Hey Leonard, Great stuff in there, much appreciated for those suggestions. We've talked about the ways we could do this with those larger publishers and some of your suggestions are spot on. It is something to definitely consider in order to distribute a lot better. It's almost to the point where if you don't embrace this freemium model then you really aren't taking part in the full community. As for the price, I agree I think it's time we did shift it back up a bit. The loss of sales will be balanced out and it gives the opportunity to drop to a sale price and be noticed by app discount spider bots. Didn't mean to overwhelm with my response by the way, just wanted to make sure the discussion was relevant and proactive to the actual situation. Seeing people give common answers is kinda like soft testing opinions before we make any decisions so thanks for helping man! Again glad you are enjoying the title. Oh yeah it's funny you mention Crescent Moon Games, I was speaking with a friend that beta tests a lot of indie titles @doomfan he's involved in a lot of indie development and he suggested them as well. Perhaps I should get in contact with them. Oh yeah another somewhat publisher had a rep call me and flat out tell me that What separates the men from the boys is freemium models/design vs traditional sales models/design. Basically saying AAA console designers don't know what they are doing when it comes to mobile. That should give you a good indication of how the business side of things work behind the scenes. All marketing companies make sure to let you know that if you aren't freemium they can't really guarantee any success unless the game is anticipated. So unfortunately we might have to make this a reality. Not that it's bad...IAPs are just a matter of giving the user choice. It's the design we need to mind and make sure it isn't completely unfair and frustrating. Right? Really want to approach this with best intentions
Well man, I hope you do not despair and end up getting a job elsewhere (I'd dread to see you end up at Gameloft or EA!). I read through all your replies here, and it is evident you wish to have no role in the IAP malaise afflicting mobile gaming these days, but sadly that appears to be the way to go. My advise is sign on with some pub, and if they require IAPs, then so be it. But an even bigger advice (plea even) is that you design a game with ZERO thoughts about IAPs, and only add them in after you've finished the base of the game. With that, these IAPs will be totally optional and not affect the core gameplay experience.
As much as I agree and would like to oblige with that ideology I have to say that creating a full fledge title with no way of incorporating pay walls means spending a ton of cash on production, give our work away for free and then hope people will spend money on additives that have no effect on the initial gameplay. That is almost out of the question as I could say that to a car maker. Hey BMW build me a great car for free and then just create extra lights, floor mats, chrome interiors and leather steering wheels. I'll drive the car for free and think about buying some new mats but...I don't really feel like it. That is a horrible business model and we saw what happened to PunchQuest. The same idea that everyone got the game they wanted for free and didn't spend anything on the IAPs... I don't understand how this model is supposed to be acceptable as it means you produce 100% effort, perhaps even 120% output considering the creation of extra "stuff" for the title and then see a marginally lower return for all that effort. It doesn't balance out in terms of cost...so really it's like asking to have free games made for everyone...how is that fair to us? Hahaha There's a lot to consider when doing this and you have to be clever about how you expect and project how people will spend. I say create a shell of a game that offers interesting gameplay and then limit the expansion of that title within the allowable balancing of the title. Then, much like any product that offers only just enough to get by, offer expansion that adds more interest, ease and a sense of fulfillment. Also expansion packs, story lines, extra levels, characters, etc. We tried to go traditional, the support is good but it's dedicated gamers that are saying so and it's almost impossible to reach them on this platform due to primary users being casual and therefor don't even think about game production as a full time, talent/skill reliant business, they just partake in the free distribution and could care less about spending cash. We were trying to help prove a case that you can make games that aren't just shells with pay walls. But it didn't get off the ground as we hoped...so back to the drawing board.
Calm down my friend. No one is asking for you to give your game away for free! It can cost up to $2.99 and have non-intrusive and non-necessary IAPs and I couldn't care less. So again, I didn't mean for it to be free. My GotY for 2011 was Wind Up Knight. Go check it out! This one however was totally free to begin with. Hard as nails platformer requiring precision timing. I ended up winning without making any IAPs. But ultimately the devs of the game (indie just like you) made enough money that they were happy! Try playing around with a few ideas. Cheers!
I can understand that marketing companies only offer a bit of short term success if your game is free. That's much easier for them. I would want to know how they measure success though. "Number of installs" is of course pretty useless if the people who install the game don't buy anything. Punch Quest was highly anticipated and freemium, and still apparently didn't do that well. There are other examples as well. Gasketball got quite a bit of coverage here on TA and did not do well either. It's just a very hard market and there is no magic way to success. It's true that the top grossing games are often freemium, but that doesn't mean that there aren't many non-earning freemium games as well. It's not a panacea. I wish I knew the secret to success though. I would certainly share it with you because I want HTW games to continue to make awesome games. Polara is among my favorite games of 2012 and you deserve lots of success.
I don't understand why there's not many developers using IAP to make a sort of "free demo" with a limited amount of levels, where you have to pay to get all the levels. It's far more fair to everyone involved, and completely avoid paywalls, which in my opinion is a horrible solution and I usually stay clear from games with paywalls. Polara already have a level design very suited for that model, as you could have left maybe half the levels free, and an option to unlock the rest for a set price, and could even have an additional charge for the extra game modes you provide. It's a crying shame your game didn't do well, as it is one of my all time favorited on the AppStore and deserved better, much better.
