I have a idea for a First-Person Adventure Art game. It envolves exploration around a Island, finding secret, has no voices and most importantly graphics. It is a experimental project you may say. I have made crappy flash games for awhile. It's will be Dear Esther, Antichambers and Gone Home.
Know my question is, will anyone buy this game? I have already start development a month or so. I was going to price it at $0.99 on Steam/Other (If I get greenlight.
Sorry for my God awful English, it's not my first language.
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I have a game idea but..!?
Know my question is, will anyone buy this game?
Did people buy Dear Esther, Antichambers, and Gone Home? (Yes, they very much did)
Nobody can tell you whether your game will be successful or not. All we know is that other games weren't successful, and some games were.
You can increase the chance of success by making a really polished game. But "increase the chances" doesn't mean it'll be successful.
You can increase the chance of success by making the game unique and original. But that also doesn't guarantee success.
Is this a game you yourself would buy?
Also, I wouldn't price it at a $0.99. Either the game is worth paying for or its not worth paying for. If you sell it for a dollar, not only are you saying, "I think my own game is crap, but I'm charging you for that crap anyway". If you were competing on iOS or Android, you have to stay competitive with the market. However, on Steam and PC, prices have actually gone UP over the last two years, and this is actually good for the videogame market. Games like Dear Esther, Gone Home, and Antichamber now launch for between $15 and $25 - though they have frequent sales as well. These higher starting prices, coupled with sales at much lower prices, is actually a price-point that is economically viable for games (in my opinion).
Even if you just charge $5 for a game, that'd be better than $1. People who'll open their wallet for $1 are also likely to open it for $5, so you won't get that much more sales by pricing it at $1, but you'll need to sell five times more copies to make the same amount of money.
I'd make a quality game, and give it a reasonable price. $5 minimum, ideally $10 or $15. But it has to be worth it to the consumer. I don't want to sell them junk, even if it's $1 junk. Selling $1 junk is not just a waste of their $1, but it's also a waste of two or three hours of their life. I suggest you either make a project for learning, and release it for free, or you make a project that's actually worth gamers playing the game, and you sell it at a price actually worth your time in making the game.
I agree with Servant, charge for the game what you think it's realistically worth. There is a prevailing idea that game prices must race to the bottom, therefore to $0. I disagree, there is a cost to "manufacture" (aka develop) a game and as long as the game is worth it, people will pay for it.
Games like Dear Esther, Gone Home, and Antichamber now launch for between $15 and $25 - though they have frequent sales as well. These higher starting prices, coupled with sales at much lower prices, is actually a price-point that is economically viable for games (in my opinion).
+1 This is a great point.
In short, i will buy a good game which holds my attention.
I won't ever buy a game without trying it out first or at least seeing youtube videos of it to determine if it's my cup of tea.
My wife on the other hand comes back from the second hand game store regularly with all kinds of junk games that are not fun and aren't worth the £3 paid. (Walking dead: Survival instinct anyone?)
In short, sell your game, push it hard and do lots of self promotion, and don't ever under-sell yourself or your games. I agree with other posters that $1 is too low, and you are targetting "app" prices with that figure. Aim higher, because its easy to lower the price if the game is not selling, but not so easy to increase the price once everyone has already purchased it for a dollar!
Good luck!
Aim higher, because its easy to lower the price if the game is not selling, but not so easy to increase the price once everyone has already purchased it for a dollar!
+1 and Amen to that. There is a reason why some overpriced stuff gets seen as extreme bargain when its price gets lowereds by a mere 25% and still sells for a quite overpriced sum.
Let the market decide the worth of your product. The last thing you want to do is devalue it with a too cheap introduction price!
you can start with first letting your game be free and then when it is going really wel you should try to ask some money for it but not to much
you can start with first letting your game be free and then when it is going really wel you should try to ask some money for it but not to much
That may not be the best idea: if a game has previously been available for free it can be difficult to convince people to consider it valuable enough to pay for in future.
you can start with first letting your game be free and then when it is going really wel you should try to ask some money for it but not to much
I strongly disagree. Decide at the start if you are charging or not and stick to it. If you give it away for free then decide to charge, your potential market is a lost cause because you gave them all a freebie, what incentive do they have to buy then?
Sure some might donate some money but if you're going to be commercial don't do the one toe in the pool thing, commit to a strategy and stick to your guns. If it doesn't sell you can always lower the price, but people don't take kindly to raising or introducing prices after the fact...
If game can be tailored, a strategy of "early access price" can be implemented as well. It works well on games that is promising to be more content in time.
Your concept sounds interesting, makes me think of Myst.
I agree with Servant.
If you want to charge money for it, but you're not sure if anyone will buy it, you can also bring out a small demo version of the game for free that can make people interested in the full version.
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