The perils of self-publishing

There's a nice post from Leo Stableford today about the pros and cons of self-publishing. He's discussing things in context of writing, but I have a feeling many of the same issues apply to self-publishing games.

It would be easy enough to post SPUDZOOKA to a site of my own designing, set up a Google AdSense account and maybe earn a few dollars. If I did a decent job promoting the game, people might come play it.

On the other hand, if I attempt to get my game published on a well-trafficked game site like Shockwave.com, I would definitely get more players and could potentially make more money. The question is whether self-publishing would hurt my chances of being published on a site like Shockwave. Honestly I don't know. The game publishing business is certainly not as well established as print publishing, so my guess is that there are still more avenues available for indie game developers to publish and distribute their games.

I'm just starting to research the possibilities, but maybe I'm getting ahead of my self. I still have a game to finish before I can even publish it myself.