How best to release and monetize my Windows Phone game

[Dri]

Hi,

I've been working for a couple of months on a dungeon crawler focusing on fast-paced fights for Windows Phone 7, and its now time for me to make a decision about how to release it.

About the game

You progress room by room in a labyrinth, open chests to get new and better gear and keys to open closed doors :


Sometimes when you move to a new room a random encounter triggers, and sometimes you have to defeat a boss to continue your progression :


The battles are in real-time, you tap on the skills' icons to use them and they need some time to reload, pretty much like a MMO.

That's it for the features, the rest is just content: maps, items, weapons, monsters, skills, etc.

So, how should I release it?

Plan A : episodic with the first episode free and the others for $0.99

I originally planned for an episodic game, the dungeon is a big tower and I thought about each episodes featuring a given amount of floors and adding new mechanisms, spells and monsters.
The first episode would be free to serve as a demo or "Lite version".

The reason why I wanted it to be free is because I need to attract the players in the first place and the game is still relatively short on features compared to other dungeon crawlers. I plan to add more of them (like buying/selling equipment, etc) but it takes time and I want to release it as soon as possible to gather feedbacks.

However, with time has come concerns about this plan.

First, I'm not sure anymore about the episodic stuff. I was inspired by Pocket God, each episode adding a new feature and it sounded like a cool idea. But I'm not sure if it's going to work because they will essentially be sequels instead of extensions.

The number of them and their scope is a difficult balance too.
I can't charge less than 80 Microsoft Points (~ $0.99) so the updates need to have enough meat to match customers' expectations. And I can't do too much of them because I doubt the players are ready to pay $10 for the full game.

Also, the "Episode 1" may be intimidating for newcomers, and it suggests an incomplete game. It can hurt reviews as well if they don't consider it as a whole.


Plan B : free game with free updates and later $0.99-priced spin-offs

So maybe it's better to release the game in "beta" for free and doing frequent updates to add content and features (still for free).

This way the players can understand that the game is not finished and that new features will come, and I can continue to work on it while gathering feedbacks and improving the recognition of the game.

Once the game is fully featured, I can release spin-offs featuring the same mechanics but with a different setting and new content.
The idea being that players who are hooked enough will buy the new games.

The fact that the full game will be free is an advantage as it will probably gather good reviews and rank quite high for that simple fact, but it's also an inconvenient.
It will probably be enough for most players and they won't want to buy the other games.

Also the time needed to make an update, submit it to Microsoft and have it pushed on the player's phone is probably long enough for them to forgot or loose interest.


Plan C : keep it simple, just a game for $0.99, eventually sequels if all goes well

It's easier to wrap my head around such a plan, but I don't know how successful it will be on the Windows Phone Marketplace ecosystem.

I still think that my game needs a free demo, which can be done with the trial mode but I don't think it will really be effective.

It's probably better to make the demo a fully featured game, with a beginning and a end (shorter than the paid game, of course).
I guess a lot of people will just look the 'Free apps' section anyway, so they will completely miss the trial version.

The problem with this plan is that it's going to take a lot more time and I won't benefit from player feedbacks. There is a lot of uncertainty around all that.

Plan D : a mix?

I could also release the 'incomplete' game for free as a "pilot" to gather feedbacks and build recognition and then switch to Plan C with a full paid game and a proper free version.


What do you think?

Writing all that helps, but that's not the only reason why I'm here. I'm still quite inexperienced with selling games, and it's even more true for mobile games.

So what do you think? How would you do it?

Thanks

[CasualInsider]

$1.99 with frequent 99cent sales (and infrequent free periods). Add in-app purchases to allow people to spend $$$ to get in game premium currency to buy useful stuff early. Update the game as long as it is profitable to do so.

[Grey Alien]

Sadly the answer is probably: Port it to another platform - ANY platform in fact. As for the WP7 version, I hear from reliable sources that getting Xbox Live certified (by adding integration with that stuff) and getting a publisher will boost sales 10x minimum. We have a WP7 game out there now, but it's not got XBL integration although we aim to do that for the next game.

[wedding]

Plan D : a mix?

I could also release the 'incomplete' game for free as a "pilot" to gather feedbacks and build recognition and then switch to Plan C with a full paid game and a proper free version.


What do you think?

Writing all that helps, but that's not the only reason why I'm here. I'm still quite inexperienced with selling games, and it's even more true for mobile games.

So what do you think? How would you do it?
wedding dressThanks

[meds]

Sadly the answer is probably: Port it to another platform - ANY platform in fact. As for the WP7 version, I hear from reliable sources that getting Xbox Live certified (by adding integration with that stuff) and getting a publisher will boost sales 10x minimum. We have a WP7 game out there now, but it's not got XBL integration although we aim to do that for the next game.

Yep, if you're really interested in big bucks you should port to other platforms.

Having said that, WP7 is a viable platform for ad supported games, there's a couple of people who are going full time indie with nothing but ad supported games.

[PoV]

Sadly the answer is probably: Port it to another platform - ANY platform in fact.

Yes, seriously "any". Even ones declared "end-of-life" such as Symbian. Not worth the investment.

[jcottier]

Yes, seriously "any". Even ones declared "end-of-life" such as Symbian. Not worth the investment.

