I am planning on releasing games for free, but what tips do you got to still making money with “free” games? Any idea is welcome. Thanks in advance.
The first obvious suggestion is advertising.
According to recent survey results on gamasutra, the vast majority of money to be made is from the purchase of virtual goods. On average, people spend almost $8 per game per month on social apps/games:
Of course, you have to have a reason for them to purchase them - if you make an easy game, and sell things to make it even easier, you will get little or no sales.
Would that be PPC, or finding companies actually wanting to advertising? Which would you suggest? Pro’s, Con’s?
I’m about to test those waters myself, so I don’t know much.
Most games try to do in-game purchasing and do it very poorly, but there are plenty of people who will buy virtual and virtually useless goods. For things like DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) you buy content, basically new scenarios and that makes sense to me. Selling nonsense to me won’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sell it to somebody else.
I have given thought on that, give the “BASE” game out for free then have DLC for $$. Much like the Portal 2 system where they have levels for sell. Oh that reminds me that I need to make a post that I think you guys might find very VERY interesting.
Make it donation-ware. It’s still “free” but people can pay you for it if they want. Probably won’t make much money, but you never know.
I would look at the top games in the app store that are free and also listed on the grossing category.
http://www.appannie.com/top/
->Texas poker is the 12th popular free game but it is the top grossing game (meaning it makes the most money).
->The second grossing game is tap zoo, also a popular free game.
It seems like its better to actually make your game free and have them buy in app purchases. You want the players to keep playing your game (with poker its the tokens) with tap zoo its feeding the animals?
It’s mortifying how many of those are just nonsense games where people buy in-game items to impress their equally challenged friends with their ability to buy animals, seeds, boosts, etc.
I think I’ll just add that to part of the program, even if I have other means of making money on it. It will allow just for that “tiny” bit more money. Thanks for the idea.
Haha, as a member of League of Legends. I couldn’t help myself but buy a few skins for my favorite champs. It just makes the game a bit more fun because you feel… “better”. As long as there is a reward involved people will spend money.
depends a bit on the platform imho.
if you intent releasing your games on the webplayer, then you’re pretty much the same to flash games, where you get your money through
- sponsorships (exclusive, non-exclusive)
- specifically placed ads (e.g. ‘play more’ button)
- ads (preloader, site ads)
- in-app purchases
i once read, that web game devs get the most out of sponsorships.
for in-app purchases it’s best to know what to sell: do you want to sell power, that everyone ‘has’ to buy (e.g. berries in smurf village for faster progression) or that everyone can chose from (e.g. vanity stuff to show off, to feel unique).
other possibilities that come to my mind would be - content (e.g. later chapters)
- donation funded
- http://www.kickstarter.com/
Could you give me some examples of known sponsorships? How would a “Play more” button make money exactly? To your sponsored company? Is in-app purchases successful for flash games?
try http://www.flashgamelicense.com/, they also accept unity games (since beginning of 2011).
there you’ll find a lot about sponsorships, they are a tad different from game portal to game portal.
i haven’t dug deeply into specifically flash in-app stuff, but it seems it also has its place. especially since the game portals are pushing it with their game portal currency like mochicoins from http://mochigames.com etc. but it won’t have the same severity as mobile games, since in-app purchases aren’t your only income on game portals.
Thanks for that resource!
Hmm… Kongregate has Kredits(?) I believe. It would be nice to incorporate with them. Plus they already got the API set up for Unity. Thanks for the help!
Well I have been looking at a bit more and it seems like in app purchases are the way to go.
Look at the top grossing games and it definitely seems that people are willing to pay through the noose for virtual items. Probably they are buying the cheaper items but someone has to buying the higher priced items
->Metal Storm Online. 49.99 for A Gigantic Pack Of Coins
->Infinity Blade 49.99 for a Bag Of 2,500,000 Gold
->We Rule Deluxe: 49.99 Vintage 800 Mojo
->Smurfs: 99.99 wheelbarrel of barries
->IMobser: 89.99 1700 favor points
->High Noon: 99.99 - 2000 wapum
http://www.appannie.com/top/
What about causal games. Recently I am working on a sci fi rpg,(similar to megaman, but really different). Would selling in game items be the most effective way? or should I put it on steam or something to sell for around $15 a copy or something?
Selling levels/content is another way to go. We’re working on a quite ambitious platformer, kind off leaning towards releasing it free with a few progressive levels and then let users buy levels or map packs. Judging from my own behavior, RPG-styled games work spectacularly with in-game purchases. Haven’t really seen much of that yet in platformers, so it’ll be fun to see how it pans out.
One way to do it would be to include ads (Iad if it was ios game) and then you could also remove the ads for a fee, that way you will still make some money even if they dont buy and encourage people to upgrade to get ride of the ads.
ya I am starting to lean towards ingame purchases, maybe like powerups because if the game is for money we loose a good chunk of the people who wont even get to try the game. But if its free, more people will play, and when people start playing the game and get into it, surely they wont mid as much to pay a few cents to get some better gear.
Have you seen a unity game with iAd running? I’m not sure that you could have the engine and the banner running in unison. Would you someone how tell the engine to draw onto a region of the screen? Or try to put the banner into the GUI somehow, which I can’t see working.
Any ideas? I’m keen to do it but can’t find a way.