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[sharbelfs]

Hi,

I was thinking in make make a kind of alpha funding, but in my own site, try to sell the game in alpha.
Ex: If someone buy it in alpha, will pay $5 and get the game now, some updates later and the final game too. If the person buy just after the release, the price will be about $10.

I am just not sure about the prices, and if there is a right way to do it.
Can anyone help me, or tell some user case?

[ANtY]

It depends on ur game. If it's a niche game then you should aim for higher prices, if it's more mainstream make the prices lower.

for example $5-10 for mainstream and 15-25 or 15-20 for niche one.

[sharbelfs]

thanks,

but I was thought it was the opposite,
because if the game is mainstream it's easier to sell, or at least to find more public for the game.

[dustin]

Right if it's mainstream you'll sell more and there is more competition so you need to price it lower

If it's niche there's less options for other people so you can price it more and you also want to price it higher since you won't sell as many.

[ANtY]

Also if it's a niche game ppl that are buying it really want to play it so they can pay much more, not like with mainstream games where ppl sometimes buy the game and never play it but if prices would be higher they wouldn't buy it considering that they don't want it so much.

[Claw]

People will generally be more interested in something they haven't seen before, like unique gameplay or unusual graphic styles.

Think of Minecraft, that started out in the way you describe with the alpha version being cheaper. It took off and picked up an expanding fan base because there was nothing else really like it out there, and it did what it set out to do very well.

If you just make a Mario clone or something that might be considered more 'mainstream' but it's been done a lot, so people would generally be less interested in it.

Also with alpha funding it's more suited to a game that can gradually develop and be replayed over and over, such as sandbox type games (Minecraft) or games that are solidly based around it's engine development like Voxatron (or at least that's how I see it). If you have a platformer game for example, the alpha will be a buggy version of the game, by the time the bugs are ironed out and it's released people who've played through the alpha have basically already played through it all; what I'm saying is this method of funding is better for open-ended games rather than something linear (in my opinion)

tl;dr - NEW IDEAS ARE GOOD!