Sorry, I didn't understand what you mean... (are you serious or ironic?)
Anyway, as you ported your game to all the live and dead platform (including the ZX81) witch one are worth it?

JC

[Dri]

Thanks for your replies and suggestions.

The WP7 marketplace is still young and immature, in-app transactions are not allowed yet and ads (at least those provided by Microsoft) don't seems to be accessible for non-US citizens, but both are stated to arrive in the future.

There may be some alternatives to Microsoft ads, I will look into that. Having an ad-supported free version along the normal paid game could be a good idea.

For XBL certification and integration, as a lone developer my chances to be approved may be quite slim. It's probably worth trying though, who know, I may get lucky


Again, many thanks!

[meds]

I think you can have ads in your app but you won't get paid for them until Microsoft adds yoru country..

[PoV]

Rare, but yes I am entirely serious here. Only iOS and WP7 have reoccurring costs. Despite being a launch title, the WP7 port has not earned enough to sustain itself. Every other non-enthusiast platform I'm on has earned at least $100, or payed off in some other significant way, Apple being the only one requiring a regular fee. There is more to this story, but I won't be sharing anything beyond what is mentioned in my recent blog post.

Under the "traditional" business model of selling a game for money, iOS is probably the only one you can seriously make a living from. Everything else, including Android, is just gravy. I will say though, Android is pretty low on my personal bests, but it is a positive experience.

Under unconventional models like freemium and ads, anyone with a large customer base can be good. I don't do this myself, but some simple math should tell you who these are.

That's not to say there aren't benefits to working with underdogs, but the motivation here shouldn't be royalties, but building a good relationship with large companies that could become serious future business partners. Getting on the short list for when those exciting big-new-things happen.

[Grey Alien]

iOS is probably the only one you can seriously make a living from

PC/Mac downloads still ain't dead. I could keep going and make a living from them alone but I'm changing it up this year for fun.

Good point about relationship building. It's all speculative of course but it increases the chance of opportunity.

[stanchat]

Actually many large game companies are seeing more revenue and sales from their Android counterpart vs iPhone. I have compiled a slide deck that I use when talking to the Chicago Android development community that highlights the actual sales number for Rovio (creator of Angry Birds, and Spacetime Studio creator of Pocket Legends). In my slide deck I point out that many companies are actually diverting a larger portion of their marketing budget to the Android platform

http://goldendoodlegames.com/game_de...evelopment.pdf

[PoV]

Actually many large game companies are seeing more revenue and sales from their Android counterpart vs iPhone.

Not by charging a flat rate to purchase, hence my note on the Freemium/Ad models.

that's also true that it's easier to be noticed by Microsoft.

.. Well ...

[PoV]

PC/Mac downloads still ain't dead. I could keep going and make a living from them alone but I'm changing it up this year for fun.

Right sorry, I was referring to mobiles you could live off of.

[Dri]

Thanks for the advices everyone, sadly porting it to iOS or Android is not possible right now as the costs in devices, licenses and time are far more important than what I expect to get from this game. It's probably something I will have to do in the future (at least for iOS), but right now I don't have the money and the time to do it.

That's why I'm trying to make the better of what I already have.

That's not to say there aren't benefits to working with underdogs, but the motivation here shouldn't be royalties, but building a good relationship with large companies that could become serious future business partners. Getting on the short list for when those exciting big-new-things happen.

That's interesting, I never thought of it that way. I always thought it would be easier to be noticed by players, but that's also true that it's easier to be noticed by Microsoft. Good point, thanks.

[Grey Alien]

@PoV: Got it, yep that makes sense but Android is becoming a contender for people who have the right sort of business model.

[PoV]

@PoV: Got it, yep that makes sense but Android is becoming a contender for people who have the right sort of business model.

Yep, which isn't us cavemen with our fixed-price single purchases.

[Grey Alien]

True I am stuck in that old-skool model despite working on a Facebook game for a year. I think I just prefer the types of games you get when you pay then play.

[Jack Norton]

As a player I'm the same. I used to play some MMORPG like EQ1-2 but now I only buy single player one-time downloadable. Probably we're a minority now, not sure

[PoV]

Well one thing seems certain: Those of us attached to the single-purchase model shouldn't be making casual games. Core and Niche games for us... plus we may hate ourselves less by making games we care about more.

Or maybe thats just me.

[strategy]

My experiences are with the Android platform, so take this for what it's worth.

I released my game early for free (including ads) and followed up with rapid updates to extend and complete the game (still in progress, in fact). A paid version followed much later (not by choice, as such - Google simply didn't allow sales from Scandinavia earlier).

That approach has worked very well for me - the free version built up a good fan-following, which has allowed the paid version to gain a reasonable traction. despite the differences between free and paid being minimal (I'm not a big fan of crippleware) and the app being priced as a niche product.

I can't imagine that this product could have succeeded quite as well without the free -> paid version conversion; it has simply been crucial that the game has had a lot of players who've tried it for free to create the fan base of people who actually play and pay for it. The main incentive for people to buy the game is to support development, and I work hard (albeit in my free time) to give people value for their money. At some point I'm also thinking of doing smaller extensions (which will work both with the free and paid versions) to see how that works - i.e., similar to your Plan B.