If you were to launch your indie game today, how would you price it? Probably one of the more stress-inducing questions you will need an answer for. So how do you choose?
This article was originally posted on ManaKeep.
If you were to launch your indie game today, how would you price it? Probably one of the more stress-inducing questions you will need an answer for =)
So how do you choose? You may start by asking yourself, how much will people pay for my game? But if it is your first time selling this question is a bit intimidating. Knowing there are many good indie games for sale you might be tempted to next think, I'll price mine lower and then more people will buy it.
This is already the wrong path to be wandering down, and even worse, by setting a low price you may end up hurting your sales.
If I told you a single player roleplaying game costs $5, what are your initial thoughts? It's probably short. The story may be lacking. There won't be many features. Now, what about a $79 single player roleplaying game? 30+ hours of gameplay. Awesome cutscenes. Voice acting to tell the story. Packed with features.
Based on price alone you make assumptions about the quality of the games. And players will do the same with your game, based on your price.
Take an objective look at your game and how it compares to similar games. How does your play time stack up? Are your graphics better? Do you offer more features? Not only will this help you better assess a fair value for your game, it helps you discover the unique selling points of your game!
People can absolutely go play other games. But those other games aren’t Axiom Verge.
Dan Adelman, On Indie Game Pricing
And unique selling points is where you find the real value in your game - this is why a player wants to play your game over all the others. If your game is the only one in its genre to offer a certain feature, art style or story setting, then players who are drawn to that will value your game higher.
Once you have chosen a price, you may still feel a bit unsure of your decision. Is your number too high? Is it too low? One way to gain confidence in your decision is to reach out to your fans and ask. You could make a survey with different price points and send it out to a larger group, or contact a few fans individually and ask for feedback on your chosen price.
Finding the right price for your game is of course a complex question, and we are far from experts. We read a lot of articles on pricing these past few weeks, and wanted to share some of the info we found useful, which we hope you also found useful =)
Want to read more on indie game pricing? We found these great articles you should check out:
Are indie games too cheap? - by Alex Wiltshire
The indie games are too damn cheap - by Sergey Galyonkin
Indie game pricing is "more science than art" - by James Brightman
On indie game pricing - by Dan Adelman
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