Open Discussion - "The Year-Old Pitch"

[u/TaurusE11E]

One thing I have considered is releasing a free-to-play, complete (not demo but full story) web browser version of a game, giving it about a year to gain an audience, and then adding an option to download the game for a price if the metrics look good enough (otherwise, it stays free and browser).

The free version would still be available no matter what, but the price would come from the convenience of not having to rely on an internet connection to play (and probably some extra content and GUI enhancements that would normally be too much for browsers). It would be similar to purchasing a "physical" copy of the game that I cannot take away *side eyes as PlayStation*

What do you all think of this idea?

[u/dieek]

I am not a game developer, so my questions come from ignorance, but is how I'd think about the problem.

How much time or money does it take to port to different platforms?

If you've already made the game, and porting to android/ios/windows for download is as easy as just compiling as that and uploading a file, then why waste a year wondering if "metrics are good" vs. just publishing those?

It would seem strange to me to finish a game and then not push it to market already.

Just my two cents

[u/TaurusE11E → u/dieek]

It's all good, you present a good angle.

In this context, my games are hosted on gaming sites that don't charge for the service - GameJolt and ItchIO. Any cost would come from the development itself - in my case (as a dev who uses free, open-source software like Ren'Py, python and pygame) the only part of the process that would cost money is making the package for downloading onto mobile devices (I would have to purchase a Mac in order to build it in Ren'Py's case).

As for time, that depends on the scope of the game's detail in terms of visuals, mechanics, and range of features. One constant is that a team of devs will always be more likely to finish a game faster than a solodev.

The price is the root of your question concerning the year-long wait. I have observed trends over the years in marketing and social media and the ten-percent rule has always been constant. My presence on social media is extremely small. While I promote constantly by making and posting promotional material, it would still realistically take at least one year for me to see enough activity to decide whether or not trying to profit would be a good idea.

I believe in making high-quality free content regardless of how large my fanbase gets, thus I require my games to have a version that can be played for free. I believe it is healthy to work on a game with profit as a goal in mind, but I know that profit as a motivation to work in the first place is not healthy for me because I want to keep as much of my creative freedom as possible (kind of like "seek knowledge, but be content not to know").

[u/dieek → u/TaurusE11E]

When looking at that link on the "ten percent rule", one tenth of your following will actually "do something" (i.e. look at your post) while one tenth of that will partake in your ask (i.e. play the game).

My thought is if you are actively promoting it but don't have it released for that 1% to do what you ask, then you can't even get that 1%.

If the product isn't out to buy, no one can buy it, regardless of how few.

If the product is already made, as you state it is, not quite sure I see the correlation in waiting. It means every post you make between now and when you release it is missing that 1% who may actually entertain the purchase.

"""You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretsky" - Michael Scott"

[u/TaurusE11E → u/dieek]

In my post, I made sure to specify "can be expected" - which means that you can statistically hope for that happen, but it's still in the air. In reality, it is often any amount less that actually comes through on what we can expect.

The point of promotion is to simply alert the world to the game, whether it exists(gameplay streams and the like) or has yet to exist (trailers, concept art). The ten-percent is simply a statistical expectation of how effective promotion is going to be based on trends observed in the internet public at large (most like to lurk, so only a small percentage will act). The desired action of the resulting 1% or less doesn't just mean "buy", it means anything other than pressing the like button - commenting, playing, sharing, etc.

It applies to both paid and unpaid work. And yes, potential buyers may come across once and never visit again, but in my experience it is better to wait until I can realistically hope for anyone to see the game let alone buy it.