Offices:
Astraware Limited
Unit 6 Brock Way
Knutton
Newcastle-under-Lyme ST5 6AZ
UNITED KINGDOM

Phone: +44 1782 667820
Fax: +44 1782 667828