I’m currently developing a small, twitchy SHMUP built for single player as well as co-op and I’ve heard many times from other sources that I should more than definitely pick one or the other, not both. But here’s the problem: https://www.nextpeer.com/
Their -FREE- indie solution is free for unlimited MAU, all they need is to put ads in your game if you go with that solution. But my game is designed specifically around a $0.99 price point. Would it be considered dirty/nasty to throw in the ads in an as non-disruptive manner as possible, or is it just asking for problems from potential fans?
In regards to your first point, I know. That’s why I’m most likely making it a free game. I for one would be… Mad if that happened.
Two, the advertisements would be for Nextpeer, not I. Although yeah, sticking to free-to-play would probably a much more admirable solution in the eyes of most players.
Lets say you got 10k people to buy your game, the amount of money you would make from ads is low enough to not bother with it (plus it would piss off your paying customers).
Yeah, I’d have to go along with Gigiwoo… Don’t have any ads pop-up in the game I bought… Yeah, nononono no.
But I am interested in the destructible ads which another person mentioned above, and the ads on the Billboards, as a dev and a gamer, would actually catch the creative side of my attention, so that I’d at least read the think when passing.
Perhaps you can work some “sponsorship” ads in from a certain group/company? Good luck!
I actually had an idea to monetize a mobile game using video ads for a game I hope to make in the near future. The game is heavily inspired from one of my favorite TV shows, and each mission would play out as a 30-ish minute “episode”. Similarly to how shows go to commercial break during tense moments, I’d dramatically set the mood, then fade out to a commercial (mandatory video ad).
The idea would be to do this no more than twice per episode, and would be mandatory on free versions of the game, but the option to skip past (or disable) on paid. The hope would be that the commercial break invoked the feeling of watching a TV show enough that even paid users would opt into the video to keep the experience similar to that of a broadcast.
Not sure how it would actually make players feel in practice, though.
That’s a pretty good idea: you have a plausible reason for why the ads appear, and it might give the player a bit of a breather before the next stage. Especially after a mini-boss fight.
Not 100% sure about this, but I think that @Kiwasi saw a post I made in the “Dream MMORPG” thread. One of the things I added to my “dream” MMORPG (if I was bothered with the genre) would be blatantly obvious product placements that premium players would be able to damage, quite possibly with stats on how many they have attacked, their favourite weapon for defacing the ads, etc.
It’s a silly idea I’ve had bouncing around my skull for a while, and I think it would be quite popular among players. However, I’m not sure about potential sponsors: I bet a lot of marketing departments would freak out if they heard about players competing to destroy the ads.