next »

[Virion]

I finally released my game for free on the Christmas Eve. Surprisingly, I've got 6749 downloads on AppStore in just 2 days (24th and 25th Dec). Previously my game was put up for sale for $0.99, and for almost 1 year the total sales is less than 200. Now I've put it for free, I get almost 7k downloads in just 2 days. Should I conclude that people are no longer paying for games?

[Klaim]

Nope. It means that free games are more tried than paid games. Did you have a free limited version of the game out before?

[Virion]

I previously tried to release a cut down version or 'lite' version but Apple rejected the game and shown me this message:


(this image was found on the internet, the one i got was exactly the same, but it's iOS Store and not Mac Store)

I've seen a lot of lite versions out there not sure why mine was rejected.

[Cloudiest Nights]

Huh, that's really weird... Maybe you could try making a separate game with different levels or something (haven't tried your game, so I'm not sure what it all entails.)

[Klaim]

I previously tried to release a cut down version or 'lite' version but Apple rejected the game and shown me this message:


(this image was found on the internet, the one i got was exactly the same, but it's iOS Store and not Mac Store)

I've seen a lot of lite versions out there not sure why mine was rejected.

Hahahahaha I dind't know they don't allow this! I worked on free game apps (for work) only.

Sorry but I believe that's part of the oriignal problem. Basically your only alternative is to indeed make your game free. Then in the game, charge to get more level. Fremium thing.

Shit that's dumb.


One thing other people did is to release the game for free on a platform like PC, then release it paid on iOS. The problem with that is that the game have to be nice on PC too.

[chaosTechnician]

Should I conclude that people are no longer paying for games?

No.  Of course not.  However, you can probably conclude that more people will play a free game than a paid game by virtue of it being free.

For example, I have a truck racing game on Google Play that has a paid full version and a free, ad-driven, one-level, one-mode, demo version.  Guess which one has many more installs by orders of magnitude (hint: it's the one that doesn't cost money).  People like free things; they're less risky and, best of all, don't cost anything. 
Some kid with a computer and an iPhone near where I used to live made a free game that got millions of downloads and made the local news.  The game definitely wouldn't have done was well if it cost money; but it didn't, so people got it and apparently enjoyed it.

This doesn't mean people don't still buy things.  My aforementioned racing game pulls in a reasonable amount of spending money each month, and my full-time job is funded almost exclusively by the fact that people will pay for games.

[Muz]

It's more like there are lots and lots and lots of good free games, so why pay for one? Once you charge for the game, you're playing in an entirely different league. You can well be king of the free games market, but at the bottom of the paid games market.

It's not easy to pay; you'd need a credit card or something. Which filters out the game-loving schoolkid market. If people could simply buy games with cash, you'd probably sell 10x as much. Most of the people who do buy it have already registered their credit card to buy something else.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

uh, you realize that 200 sales from 7000 is a *very* good conversion rate right? that's nearly 3%, that's amazing. it's typically 0.5% to 1%. my game immortal defense had over 200,000 downloads, and only about 2000 sales. i've never heard of a game that can maintain a conversion rate of 3%. many indies make an extremely good living with a 0.5% conversion rate; they just get a lot of downloads

[Christian Knudsen]

The game was first sold (200 copies) and then later made free (7000 downloads). So the 200 copies aren't the conversation rate of 7000 downloads.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

in that case there's some crucial information missing: when it was for sale, how many downloads of the demo did it get? if that's also around the free version's number of downloads, you have nothing to worry about

in any case i don't think you can conclude anything from numbers like these, they're too small, and the generalizations are too broad. it's like, if you make chocolate chip cookies for a party and nobody eats them, and you make oatmeal cookies for a party and everyone eats them, can you then conclude that people in general don't like chocolate chip cookies as much as oatmeal cookies? of course not, the sample size is way too small

there could be a variety of explanations, such as that you're better at making oatmeal cookies than chocolate chip cookies (equivalent to: that game is better as a free game than as a paid game), or that particular set of people likes oatmeal cookies more (equivalent to: that particular market for that platform + genre combination likes free games more than buying them), or perhaps even that you burned that batch of chocolate chip cookies (equivalent to: you didn't market the commercial version of the game very well and marketed the free release of it a lot better)

[rivon]

in that case there's some crucial information missing: when it was for sale, how many downloads of the demo did it get? if that's also around the free version's number of downloads, you have nothing to worry about

There wasn't any demo. He released it for money at the beginning. Then he released it for free.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

why would you release a game for sale without a demo? that seems like suicide

[rivon]

why would you release a game for sale without a demo? that seems like suicide

If you had read the earlier posts, you would know that he tried to release a lite/demo version but it got rejected by Apple.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

that's because you aren't supposed to submit demos to the app store. you're supposed to put them on your website. i was assuming he also had a demo on his website (it makes no sense not to)

[rivon]

I might be wrong but you can't install apps in your iPhone from any other source than from the App Store (unless you rooted your phone). So a demo on his website would be useless. Or he would have to make a PC/flash/whatever version which adds a lot of development time.

[Manuel Magalhães]

It's an OSX game, though. (judging from Virion's second post)

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

that'd make sense -- perhaps demos for iphone games are allowed on the app store, but demos for macOS games are not allowed on the app store. or perhaps it's a policy change where previously demos were allowed and now they aren't. regardless, i don't understand the idea of trying to sell a game without a demo -- the demo is the most important marketing tool an indie has. it's surprising that a game would even *get* 200 sales without having a demo

[rivon]

Seriously guys, read his posts... It's an iOS game...

I previously tried to release a cut down version or 'lite' version but Apple rejected the game and shown me this message:


(this image was found on the internet, the one i got was exactly the same, but it's iOS Store and not Mac Store)

I've seen a lot of lite versions out there not sure why mine was rejected.

[Muz]

Kind of a retarded policy. But if I'm not mistaken, quite a lot of games have demos on the Apple app store? Maybe it's just not allowed to send a demo first before the full version and then they'll approve both at the same time?

[Virion]

Hi guys. Sorry for late reply. Yes, I was quite puzzled as to why I wasn't able to launch a lite version (I locked 2 characters and 2 game modes left only 1 character and 1 game mode for player to try) but there are so many lite versions out there in the appstore. It's iOS appstore by the way, sorry for the confusion caused.

Anyway now we have manage to earn a little bit from the free version through ads (only at the main menu and paused menu, we don't show ads when player is playing the game) but still couldn't cover back the costs we have spent to develop this game.

For our next game, we'll be doing PC game instead. Everything is much easier to do on PC compare to mobile. Thanks for all the inputs from you guys, really appreciate it.