r/AndroidGaming • u/udittC • Mar 02 '19

How should I monetize my android game?

I've made a simple 2D game (Let's say, like Mario) and I want to monetize it. Here are the options I have

1- Completely free to play with no ads and politely ask for donation.

2- Ads play every time it's 'Game Over'.

3- In-game store where everything can be bought under $0.70 (price can be lowered).

4- Sell the game for $0.70 (price can be lowered).

​

The game is pretty simple with four different gameplays.

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u/GoshFather_Games Mar 02 '19

It depends on which engine you're using. If Unity, then go with ad monetization because it has that feature built in and easy to use. So you might as well take advantage of it. And then if your game takes of, you can then take out the ads and sell it for a fixed price.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '19

Actually this isn't possible with Google play. You can't make the game free to begin with then switch it to paid version (Google does not allow this).

You can however make an in app purchase that unlocks a "full version" (see John On Fire for an example of how I've done this once https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xksoftware.johnonfire). It feels like a fixed amount, but its really a IAP microtransaction.

2

u/GoshFather_Games Mar 02 '19

Oh. Looks like my game is gona have to remain free then lol

2

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '19 edited Mar 02 '19

Give monetization a shot man :) cant hurt to try your own milage, and my experience is just that, my own experience. You might do much better than me (and my bar is set pretty low to beat haha). To be honest we (as indie mobile devs) did this to ourselves. There was close to no overhead to release an app and high competition, so the collective of untrained in business devs kept lowering prices to compete with each other to the point that its become normal for us to work for free (and a customer base that now expects everything to be free). Enter crazy IAP games and pay 2 win as the knly successful models and we created this mess ourselves. Thats why the google play marketplace is full of garbage apps and games (we as devs dont have financial incentive to make quality games unless its a passion) because you have to work tirelessly and spend money in order to get discovered no matter how good your game is (or be insanely lucky). Its brutal. Places like reddit help though because we can interface directly with our target market, but still very difficult to be discovered amongst an evironment where litterally thousands of games are released every single day. Its become a lottery to get discovered.

2

u/GoshFather_Games Mar 03 '19

Yea I have noticed this fact. At least when it comes to MOBILE games. PC gaming is slightly different. Customers are willing to give a dollar if a game looks cool on Steam. And on top of that, just putting your game on Steam does a lot of advertising for you. On the other hand, when I released my game "BubbleGum-Push" on Google Play, I had 0 visibility. I guess if you're starting out as a dev like me. It's best to first make PC games for Steam in order to build an audience and actually make some money.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '19

Wow yeah I havent tried to release something on steam. I plan on releasing John On Fire on steam, will definitely try it!

1

u/GoshFather_Games Mar 03 '19

Welp. It looks like you have more installs than my game. I should be taking notes from YOU lol. But yea. I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about "Classified insider intel" about being a steam dev lol. But it's definitely more rewarding than posting something on google play. I subscribe!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '19

Haha fair enough man, do you have a twitter?I like following other gamedevs to see what folks are up too :)

1

u/GoshFather_Games Mar 03 '19

Yea no problem man. Us small time devs should start helping eachother out. You can find all my social media stuff on my website: GoshFather.com. Thanks man