We all know, majority of the consumers doesn't care if a game is F2P or not, they play what they like, and they pay for what they get hooked on. Then there are most of us here, who bothered with visiting gaming news websites, dwelling in game forums, and us developers. Many would denounce F2P, as a matter of fact, I think many would look at a game and go "if it doesn't have a price tag, it's f2p". Now then, how would you address those games that allows for free download, let you play a part of the game content then offer you IAP to unlock rest of the content? Is it not fair to declare such games as F2P? Aren't such model even more... "considerate" (I can't think of a better word) than a purely premium/paid game? It let's you try the game out, and then if you like it, you can pay one price to convert it into a premium experience. TL;DR Would you do "free to download, 1 IAP to unlock premium" or is it still better to stick to "Pay on Download" premium? Assuming you are a little nobody and your game doesn't do any of the F2P mechanics. Question background: I am about to submit this to Apple, but I still can't decide on a model
You could have a lite app (free), and the full app (paid with no IAP). In that way it's made very clear what your model is and people are less suspicious.
I feel for you, as this question divides gamers across iOS. A hardcore element, especially Touch Arcade readers, will insist that pay-first premium apps are the only way to go, but I don't think anyone can argue with a "try before you buy" approach. The Lite and Full Game model is probably the best compromise, as stated above, but I actually prefer the "pay to unlock full game" model - it works for Tiny Thief and less obviously with Tennis Champs Returns. I certainly wouldn't consider that F2P - it's a premium game that does users a service in letting them try before they decide to commit. The downside is that you risk offending the idiots who expect everything for free. They might throw in the odd one-star review on the App Store for daring to charge for your hard work. Ultimately though, if a game is good enough, it should find its audience, regardless of the pay model.
I would try the lite & paid model, but I remember Apple would reject such apps, with a reason something along the line that if both version are the same, we should implement instead the "try then buy" model making use of IAP. Of course, I had only last heard of such rejections years ago, not sure how it is now.
The reason most people don't do lite and paid versions anymore is that it splits your downloads (which screws you on the rankings) and the conversion rates are terrible. Pay to unlock is a better option in that regard. It also has a long tradition in PC gaming -- I remember downloading tons of shareware RPGs in the 90's. From what I've heard, though, conversions rates from both the lite/paid and the pay-to-unlock models are pretty bad. I think the better system will allow you to earn revenue regardless of how players choose to engage with the game. For example, you can have "pay to remove ads," which brings you a bit of money even if players don't pay. You could also have people pay to revive until they unlock unlimited continues. What I would do, however, is something I have yet to see in the App Store: put a timer system with premium currency and give people the option to pay to remove it. The mobile gaming world since pretty much cleanly split between people who want to pay-as-you-go and those who want to pay up front. A system that gives you both options would allow you to cover both bases and ideally keep everyone happy. See Dragon Land as a potential example: the game would be perfect for premium players if the developer gave you the option of removing the heart/timer system. In any event, good luck!
Thanks for the suggestions! And yes, that point about split downloads, totally escaped my thoughts. I was too concerned about getting people to try the game out than for them to dismiss it on sight of a "free" price tag (I know some reviewers do that, free games from nobodies gets ignored or super low priority)
Yep, especially with folks who usually review other platforms. Have you thought of releasing the game on Steam first, then mobile? That's what the Crashland folks are doing with their next game -- precisely for that reason.
Might be a little tough. I'm using cocos2d-x framework. Not sure if it converts well for publishing to Steam. Might be time for me to once again dabble with Unity :/
Just look at what everyone making the most money is doing, and that is what will make you the most money. Nearly all apps are F2P, nearly all of the top 10 grossing are F2P. The problem lies in that this is ONLY true if you have the right audience and market. For mass market games, F2P is the best. For niche games paid up front is probably better, also the older your audience is, the more paid up front is better. The more "gamer" your audience is, paid up front is probably better, depends on the genre still.
