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[legendre]

My team and I (writer + artist + me - the programmer) are in the process of making a browser based interactive fiction game. Although I have made smaller games before to share between friends, I have never made a public release with the hope of recovering some of the costs.

This is a mix of interactive fiction (spider and web, digital: a love story etc) and incremental browser games (candy box, a dark room). It will be hosted on my web server, and probably have some "mingle player" elements. Currently, it is free to play.

I am looking for advice on how I could monetize this. To goal is not to make a huge profit or make a living off it. But rather, to try and recover the cost of making (e.g. I am paying my artist a token fee for his art) and hosting the game. Would a paypal "donate" button that unlock additional features (not required to complete the game) work?

[MorchellaGames]

Off the top of my head:

I'm no expert on this, but there are a few ways you can monetize a free online game (but it won't necessarily monetize well). What you have access to depends partially on the technology you are using.


If you are using Flash:
- You can always upload it to Kongregate (for example). They have ad revenue share and I believe you can add a tip jar (donate button) so people can give you Kreds which are worth real money. There are other sites like this.
- You can try to get a sponsor through FlashGameLicense www.fgl.com (though I'm not sure if this is still an active market). The idea is that a sponsor pays for having their logo before/while your game loads.

Same thing applies if you are using Unity, I believe.

Note that is you are using Flash or Unity, you could set up your game to be on mobile (iOS/Android) with some effort and setup some other types of ads, and a donate button.


If you are in HTML5/Javascript/CSS:
- I know there are sites like FlashGameLicense that exist for HTML5, but I don't know them. Same concept as above.
- There are also sites like Kongregate, but for HTML5 games (again, I don't know them)
- You can simply set up traditional ads (Google, etc.) on the website you are hosting.

I think player donations can work, but it will always be a marginal percentage of your players who are willing to do this.

Finally, if you can transform your browser game into a native one easily, then you can sell it. Your work doesn't have to be free!

In all of the above cases, the amount of money will be directly proportional to the amount of people who play the game. This is not a trivial matter as it's one of the most difficult problems for indies, players knowing about your game.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

t

[legendre]

Off the top of my head:

I'm no expert on this, but there are a few ways you can monetize a free online game (but it won't necessarily monetize well). What you have access to depends partially on the technology you are using.

Oh gosh, I forgot to specify the technology: it is HTML5/Javascript/CSS client-side.

If you are in HTML5/Javascript/CSS:
- I know there are sites like FlashGameLicense that exist for HTML5, but I don't know them. Same concept as above.
- There are also sites like Kongregate, but for HTML5 games (again, I don't know them)
- You can simply set up traditional ads (Google, etc.) on the website you are hosting.

I think player donations can work, but it will always be a marginal percentage of your players who are willing to do this.

Finally, if you can transform your browser game into a native one easily, then you can sell it. Your work doesn't have to be free!

In all of the above cases, the amount of money will be directly proportional to the amount of people who play the game. This is not a trivial matter as it's one of the most difficult problems for indies, players knowing about your game.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

t

Thanks for the valuable input!  

Edit: I wonder if I should only make part of the game free. There are multiple endings, I could give one away for free, and require a small payment (say $1.99) to unlock all endings, which include new content.

[Frangomel]

Hello,

If I understood well you need to get some profit from your game?!

I have made a topic here so could check it, maybe we could join our goals. I am new on here and dont want to break the rules so if you are for proposal we could continue talk on my topic.

In short we are looking for game partner and have platform 90% ready for it. Look at it and I will show you our marketing plan.

cheers

[rj]

Edit: I wonder if I should only make part of the game free. There are multiple endings, I could give one away for free, and require a small payment (say $1.99) to unlock all endings, which include new content.

my advice? do the terry cavanagh and put a demo on kongregate with a link to buy the full game for however much. it feels less dishonest and will be more profitable.

you're basically doing the in-app purchase thing, otherwise. and why would you want to do that?

[Muz]

Give out the main story for free.

1. Sell new episodes.
2. Sell side episodes (like the ones that revolve around supporting characters or viewing the scene from the bad guy's perspective).
3. Sell alternate storylines.
4. Sell merchandise, like online comic writers do.
5. Donate is ok, but give them a recommended donation. I like how some free apps have the donate button which charges like $3 every time people click it.

Don't make story unlockable with pay.