No you're exactly correct in that! We tried doing that with Kunundrum but I think our strategy didn't pan out because the first 20 levels we offered didn't give enough challenge to ensure the user that the game gets harder. If you'll do a search though you'll see we have lite versions with what I was referring to as a "pay wall" where you get to the end and there is an offer screen. On the Polara demo you get up until the first boss and it asks if you would like to pay to continue. I'm looking at incorporating that into the game. Trying to figure out the best point to put that roadblock so the player has absorbed enough and will want to continue. Also considering unlocks on the endless mode for non completionists. There are differing opinions among the directors and I'm trying to figure out the best model to use I just don't want another situation like Kunundrum had to happen again. But I agree...all freemium really has to be is a synonym for shareware, which is to say build in the demo into the game and distribute freely. Not much different than back when BBS' were around and no one had the 'Internet' haha ugh...I don't want to get any older So if ANY of you have suggestions on the best play or ideas around it, I'd love to hear them. The discussion is happening at the moment so why not let everyone join in. Could be like a fun experiment. Where would you put the lock? My suggestions is this: 20 levels including the boss fights. Then a 1.99 pay message for the rest. Also a .99 cent unlock the endless modes option. This way you can't unlock all the modes with only the 20 levels unless you pay a buck. That way you get 20 levels and endless modes. Conversely if you pay 1.99 you get all the main game in which you can continue to try and unlock the modes. If you get fed up, you pay a buck, no big deal. Allows all types of players the opportunity to try things out and partake in whatever they feel they want to pay for. Thoughts?
My thoughts are that I will pay no IAPs under any circumstances - even if it is to simply unlock the full game. Why can't you just sell your game for $1.99 to begin with? And then include IAPs in here - like unlocking the additional modes for $0.99. Have a separate "demo" version that you speak of that has a paywall after certain levels. Sorry HTW, Polara may have been amongst the best games I EVER played, but even that won't be enough to make me change my stance on IAPs. I don't see why can't you get both a fully unlocked and a demo+paywall version out. And then include IAPs in both.
Well in that paradigm, which is what we have done, you're basically saying having IAPs inside the paid game would increase the revenue enough to make it work, yet no one downloads games when they have to pay for them unless they know exactly what they are getting. Basically what I was suggesting was incorporating the demo structure into the title. The free model would allow for grand distribution, the shareware portion of the game would be similar to the lite version anyway, and then have the IAP be for unlocking modes if you didn't feel like it. The logic is all inter related so I don't understand why that would be a point of contention. The whole problem is that people don't really buy games unless they are highly regarded on Feature lists. And even then they hardly bother purchasing a game. Meanwhile the ones thriving are the ones using the freemium model where the game gets distributed widely due to availability.
I'm not a huge fan of IAP's but i'm not blinkered enough to ignore any game which has them. A 'shareware' version would be great, obviously free, used to see that a lot with apps, first 10 or so levels free and then xx amount (as an IAP) to unlock the rest of the game. Granted some 'i'll never buy a game with IAP in it ever' people might not be happy but the vast majority dont 'mind' IAP's as long as they dont force you to buy in game products just to be able to get past 'level 20' etc. I'm happy with a free 'full download' which you have to unlock with an IAP to get the rest of the game.
Come on Exact-Psience.. There have been plenty of game discussion in this thread, but that have died down lately as most people have completed the game. I believe it's a very good discussion going on, as the developer of this great game is struggling with sales. I hate IAP's myself, but it's a fact that many developers are struggling with sales, and any way to find ways to make it work so quality games like Polara can make it is a good thing.
I don't understand your objection at all... The developer is simply talking about a solution so he can continue making games and actually make a living of it. Using IAP like developers in the old days used shareware is IMO the only reasonable way to use IAP's. If its released that way, there's no need for a lite release of the game, or rather, the lite release will become the full game if you pay exactly the same as we all did for the full game in the first place, but it allows more people to sample the game before buying. Saying you won't pay IAP under any circumstances, even when you will pay exactly the same for the full game as the current pricing model just doesn't compute for me.
I think it's worth a try, for sure. I think you're right, the sweet spot will be around the first boss, either just before or after you beat him. It's important that customers get a feel of the increased challenge the game provides, so I think 20 levels for free ought to be a minimum. I'm old enough to remember when shareware was new and exiting myself.. I actually bought both Doom and Doom II after playing the crap out of the free shareware editions...
I vote too for that demo+paywall AND the regular version. The demo should contain the first world including the first boss and cutscenes like Bytebrain suggests. I would also add an endless mode, BUT I would add it with a paywall too, capped at 1,000m or so... so people get to taste it, and Im sure they fall in love with it and unlock the rest.
We actually have the Lite version out there and it's capped at 10 levels, and goes dark as soon as you get to the boss to entice people to be curious about the boss... it gets downloaded but not as much as a plain old free version with a paywall does. At this point the company has had to take another step back and now we'll have to be looking for programmers unfortunately. But not to worry... I will do my best to figure out this situation with some form of solution.
Came to my attention today that Polara has again been featured in the Endless Runner section on Google Play. Perhaps this will help us get some capital together to ensure the next title we make is possible. http://bit.ly/10Kde1u We've also started the signup process for The App Expo which is being held in Costa Mesa, California. If you're in the California area April 4th, you should look into attending. Sadly we won't be able to attend but we will be an expo sponsor with a tablet setup for everyone there to try out Polara! http://theappexpo.com/ In any event it's become apparent how this market works and the next title we look at will be a freemium title that hopefully will change the opinion on IAPs and see about making IAPs not the evil crappy things that we all have labelled them. Instead I'm going to try and change the worth and opinion of them...and if not, maybe I'll at least be able to make more than a couple bucks next year. Til then Kraft Dinner and tuna fish diet and cardboard housing hahaha Once again, running on Hope here ladies and gents. "I'll catch you on the flip side" ~ Rocco - Boondock Saints
Just to let you guys know Polara has gone free for Valentines Day care of 3 Magic Coins App. If you've wanted to check it out, nows the time! http://bit.ly/12PEqkQ Cheers Everyone!
Love this game, but you really don't get anything for beating it flawlessly with all the letters and specials?? Disappointing... But fun a fun challenge!
