I'm curious, if a game has free or lite in the title in the appstore, which of them are you more likely to download. Or are they both a turnoff?
I don't like these style. Free game takes me lost money to purchase, and the Lite game is too short. This means that it takes me inhibited. >"<
I think he means he needs help deciding wether to add free or lite to his TRIAL version of a game. Am I right dev?
Depends on whether it is the only version of the game or not. Lite makes me think of a trial version...so I know it won't be a full game just something I download to try it out, and buy the full version if I like it. If it says free it may or may not be a trial version...but often they are packed with ads that popup during my game that I accidentally click on (annoying). If it is free game with IAP (freemium), I would expect it to say neither lite nor free in the title. But if it says neither, yet has tons of ads popping up in it...then I would be annoyed. So in short, if it is a trial I think of Lite. If it is ad supported I think of Free. Otherwise don't put either of those.
I definately think Lite should be used for trials and Free only for either ad-supported or freemium games if at all. Lite definately implies that it is indeed a trial of a full version. Free is not very clear. Personally, I don't like when developer use 'free' because of how it can be misinterpretted.
I'm guessing you're directing this at me since I'm the only one here with a Dev title. You would be correct, I am trying to get some feedback as to how people feel about free and lite versions for when I release my game. Second question, for a "Lite" or trial version, how much gameplay do you guys expect. I was planning on letting people play through the first area (out of 5). And then bringing the user to the ad screen for the full game. Should i throw in an endless mode to keep people playing as a bonus?
Well the first area is fine. Lite should not cover too much of the full game, but it shouldn't just be tutorials, it should also have a little bit more levels so people can decide better. Just look at CtR. It has lots of levels, but so does the lite. The lite version has 30 levels, plenty of time to make up your mind.
I had strongly considered doing the game as free with an in-app purchase that unlocks the full game. However, that would exclude me from being able to put my app on sale or put it up as the "Free App of the Day" which can really generate a lot of buzz. You do have a good point though about people not losing their progress by being able to upgrade the free version. I will have in app purchases for extra content packs which would consist of a new character and a 10 level mini-story for $0.99.
30 levels seems like an awful lot for a lite version don't you think. If you can get more than 50% of the milk for free, why buy the cow. I do think that maybe putting an endless mode (with gamecenter) could add some replay value to people who don't want to upgrade.
30 levels from like what is it 200-300 levels is not much. My point is that you should add like 10-20%of levels.
Oh yeah, that isn't too bad and thats right in line with what I was thinking. I was planning to give away 20% in the Lite version.
As a user I simply don't want to download the same thing twice, let alone if I had to abandon my game progress and play the same thing twice. And also there are enough good free games in the market. The point of making lite version of the game is very little now.
I prefer lite to free since I know I'm getting a demo and gives me a chance to try out a game first. It would be nice though to try a few of the first area..and maybe one or two stages (or timed) of the later stages since sometimes the beginning stages don't show much.
Well, I do think people should be able to try out a game for free to see if they like it before buying it. Problem with the in-app upgrade from a developer standpoint is that you can't put your game on sale or do a Free-App-a-Day promotion which can really help a game out. But I'll take your thoughts into consideration.
