Boxed Copies?

I just wondered how many commercial RM developers actually produce boxed copies? If you're smart about it, it's not *too* expensive, and there's still a market for it.

I personally like to house in white-clear PS3 cases; they look really nice. For my next release, I'm also doing a 'deluxe' boxed edition with three games, soundtracks, a poster, certificate and Art Cards.

I'm a sucker for tangible goods; I love to have stuff displayed on my shelves ;)

I did it for Millennium, Moonchild, Asguaard and The Book of Legends. BD

Here is an example:

I'm a sucker for tangible goods too.


What's on the disc? The game (so you don't have to download it) or?

Indi, those look gorgeous! Some people just can't resist them, especially when we only make limited quantities ;)

For me, I tend to load the game installer on there, and if they're ready at the time of distribution, the game guide and any accompanying artwork (desktop BG's for example). 

Thank you very much. :)

I really like the artworks that were made for Moonchild. BD

This would be great. Reminds me of the old Lunar games on the PS1. I'm also a sucker for physical strategy guides. All 3 guides plus this, that'd be an awesome collection to own.

I am a sucker for boxed copies, that's why I bought RMVXA as a boxed copy! 

This post makes me smile. I was going to compile a bunch of my games onto a disc and shoot them off to the corners of the earth. 

How did you get the disc labels? Were the lightscribed, professionally pressed, or screened onto the disc?

What was the approximate cost of the whole process?, excluding anything you might have paid to have the art done. 

Do you have an autorun menu? If so, did you create it, or hire out? 

Sorry for the bombardment, but I have been thinking of doing something similar, (far in the future), so I figured I would query you since you seem to have been beating this trail...

hehe I project to do this for Alone the true story of claire soiree when I get to finish it~ 

sadly I need to finish it before ._.

I did some short-run printing for guides for Corruption, but they're ludicrously expensive to print. I'm usually looking around £20 per copy depending on the number of pages, which is about $30 for reference.

Disk printing was done by a company called VP online. They charge somewhere around 35 pence per disk (50 cents) plus shipping on top. 

Cases were bought from ebay, I had a stock, so I forget how much they cost.

Case inlays were printed and cut at home using a photo printer, glossy thick-stock paper and third-party (better value for money) inks.

It costs me around £2-3 per copy to produce the games ($3-4) but there's a heavy time element to doing it this way. I just sit chopping up paper and placing them in the cases with the kids, in front of the telly-box during the evening. They love (believing) helping out. If you have a company produce every aspect of the product, along with burning the data, it's 2-3 times as much. I try to be as cost-effective as I can, you know, being an indie dev and all ;)

I don't use an autorun menu, but it's easy enough to code a .ini file that automatically runs the installer. I use CreateInstall to make the installers, as recommended by Shaz. 

The only downside for me, really, is the extraordinarily high shipping costs. I'm based in the UK, and the vast majority of my customer are over in the states, so for each game the cost of shipping is about twice the cost of producing the boxed copy itself. Talk about rip-off Britain.

I find it easier for people who don't have enough budget to simply use digital downloads... Though for big games, I like physical copies coz the internet here is kinda slow so it's hard to download a huge file. Also so that I don't need to save the installer on my computer. XD


For my games, when I go commercial, I'd probably just do limited edition physical copies

I usually limit boxed copies to Kickstarter. I don't usually sell them from my store, since it's the exclusivity of them that seems to draw customers. People seem more willing to 'pledge' £15 for a boxed copy to fund the development, than 'buy' a boxed copy for £15. It's funny how that works, I guess.

Probably because funding raises the probability that the game get's finished while if it's already made, then there's not much difference between buying the boxed copy or a digital copy (and if boxed copies will cost more, then they could just resort to the digital ones)

Nice! I always had some questions regarding that: Where do you order the packaging? Locally or from some of the bigger names? And do you assemble the stuff at home or do you have it arrive complete?

Personally I assemble at home. I usually shop around for the most cost-effective solution without sacrificing quality.

I find it quite therapeutic and gratifying; working on tangible goods. It's nice to have a finished stack of games/soundtracks to ship out to customers! I'm also thinking of showcasing my marketing portfolio at expos when I'm finished with developing Reboot. :D