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[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i don't think you can ever win most people's hearts, though. you're always going to have people who won't buy your game for some random reason. you can think of it like this

set A: people who will never buy your game (a very large percent)

set B: people who will buy the game at any price, within reason (a small percent)

set C: people who will buy your game if it's at a low price, but will not buy it if it's at a high price (an even smaller percent)

the people you want to target are set B, not set C, and definitely not set A. what you say makes sense if you were targeting people from set A or set C, but not if you're targeting people from set B

when you want to target people from set C, well, that's what sales are for. the launch price is for people from set B, which will in most cases make up the majority of your revenue

[James Coote]

I think the statistic you were looking for is that 80% of android apps (that are not free) sell less than 100 units over their entire lifetime

What about a free demo/lite version of the game? Some of Paul's "set B" people will turn into "set C" people over time, but only if you give them the chance, and a demo is one way to do that

[Chromanoid]

I know you don't like this idea, but here are more thoughts on f2p. If you have a story mode, where you can aquire units, make some available for cash earlier than possible through normal gameplay. F2P features in singleplayer games are more or less cheats that cost money. I think it's a good way to sell games to curious people who can pay for games, but don't want to pay upfront.

If you have a strong story and addictive gameplay with progression you might be able to go with a good demo like the developers of Defender's Quest did (look at http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120123/90942/Defenders_Quest_Deployment_Strategy.php).

A friend of mine (like you) also did a remake of a classic (pushover) for android. Sales are between 500-1000 now, installs of the free version are between 50,000 - 100,000. There might be some improvements to the demo to raise the conversion rate, but I think for games that are not really outstanding in fun and execution, a normal payment model doesn't work for mobile and browser games.

If people don't want to pay money for your game in a specific way, but they would pay in another way, why don't offer them this way? Pay to win is only bad for multiplayer experiences. You can combine demo, premium and item selling too. Just look at Triple Town, I think it monetizes very well and has a way to pay for everyone.

[Ooops]

I think you can safely charge around $10 for the multiplatform version. I haven't tried the game, but I've read about it on the forum, and it's not in a crowded category. There is very little competition for this tyle of games.

Tower defense games, or bejeweled-clones have to sell for less than $5 because there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of alternative.

Your game is in a niche. People won't stumble upon it by chance. If people end up on your website, or google-play page, it's because they are already interested. You can therefore charge a "full", but reasonable, price.

[PompiPompi]

Thanks for the advice everyone.
I wanted to sell it for $16 full price, but you are right this is my sort of first commercial game, and nowadays games are very cheap.
However, my game is in a niche and there arn't many like it(for better or for worse) except for refurbished Archon version, which happens to be $9.99 on steam.
So I think a $9.99 for the multi platform verison is a good price, especially if I am going to add more platforms.
For the Android version I will start off with $3.99.

[moi]

the truth is none of this matters because unless you have a lot of press and marketing and/or use shaddy crowd tactics to cheat the rankings, you will sell very few numbers on android.

[moi]

do bad books sell for lower prices than good books? do bad movies have lower ticket prices than good movies?

Actually yes, they do (not ticket prices, but DVD prices).
I am talking real low quality product (B or Z movies), not bad in a subjective, artistic meaning (like Transformer is a bad movie but not a low quality movie)

[Chris Koźmik]

What multiplatform has to do with price? Why would anyone want to pay more to get the game for more than one platform? Why a Linux user would want, even for free, a Windows version?

I always though multiplatform only affects the number of potential consumers, not how much they are ready to pay...

[PompiPompi]

What multiplatform has to do with price? Why would anyone want to pay more to get the game for more than one platform? Why a Linux user would want, even for free, a Windows version?

I always though multiplatform only affects the number of potential consumers, not how much they are ready to pay...

Well, you get both a mobile and a Desktop version...

[Christian Knudsen]

I think your pricing is fine. Like you say, you can always lower the price, while it's a lot harder to raise it. And with a low default price, it's also a lot harder to create sales, which are sometimes in and of themselves newsworthy and able to garner attention.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I think you can safely charge around $10 for the multiplatform version. I haven't tried the game, but I've read about it on the forum, and it's not in a crowded category. There is very little competition for this tyle of games.

Tower defense games, or bejeweled-clones have to sell for less than $5 because there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of alternative.

Your game is in a niche. People won't stumble upon it by chance. If people end up on your website, or google-play page, it's because they are already interested. You can therefore charge a "full", but reasonable, price.

there are *plenty* of tower defense and match-3 style games that were 20$ on launch. my own tower defense game was 23$ on launch, and has sold thousands of copies. many people have made hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on a bejeweled clone or a TD game that was $20+. for TD games, ever heard of master of defense? defense grid? plants vs zombies? there are tons of TD games that retail at 20$ on launch. for match-3 games, there are so many 20$ match-3 games in the casual sphere that they once flooded the internet, and entire companies have built their fortunes on them, such as popcap. they're becoming less popular right now, but at one point a 20$ match-3 game was popping up every other day

but yes, niche games tend to be priced *higher* than non-niche games, because there are fewer of them, and their audience is more dedicated. for instance, spiderweb software's ultima-style rpgs are very niche, and are usually priced $30 on launch. but i don't exactly know what "niche" this game is in; i've never really seen any other game like it, so i'm not sure if it has a niche. "chess clone" or "battlechess-like" isn't really a niche, it's so small it's not even a niche

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

do bad books sell for lower prices than good books? do bad movies have lower ticket prices than good movies?

Actually yes, they do (not ticket prices, but DVD prices).
I am talking real low quality product (B or Z movies), not bad in a subjective, artistic meaning (like Transformer is a bad movie but not a low quality movie)

yeah, dvds yes, but dvds are often a year after release. what i meant is that on *launch*, a game's quality has nothing to do with its price, just like with books and movies. after a couple of years, it's true that bad games (or books or movies) tend to go down in price faster than good ones do. but when you're selecting a price for launch, the quality is of no consideration