So I released my game "Unforgiving" using the try then buy method. I cant say if its a good or bad monetisation method, but given the deliberate high difficulty of my game, this is absolutely a BAD IDEA. For those looking for such a game, they loved getting to try the game and are usually more than willing to pay to unlock the full game. But making the download cost free, it attracts downloads by non-target audience (ie, players of casual games, who are used to freebies, who requires plenty of hand holding, who refuses to read, who dislike practicing for a game). And that attracted tonnes of bad energy, and by bad energy, I mean 1-2 stars ratings and bad reviews to which I cannot respond to. They complain about stuffs where there's an option for (on the title screen unhidden).
The screens look enticing and the copy tells me it's going to be hard, so I don't think its the nature of the game that's giving the 1-2 star reviews. I've taken the time to do an audit, just because I've seen you around the boards for a while and know (some of) your struggles. I'm only going to talk about the very first thing I saw on the thread, because its sort of off topic but also highlights something on topic as well. I attached the very first screen I saw. As a new user, seeing a warning message with issues and demands to not review the app on the app store is off putting! Instead of this being my introduction to your game, the logic should have been to display this message after the first X minutes or X levels completed. It should have been more friendly-worded like "Like what you see? Have a problem? Talk directly with the designers here! [link]" (On-Topic)Your game is free, so it's lumped in with all the other free to play games out there. Whether you have iAP to unlock the full game or to buy a new hat or to buy your way to success, what you're actually after is customer retention. Retained users will be tempted to buy every day. The first user experience is VITAL to your game's success. Also that font makes my eyes hurt. For titles its fine, but for text in a pop up? Ouch!
Thank you for taking the time to look at the game. That message is pulled from server. The first few days it had a much appreciative message.. "Thank you for downloading....blah blah". I agree , the choice of font for the message is bad. And oh the popping up itself is a bug on my end, it should NOT show up on very first load, but this message will only be shown once until there is a new message received from server (which shouldn't happen often). I'll try to fix the issue with the popup in my coming update which pushes iOS requirement to 8.3+. People are also dropping 1 stars because the game doesnt run on their device..., I know, my bad for not doing test on a lower iOS version.
That'll do it. I also wish I could spread out the controls a bit, with a dead zone between the left and right arrow. I die more to fingers falling off syndrome than to bad play.
Does tweaking the controls from the Control option screen help? If this discussion is going off topic, and you are willing to continue this discussion, maybe we can carry on over at Unforgiving's thread? http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=285734
Aw damn, unexpect3rd.. I might go fully "Spanish Inquisition" on your app. Okay, jokes aside. 1 -> You might want to polish its presentation on app store, at least description seems messy and trailer could use a bit of polishing towards the end. Check out this cheat sheet. 2 -> Blackharon mentioned you should focus on retention, I agree, but try to focus on session length as well 3 -> Do you know when people are playing your game? What are they doing at that time? Try to leverage that. 4 -> You have various avatars, themed levels and more in game. Maybe create.. let's say a "pony level" and pitch it to MLP sites and offer them "special" unlocks. Unfortunately, I'm having issues with installing Unforgiving, so I can't talk about the actual FTUE.
Thanks LunaMay for the suggestions. 1) is...kinda done. That whole bunch of stuffs at the beginning of the description was thrown in recently in a fit, I'd rearranged the info now. To fulfil 2) the easiest is to reduce the difficulty, that would be a major revamp of level designs, and it defeats the purpose of the original intention of this game providing a hardcore challenge for the hardcore players. That, it is doing okay, except the non-hardcore players has access to the game as well and are crying mommies. 3) and 4) delves too much into the business aspect of game design, if I really want to go into that, I'd just built a f2p game that monetises thru virtual currencies like i did with "Into The Winds". Unforgiving was design to be a premium game, but I let it be free download to give it a "Try then Buy" experience. If you wish to further discuss about "Unforgiving" please continue at the TA thread link in the previous post. Thank you.
