Do you think this game is marketable? Topic

27

11/18/2015 07:30 PM

In a nutshell, I'm making an RTP game, with SOME original stuff made by myself (1 or 2 music tracks, sprite sheets for the villain, and maybe a title screen). The story itself drastically changes depending on the actions you make, similar to Fable, but a bit more complex than just simply good or evil, eventually leading the player to one of many, many endings. I was thinking of putting a $0.50 price tag on it. Do you guys think it'd be worth buying?

kentona

Bunnyhug

21020

11/18/2015 07:42 PM

Like, 50 cents? Where is it being sold?

I'd probably wonder why you wouldn't just give it away for free, since you aren't going to be making any money off of that.

But I don't understand marketing.

Mobh

4

11/18/2015 07:44 PM

The thing about selling your game is that it instantly raises the expectations for quality. Then again, there are a lot of people who don't know what RTP even means and might assume you've done all of the assets yourself, and this would obviously be frowned upon by the RM community.

Honestly, if you're going to sell it for 50 cents you might as well distribute it for free.

mariosmentor

27

11/18/2015 07:53 PM

author=Mobh
The thing about selling your game is that it instantly raises the expectations for quality. Then again, there are a lot of people who don't know what RTP even means and might assume you've done all of the assets yourself, and this would obviously be frowned upon by the RM community.

Honestly, if you're going to sell it for 50 cents you might as well distribute it for free.

Well, I'll most certainly let people know that most of the assets aren't mine, if that's makes the community feel any better. As for a price tag, if 50 cents is too low, then what does the community consider the absolute minimum? I want it to be accessible to as many people as possible, but I also want to feel like I got something out of all the work I did making the game.

kentona

Bunnyhug

21020

11/18/2015 07:57 PM

I have released like 2 dozen games for free, and I got a website out of all the work I did on them :)

But seriously, if you are a new developer and want to enter the the PC games' commercial space, I'd probably go between $2.99 and $9.99. People associate price with value (even if it is wrong!) and then not buy your game, but then see it 75% off and buy it for 80 cents or whatever. I think the $2.99 to $7.99 range markets you as "legitimate, but humble and aware"

That's just my opinion though. I've never attempted to sell a game.

SnowOwl

5188

11/18/2015 08:04 PM

My crystal ball says maybe.

LockeZ

I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.

5958

11/18/2015 09:17 PM

If I were gonna sell a game, I'd probably release the first few hours of it for free, and then charge $3 for the rest of it as an "expansion pack." This lets people get emotionally and mentally invested in the game before they're asked to pay money to keep playing. It also gets people to actually play it, since it's free at first.

The well-known math is that if you release your game for free (or F2P), it gets several hundred times as many downloads as if you charge for it up-front. So, take the number of downloads your free games have gotten, and divide that by about 300 for a conservative estimate of how many purchases you'll get. If you haven't released any games before, you should take into account that the average free game on this site probably gets about 1400 downloads - that translates into less than ten purchases.

I'm not convinced any RM2K3 game is marketable for any amount of money, though.

LightningLord2

230

11/18/2015 09:32 PM

You're more likely to market your games if you establish yourself as a successful and skilled game maker. Maybe if you managed to make a good game, people are actually willing to spend money on something you did.

TheNecromancer

3160

11/19/2015 03:50 AM

author=LockeZ
If I were gonna sell a game, I'd probably release the first few hours of it for free, and then charge $3 for the rest of it as an "expansion pack." This lets people get emotionally and mentally invested in the game before they're asked to pay money to keep playing. It also gets people to actually play it, since it's free at first.

I have the same idea!

dethmetal

990

11/28/2015 08:39 PM

If it's your first game, or you're not well-known yet, I'd suggest releasing it for free. Market it extensively. If the game's good enough, your fans may be willing to pay for your next game.

Kaliesto

583

12/13/2015 05:07 PM

The game must have a good reason to be commercialized. People will pretty much expect top quality if most of the assets were professionally made.

Craze

why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar

15170

12/13/2015 05:59 PM

will people really care though? i mean... aldorlea and aveyond exist

i think you guys have way highere standards than the shit that's out there and actually sells.

bahlete442456234996

2434

12/14/2015 10:23 AM

bahleted

pianotm