I agree, you just want to do like super mario run but its a bad way imo. Most people thinks its free and they are downloading, after playing some they see it has a full unlock price and they are rating 1* and bad reviews. I don't suggest you to do that but its your call ofc.
I'm glad for a premium sales model, but the difference between an upfront purchase and a one time unlock can be pretty significant. I imagine the many fans of premium games here at TA (which represents a relative minority in the bigger industry) who are interested in the game will purchase with either model based on the pedigree, involvement of the company in the community, and recommendations on the forums. That said, a premium price point (versus a single unlock - not comparing to F2P) will end up creating an accessibility issue if the game doesn't get well marketed and promoted. On the flip side, startn g as F2P with a single unlock will remove the initial barrier of entry and allow for a potential broader audience of conversions to the paid game. I agree with other posters that given how limited in use the paid unlock function is used, some individuals may provide low ratings as a result of misunderstanding the commercial model when finding and downloading from the App Store without any background. It is hard to say which option is better or worse within the current App Store ecosystem, but no matter what choice I think the game will have some great success from the folks here at TA and I'm very excited to purchase when it launches!
I still see no problem offering two versions at the same time. One a "lite" version and the other a "full" version. We used to call lite versions "demo's" back in the old days and most games had them. This marketing stragety seems to be coming more common at Steam. It has actually caused me to purchase more games than I would have otherwise. The "lite" version should have a limited amount of early content available as the restriction, such as only being able to reach level 5 or something, and that should be well documented in the games information. That way the potential customer can see how the game plays on their device and if in fact it is the type of game they are interested in. So long as the game is labled "Lite" and not "Free" I don't understand where the negative reactions for this are coming from. #
Apple discourages having lite versions of games. I also think you run into the same problem of letting people experience the game before paying any money, which takes out the curiosity factor. Attention spans on mobile are too short, and prices (even the "high" end) are too cheap to do that, I think it's better to make someone pay if they want to see what your game is like. Either fully paid, or fully free to play, I don't think there's any room in-between.
Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions everyone. We'll discuss it among ourselves and see what the best solution is. Seems overwhelmingly that you guys suggest we just go straight premium, which is interesting! On a side note, Unwinnable just wrote a glowing article about Cat Quest too! http://www.unwinnable.com/2017/03/21/cat-quest-is-playing-dress-up-with-your-disgruntled-tabby/
We thought it might be cool to show you guys how we achieved the look of the game. Here's a before and after.
I've been in the industry since 1993, and I've see a lot of business models come and go. I even put in time at PopCap and I can speak to this "demo-ware" "lite-vs-full" argument directly, since that was their model for much of their history: On mobile, it doesn't work. Period. The most recent casualty was Gunman Taco Truck, which has already changed its business model. In my time, I've had access to mountains of intelligence data that debunk your assertion, stubbieoz. I wish it was different, but to be frank, demoware stopped working even on PC titles years ago. Boardumb is absolutely correct in his assessment. Think about how media and technology has changed in the last 10 years. There is so much competing for people's attention that there is little-to-no incentive to spend on a full game unlock, unless the game itself absolutely blows you away. Sadly, there are no guarantees. There's a reason why F2P has risen to prominence, and that's to do with the buying habits of mobile players vs console/ PC players. Even successful episodic games like Telltale's have high dropoff rates after the first episode. For indies, my advice is to either go premium or ad-supported. Don't bother with full-game unlocks, avoid "lite" titles as indeed Apple frowns upon it, and don't try true F2P unless the team has a mastery of economy design, retail and gambling psychology, business intelligence analysis, and the discipline to keep up with bi-weekly updates. It may be tempting to split the difference and do ad-supported + paid unlock that removes ads. You'll generally find that instead of converting more free players to premium, it will have the opposite effect. Players that may have paid for the game if it was premium-only won't feel as compelled to purchase the unlock. Again, not a problem if your player base is large enough. Bottom line: think about your team's burn rate, including your plans for supporting the game post-launch and user acquisition budget. Set up your game to keep players entertained between big updates via procedural content, or you'll feel the heat of the "content furnace." That is, players will ALWAYS consume content faster than you can make it. Remember that as a premium game, the only revenue you're getting is from new players, so supporting existing ones indefinitely is a losing battle. Good luck, and count me in as a customer.
Premium is the way to go. I'll pay some good money for this. If you want to add-on future premium content, I''d pay for that too. So would the majority of members here. You're also releasing on Steam, so I think if you're game is as good as I think it's going to be or better I think you're going to be ok.
Oh no...does this mean one of em does not look clearly better than the other? hahaha! It's the slightly darker version, it has the post processing effects we added to give the image more depth. And thanks so much everyone for offering their insight on the free demo vs premium model. It's really helping us, and we're so glad we asked.
This looks amazing. I just hope the game doesn't restrict the amount of time we get to play by placing some strange energy meter in... I want to explore this cat world soon!
Premium definitely . It's clear from the thread you've already got a decent following of people waiting for this game so, I suggest a premium price at a 1 week launch discount like most premium games do, you'll grab all the people who already are day 1 buyers and you'll get a majority of the " on the fence" type of people because they won't want to miss the initial lower price. Also if you plan on doing major additions to the game later , more content and stuff and increasing the price as you release the said new content, sort of like how they're doing with death road to Canada, then you'd grab even more people to buy on the ground floor. Just ideas/ suggestions ^_^
Thanks, yea! We have all sorts of cool ideas planned for additional content too, hope we can get them in! We recently beefed up the effects during combat too. Looking purretty good now!
Agreed. From everything I have seen (and the outstanding community engagement so far), this is one of my most anticipated games of the year. Can't wait and if there is an opportunity to further contribute with testing or feedback, happy to do so!
