Comments on: Is one dollar enough? [...] #AltDevBlogADay (Coleen Delzer) — Is one dollar enough? “Is $1 enough to make a living off of video games? There have been many many failures and few hits. I believe that you can make your game $5-$10, but is that a smart thing to do, giving how competitive the game industry is and the huge expectations that gamers have now days?” [...] [...] #AltDevBlogADay (Coleen Delzer) — Is one dollar enough? “Is $1 enough to make a living off of video games? There have been many many failures and few hits. I believe that you can make your game $5-$10, but is that a smart thing to do, giving how competitive the game industry is and the huge expectations that gamers have now days?” [...]

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By: Ryan Smyth/2011/04/19/4406/#comment-3012 Ryan Smyth Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:00:50 +0000 here.

It seems to me that there are a lot of pressures in the market that are forcing prices down, and that the best answer is to look for alternative revenue sources. Be that ads or content sales or whatever.

Last week I read an article that stated that “free” is in part destroying innovation and markets for software. The author had some good points.

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By: TheLogan/2011/04/19/4406/#comment-3004 TheLogan Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:03:28 +0000 I've seen financial successes and failures blamed on a zillion things--jaded reviewers, used games, increasing development costs vs. maintained price point expectations, weak marketing. It's a tough business. If you're not either a business genius, extremely lucky, or doing it purely for the love, it seems pretty likely that you're eventually going to burn out. More than once, I've heard people refer to indie game developers as "the starving artists of our day." If you can't find satisfaction in being a starving artist, you might be in the wrong gig. There are people out there who make fantastic games and do it for free. (Cave Story, Hydorah, Super Crate Box) These guys are the true starving artist indies. You're going to have to keep up with them, too. That said, I think price point is a very difficult problem. I think the idea behind the $1 price point is the Wal-Mart approach of selling high volumes of items at a low profit margin. The trick is that the market is now flooded with $1 games and you have to stand out somehow. This is where everything becomes voodoo for most indie developers, who generally have little to no marketing expertise or budget at all. Maybe someone out there in #altdevblogaday land can make a post about how to market an indie game? I’ve seen financial successes and failures blamed on a zillion things–jaded reviewers, used games, increasing development costs vs. maintained price point expectations, weak marketing. It’s a tough business. If you’re not either a business genius, extremely lucky, or doing it purely for the love, it seems pretty likely that you’re eventually going to burn out. More than once, I’ve heard people refer to indie game developers as “the starving artists of our day.” If you can’t find satisfaction in being a starving artist, you might be in the wrong gig.

There are people out there who make fantastic games and do it for free. (Cave Story, Hydorah, Super Crate Box) These guys are the true starving artist indies. You’re going to have to keep up with them, too.

That said, I think price point is a very difficult problem. I think the idea behind the $1 price point is the Wal-Mart approach of selling high volumes of items at a low profit margin. The trick is that the market is now flooded with $1 games and you have to stand out somehow. This is where everything becomes voodoo for most indie developers, who generally have little to no marketing expertise or budget at all.

Maybe someone out there in #altdevblogaday land can make a post about how to market an indie game?

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By: Bjoern Knafla/2011/04/19/4406/#comment-2964 Bjoern Knafla Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:08:32 +0000 The real issue is can you make a game that is worth $1. Look at EA and Gameloft etc, they make games that sell for $4-$10 and they sell, dominate the top 10 and people are obviously buying them. These guys have marketing departments, user research departments, people who can determine the best price point for their property. There have been a number of indie games that have sold well for over $1. These games all seem to deliver a really rich full experience. They also hit on something that people want in a mobile game. It seems that if your game takes longer than 30 seconds to understand, you lose. If your game takes more than 3-5 minutes to play a satisfying round, you lose. I could go on and on. I know on twitter you said something about people say... that is what in market research we call Anecdotal Evidence. You cannot believe anything you believe, only real market research will point you in right direction: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence</a> Sad thing is we cannot afford that kind of research so most of us have to go with our gut instincts. We have to do what we believe, not what is proven. Sometimes we hit it right, more often we don't so we blame the market when the fault is with our product. The real issue is can you make a game that is worth $1.

Look at EA and Gameloft etc, they make games that sell for $4-$10 and they sell, dominate the top 10 and people are obviously buying them.

These guys have marketing departments, user research departments, people who can determine the best price point for their property. There have been a number of indie games that have sold well for over $1. These games all seem to deliver a really rich full experience. They also hit on something that people want in a mobile game. It seems that if your game takes longer than 30 seconds to understand, you lose. If your game takes more than 3-5 minutes to play a satisfying round, you lose. I could go on and on.

I know on twitter you said something about people say… that is what in market research we call Anecdotal Evidence. You cannot believe anything you believe, only real market research will point you in right direction: