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[nikwing]

Hi,

Currently my team going to launch our 1st game.
Its a one button casual game with optional IAP (player never need it but items can be purchased with coins gained ingame/ coin IAP) sample: extra life, speed boost etc.

And now we're discussing if we should release it free (because already hv IAP) and to gain "name & fame" first. Or straight away release it at 0.99/ 1.99???

any advantage/ disadvantages for both method?

Thank you

[Snowman]

I'm no expert, but I'd release it for free. It'd help get the name out faster.

[Bambino2012]

I would go paid.
It's very unlikely you will benefit anything by going free.
You won't make a name, there's hundreds of applications being release, people won't remember your company name, at least at 0.99 you will get some back.

[bateleur]

If you release paid initially you can always go free later... the other way around doesn't work well!

[nikwing]

I prefer paid 1st then change it to free at later time, but The majority of the teams decided to go free straight away.

Wish us luck

[CowBoyDan]

Personally, nothing pisses me off more than buying a game that then ask me to buy more stuff.  It makes me feel cheated, like I didn't buy the full game.

Assuming (possibly wrongly) that this is going in an app store of some kind, you risk people buying it and then commenting "wtf?  I bought this and it wants me to buy more stuff"  and giving you 1 star.  A few one star reviews off the start and you are done.

You say IAP is optional, but they offer extra life.  Someone will argue that "you can't beat this unless you spend money on extra life, blah blah blah". 

If your IAP were purely cosmetic, outfits, hats, etc, I wouldn't see a problem with doing both.

[nikwing]

@CowBoyDan

Same here, that's why the IAP purely "boost" items that the player won't need to enjoy the full game experience.

Would love to hear your experience on releasing paid/ free app though :D

Thanks

[HernanZh]

Same here, that's why the IAP purely "boost" items that the player won't need to enjoy the full game experience.

Well, some people will argue that the game becomes a "pay to win" game, if the items aren't balanced. And then you'll get angry gamers.

[CowBoyDan]

My own free/paid mobile game, failed on both counts.  non-game app, did  paid only, small success, released free limited demo, it took a few months to pass up in downloads over the paid one.  No noticeable increase in paid purchases.

Who is to say that you didn't intentionally make your game get harder to force people to buy the boost if they want to succeed?  Its entirely speculation.  An argument that came in in LOTRO when they introduced their free to play and items shop is that it basically gave the game designers an incentive to make a broken game.  they could fix a problem in the game (something too hard, unbalanced, etc), or they could sell you something.  They would get more money for making a unbalanced broken game.

If your game is fair and balanced, why would a player need to buy the boost?  Any game that sells extra lives, health, powers, etc for real cash is inherently flawed in its game design.  The developer has every incentive to make the game unfairly hard or annoying.

If you bought a burger, then sit down to eat it and find its cold, and they tell you you have to pay extra to heat it up, how would you feel?  A game with boost that you must buy is a cold burger.

[nikwing]

Then i think the team make the right decision to go free  

[Shackhal]

For me, it doesn't matter if it is free or paid. In this world, marketing is your main weapon.

You won't get enough success if the gamers doesn't know of the existence of your games.

[Virion]

We released our first game few months ago, for $0.99. We even showcased our game at a comic/game convention. A lot of people came to play our game at the booth, most of them liked it. Then they will ask if the game is free. We said no, and they just walked away. There were around more than 500 people went to our booth (I know this because we gave out all our 500 pieces of brochures), and most of them played the game and liked it, but it just couldn't convert into sales. The same goes to our Facebook page, we have around 33, 000 visits per week but still, no significant increase in sales.

If I could reverse the time, I would release the game for free before going to the convention (but have to convince my team mate too).

[CowBoyDan]

Ouch!  And here I thought the problem was just convincing someone to buy something they just stumbled upon and haven't heard of before, all those doubts.. its 99 cents.. maybe its crap.. I dont want to waste 99 cents and find out I hate it in 5 minutes I could have bought a hot dog instead!

But wow, people playing it and still walking away because its not free.  Do they think your booth is free?  Wow just wow.  Its moments like this that I feel like this forum is a AA meeting.

[nikwing]

@ Virion, your game looks great! and salute for your great effort to market the game.
And your story is a it "scary"....hope you'll do better in the future/ for next game

[Bambino2012]

We released our first game few months ago, for $0.99. We even showcased our game at a comic/game convention. A lot of people came to play our game at the booth, most of them liked it. Then they will ask if the game is free. We said no, and they just walked away. There were around more than 500 people went to our booth (I know this because we gave out all our 500 pieces of brochures), and most of them played the game and liked it, but it just couldn't convert into sales. The same goes to our Facebook page, we have around 33, 000 visits per week but still, no significant increase in sales.

If I could reverse the time, I would release the game for free before going to the convention (but have to convince my team mate too).

That's even offensive, why would you be with a PAID booth showing off a free game ?
What kind of people think games should be free.., this is scary, I'm not sure in what direction the world is going, but everyone wants top quality games and free.
I'm having a feeling than in a few years, a nanny doing house calls will do better than we do lol

[Virion]

That's even offensive, why would you be with a PAID booth showing off a free game ?

I've been thinking to make it free, and put some ads in it in later updates. Not sure if that will work, but at least I could directly get a bunch of people to install my game on the spot and build up fan base.

I'm having a feeling than in a few years, a nanny doing house calls will do better than we do lol

[Bambino2012]

Just to let you know that I just bought your game, 0.99 cents is a steal, awesome animations you have there.
Good job

[Virion]

Just to let you know that I just bought your game, 0.99 cents is a steal, awesome animations you have there.
Good job

thanks! it's kind of hard to fit all those animations (90-100 sprites for each character) into the game and still keeping it at good performance. thanks again.

[knightSquared]

What might work is to make a free game with a decent level set, then do an in-app purchase to unlock more levels.  That way you have that initial customers who are interested in getting your game for free and perhaps help with word of mouth, then you have the rest of the customers who want more.

[CowBoyDan]

My next strategy is to release completely free, get it popular, then either release a game with similar appear (same "feel" but different game), or release a extended version of the free one with more levels and sell that.  Possibly putting ads in the original free.  But ads in mobile really dont make much unless you have tons of active players, so if its only going to be a buck or two I'm not sure its worth the hassle. 

But the first game will be a large fullness of game in its own right.  LIke angry birds was a full game and angry birds seasons is just "moar".

Technical notes... android & ios at more or less the same time, and a free web player version on my site and probably a portal or two, kongregate and perhaps wooglie.  (ads for web, I already have that stuff in place, using unity basic).

Just thought I'd share.