My publisher is not printing enough copies

[FlatHeadAx]

I am just starting out and i picked my publisher to handle marketing and printing. After I release the software, I get messages that i dont have enough copies to meet demand. When i look at how many copies i have in stock its at 0. My publisher didnt print ANY. What is going on here?

Also, if i manually click the order copies button, it takes it out of my funds. Again, i selected that the publisher handle this. Why is it taking money from me?

[$ini$ter-NL]

Why would they do it for free?

[Metacritical]

Originally posted by $ini$ter-NL:

Why would they do it for free?

they aren't, they get a percentage of the royalties to print and distribute the copies; it is part of the distribution deal that was agreed during the initial software build.

this happens to me quite frequently so once i can afford to buy printers i never chose this option in the development. the marketing is the only option i keep selected, again until i can afford a dedicated marketing team.

[cwattyeso]

I've even experienced issues where despite asking and paying the publisher to market and print the software, they don't do either. So not only do they not make copies for me to sell, they also don't market and advertise my product so it only ever shows up with "Sparse" marketing.

Honestly you probably better off not doing any publishing deals, market your software yourself even in the early game, and just buy copies of software until you can afford to do your own printing, when you need copies.

[FlatHeadAx]

I think I am better off if it’s a bug. But half of me is trying to identify whether or not I’m doing something wrong or the game isn’t working properly.

The other half doesn’t want to use my limited staff to market if i don’t have to and I was fully accepting of paying the royalty for my first few releases if they’d print the stuff since I don’t have the capital.

[Metacritical]

if it's selling out of the current stock then it will be worth it for you to print more yourself as you'll end up selling more copies and making more money to invest in your company. the company used to market should be in your list of other companies so you can see how they are doing financially and see if they are just a small company or if they have the infrastructure to support your game. I know you can't choose who markets the game but it might inform you as to why there are currently issues with the deal.

[Personal Responsibility]

Sounds like a bug. I recommend to report it by Escape -> Report Screenshot and then add your save file to the report. The current A11 is still missing a lot of bug fixes. Most of them are done, just not released yet, since Kenneth is finishing them up.