Russian guy?
Whether I sell FG or give it away is still up in the air (I will probably sell it because it's important that the team get a "commercial" game credit for the amazing work they've done), whether we go through a publisher (which may have its own restrictions) is still up in the air...
Always intended to be commercial, but from the outset I wanted to preserve the option to give it away. I don’t love selling games—for the most part, people who buy them need the money more than I do. But with Primordia, Strangeland, and the failed Cloudscape project, we did profit sharing. Once you do that, your teammates’ pay depends on selling the game. For FG, I’ve paid everyone out of pocket (more less ploughing whatever I made from my other game work into FG), so the only person whose bottom line is affected is me. The main reason that matters is that I have always wanted my game making hobby to be a moneymaker for my family, not a moneyloser, so if I give FG away that would limit the budget for whatever I make next.
If you told me to a certainty that 5X as many players would play if it were free, I’d probably make it free. But the irony is that free games get shunned for other reasons, so charging may actually attract more players. My hope is that the price will be low, maybe $9.99, though the upside of a higher price is that you can discount more.
Always intended to be commercial, but from the outset I wanted to preserve the option to give it away. I don’t love selling games—for the most part, people who buy them need the money more than I do. But with Primordia, Strangeland, and the failed Cloudscape project, we did profit sharing. Once you do that, your teammates’ pay depends on selling the game. For FG, I’ve paid everyone out of pocket (more less ploughing whatever I made from my other game work into FG), so the only person whose bottom line is affected is me. The main reason that matters is that I have always wanted my game making hobby to be a moneymaker for my family, not a moneyloser, so if I give FG away that would limit the budget for whatever I make next.
Respect.
If you told me to a certainty that 5X as many players would play if it were free, I’d probably make it free. But the irony is that free games get shunned for other reasons, so charging may actually attract more players. My hope is that the price will be low, maybe $9.99, though the upside of a higher price is that you can discount more.
I can't guarantee it, and there's probably no way to know for sure, but I suspect that if you release it for free you will have much larger download numbers than as a paid product. There's a number of factors working for you, and they are important, such as you and your brand already being a known quantity with a community attached, as well as the game not being shovelware (most free games are either this or a tech demo).
The only con is that you can't set discounts on a free product, and discounts rounds are very helpful for visibility.
A case study you could look into is Doki Doki Literature Club, which while being in a very different genre, is one of the few serious cases of where a free game met popular success. The popularity of it being so overwhelming that they were able to monetize it with a paid version that has 20k+ reviews on Steam, at 15 USD. I'm not sure if that was something they planned from the beginning or not.
Something to think about.
If anyone’s spending living money they don’t have on games, you releasing it for free won’t cure their imbecility, that money will go to waste somewhere else.people who buy them need the money more than I do.
never saw one, perhaps one can compare available TOME numbers? Its successful title so it should be meaningfulDid anyone ever write any article about games which are sold on Steam but available for free elsewhere, like traditional roguelikes and whatnot? I don't know how bad of a business model it is for people who don't give a shit about business models to begin with and just want people to pay for their games but in the same time not really.
I think ADOM is the most notable example.never saw one, perhaps one can compare available TOME numbers? Its successful title so it should be meaningfulDid anyone ever write any article about games which are sold on Steam but available for free elsewhere, like traditional roguelikes and whatnot? I don't know how bad of a business model it is for people who don't give a shit about business models to begin with and just want people to pay for their games but in the same time not really.
dunno how to use proper tools, but according to wikipedia(citing steamspy), in 2016, on steam, tome4 sold about 150k copies.I think ADOM is the most notable example.never saw one, perhaps one can compare available TOME numbers? Its successful title so it should be meaningfulDid anyone ever write any article about games which are sold on Steam but available for free elsewhere, like traditional roguelikes and whatnot? I don't know how bad of a business model it is for people who don't give a shit about business models to begin with and just want people to pay for their games but in the same time not really.
Probably Dwarf Fortress and Cataclysm: DDA too.
I want to release the best game I can. I’m sure we’ll keep supporting it and adding smaller stuff. A larger expansion would depend on whether there’s an audience and what the appetite is (including with the actor who does the VO, I suppose).Will this game have expansions after release?