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[feline monstrosity]

Just thought I'd give a shout out to any indie RPG fans out there: the crowned king of indie RPGs, Spiderweb Software, is having their regular October Blues sale, only this time they're also celebrating their fifteenth birthday!

I'm a massive fan, so I just thought I'd spread the word a little.

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

25% sales don't really entice me, although his games are very very good and deserve full price. still, i won't bother buying them all by reflex unless it's at least a 50% sale, since even 25% off is still $22.50 per game instead of $30 per game, which is a lot more than most indie games.

[moi]

H should do a "pay what you want" sale, it's trendy and it's good marketing and since he has "lines" of game, he would get returning customers.

[PaleFox]

I assume that, if he has loyal buyers with the price that high, he probably makes more money than he would if he had a pay what you want sale.

Although I'd buy pretty much all of his games if I could set the prices...

[Waltorious]

I assume that, if he has loyal buyers with the price that high, he probably makes more money than he would if he had a pay what you want sale.

Although I'd buy pretty much all of his games if I could set the prices...

He's actually made several posts on his blog discussing the issue of price points for games.  His most recent concludes that different types of games need different price points; specifically that easily accessible, quick games need to be cheaper so they can attract a wide audience, whereas larger games with more of a niche audience need to be more expensive because they won't sell to as many players (but those players are willing to pay more).  You can read his post about this here:

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2010/09/indie-games-should-be-too-cheap-or-too.html

Personally I think that his games provide enough fun gameplay to justify their price, and a 25% off sale is a nice excuse to pick one up if you've been meaning to check it out.  I also appreciate his large demos which really let the player get a sense of the game before deciding to buy.  Also since his sale lasts for the whole month, one has time to try a demo first before buying.

[moi]

I assume that, if he has loyal buyers with the price that high, he probably makes more money than he would if he had a pay what you want sale.

The point would be to increase his audience, by doing a PWYW sale he would get press into indie news websites, I'm sure there are a lot of indie gamers who still haven't heard of his games.

[Melly]

A very limited pay-what-you-want sale (I'm thinking one day) could be pretty good, yes, to increase general knowledge of his games and increase his fanbase.

[Christian Knudsen]

Man, they really need to put a big, fat "25% off!" image on their site. I didn't even notice the three lines of text that mentioned the sale...

[Melly]

Somebody needs a few classes on marketing.

[eugeneius]

A very limited pay-what-you-want sale (I'm thinking one day) could be pretty good, yes, to increase general knowledge of his games and increase his fanbase.

A pay what you want sale doesn't make a lot of sense when you have over a dozen games; people are going to decide how much they want to pay overall, not per game.

He should do a week-long sale where he rotates in a single (mystery) game each day, like the daily super-bargains during the Steam sale last Christmas.

[feline monstrosity]

Somebody needs a few classes on marketing.

I agree, and in fact so does he. He says so frequently on his blog. Good job he has fans like me to post it on forums eh!

[moi]

He should have a permanent pay-what-you-want on the first episodes of each serie.

[FrankieSmileShow]

These games are all excellent, and they're definitely worth their price, but yeah, I dont think the 25% off for a month is that effective marketing-wise. I think it would be much more effective to have a much bigger sale, for a much shorter period. Pay what you want, or maybe 90% off for a day? I feel 25% off will not really generate more sales, and just reduce the revenue from the sales he would have gotten anyway for that month!

Though I guess maybe hes right, it would be interesting to see if the sale went well next month.

[Waltorious]

Though I guess maybe hes right, it would be interesting to see if the sale went well next month.

He's been doing a similar sale each October for the last couple of years, which suggests it has worked out for him in the past.  I don't know the actual numbers though.