Hi, relatively new to game dev. Currently trying to figure out how to go about pricing our game Ruya alongside reaching out to press. We've got a 'play before you pay' model in place at the moment. But I worry that's a total immersion killer and it'll just frustrate people to throw up a paywall after about a 20 minute play session. It's intergrated into the game in a way that's fairly elegant but I can't help but feel that it seems a little tacky. We're now considering just going premium, but other devs have told us they wouldn't expect this sort of game to be premium. Which has filled us with self-doubt causing us to second guess ourselves. You can get a sense of the game here - http://www.ruyagame.com/ How much would you expect this to be priced at?
Honestly, I can't think of a single game with a hard "play before you pay" setup that has done well, apart from maybe Mario Run (and that was actually considered a flop based on its absolutely enormous download numbers and pre-release exposure)... there are a few reasons for that, imo. First, there are SO many high quality free games out there today, that its VERY easy for a player to get a small sampling, and feel satisfied enough just say "next" once they're asked to pay. The difference with "play before you pay" from ordinary F2P monetization is that its a hard wall; you're forcing the player the make a choice about either quitting your game, or paying to continue to play - the problem here is that you're never going to pick a spot where all players are going to feel comfortable making that decision (some will, some won't), and you're also going to get 0 value out of a player that chooses to quit the game (bc they can't even play the game in any capacity anymore, which means no word of mouth, no nothing... just a delete of your game). Smash Hit is a good example imo of a modification of the "play before you pay" scheme. Instead of forcing the players to make that choice of "quit or pay", they added a major feature with the pay option (allowed the use of continues, otherwise each game you have to start over again). The key here is that they still give the option for players to play their game in limited capacity, even if they don't want to pay - which helps with virility and download numbers in general. Premium has its own host of issues though as well... but imo your game looks like it would NOT be out of place being premium. All of that being said, take everything I said with a grain of salt... one thing we've learned about the App Store is that everyone has totally different experiences. What works for some, may or may not work for others. These are just some thing we've personally noted throughout the years, so I would weigh it, and decide for yourselves what you want to do. I wish I could give you a "definitive answer", but there are just so many x-factors that that is just impossible for anyone to do >_<
Looks like a visually stunning game! Seems like the full-immersive experience is what you are looking for. What if instead of a hard pay wall after the 20 minutes or so of gameplay, you inform the users that you hope they've enjoyed their ad-free experience so far. By that point, your users should be hooked enough with your game. Then you give them two options: 1) Continue the game for free but ads will start showing up occasionally (maybe between every few levels) 2) Continue the game without ads for $1 or $2 (would be about how much you would charge to be a premium game anyway, right?) That way: 1) Your users won't drop off 2) You can monetize from all players regardless of which option they choose 3) You can still give them a taste of the immersive gaming experience Win-win-win! :-D
