99 Bricks: Wizard Academy goes from F2P to premium

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by WeirdBeard, May 19, 2014.

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  1. WeirdBeard

    WeirdBeard Member

    Dec 17, 2013
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    #1 WeirdBeard, May 19, 2014
    Last edited: May 20, 2014
    Hey guys and girls,

    We from WeirdBeard Games (a 6 men strong indie studio in Amsterdam) would like to let you know that 99 Bricks: Wizard Academy will be released on iOS June 3rd worldwide.

    99 Bricks: Wizard Academy is a magical physics tower builder. You star as a new student who’s always dreamed of becoming a wizard. Only one thing is missing; your very own wizard tower! Progress through 5 classes and learn magical spells that let you defy gravity and build the highest tower the world has ever seen. But it won’t be easy. Your jealous classmates will do anything to crumble your creation…

    Complete each class to unlock extra difficult master missions and compete with your friends through GameCenter in the Tower Tourney.

    99 Bricks: Wizard Academy is the mobile sequel to the 2008 Flash hit 99 Bricks. Development for the mobile version started in 2012 and we took our time to make sure it is a good fit for the modern audiences and mobile platforms.

    The game was soft launched in the Netherlands as a F2P game. It got a very high number of downloads and amazing critical acclaim. However, financially the results were disappointing. We concluded F2P didn’t fit our game design and rather than pushing F2P any further, we chose to go premium without any IAP.

    This felt like a weight being lifted off our shoulders. It was more about game design again: how to make the game as fun as possible, instead of looking at how to optimize for monetization.

    After some radical changes to the structure of the game, to better fit the premium model, we’re finally ready to show it to you.

    We’re interested in your opinions and hope you’re as excited as we are about the release of 99 Bricks: Wizard Academy :)

    Click images to enlarge:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

     
  2. slewis7

    slewis7 Well-Known Member

    Apr 6, 2011
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    This looks great and since it is no longer F2P, I am very likely to play it.
     
  3. Bronxsta

    Bronxsta Well-Known Member

    #3 Bronxsta, May 19, 2014
    Last edited: May 19, 2014
    I always appreciate when devs do this, so you can expect a purchase from me
     
  4. TheFrost

    TheFrost Well-Known Member

    Nov 18, 2010
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    Welcome to the forums WeirdBeard, your game looks awesome, and it has one the qualities I like most in videogames: craziness, which equals fun. And the F2P to premium is the icing on the cake. Looking forward to it. :)
     
  5. miroa

    miroa Well-Known Member

    May 22, 2013
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    I am looking forward to playing your game. How much will it be? .99$ ;-)
     
  6. Geertyy

    Geertyy Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2013
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    I got the soft-launch version. Will that version get updated or will you do a completely new release?
     
  7. WeirdBeard

    WeirdBeard Member

    Dec 17, 2013
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    #7 WeirdBeard, May 20, 2014
    Last edited: May 20, 2014
    Thank you for the kind words! Even though we feel it's a great decision, the move to premium has been a huge step for us. But posts like these really give a vote of confidence!


    Ha ha yeah we considered that. However, we think 2.99$ is a good price point for this game.


    It will be released as an update of the soft-launch version.


    Once it's out we would be very interested in your opinion about the game.

    And just for shits 'n giggles, here are some sketches of the main character and some ideas for its outfit variations.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. TheFrost

    TheFrost Well-Known Member

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    #8 TheFrost, May 20, 2014
    Last edited: May 20, 2014
    2.99 sounds awesome! I am in! :)
     
  9. jamescam

    jamescam Well-Known Member

    Mar 4, 2014
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    This looks really good! Is it out now on the US app store (Im away from my device)?

    Going from F2P to Paid if a tough decision but I hope it pays off for you. I'm struggling with the same problem myself as I'd much rather just charge $.99 to $1.99 for my game and call it a day but as my game's target demo are females 16 to 24 I feel I need to go F2P.

    By the way, who made your trailer? It looks great!
     
  10. New England Gamer

    New England Gamer Moderator
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    Jul 30, 2009
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    Looks great! Can't wait. I think I played something similar on Kongregate? It was really great fun and would love to have a successor/sequel on my phone!
     
  11. WeirdBeard

    WeirdBeard Member

    Dec 17, 2013
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    Thank you, the game will be released June 3rd in the US.

    As for your F2P concerns; have you considered the Amazon Kindle Store? It might be interesting to look at if you would like to sell a premium game to your target audience.

    Yes, that's right. The original flash version of 99 Bricks was on Kongregate and had an infamous impossible badge. Good to hear you liked it!
     
  12. Ubisububi

    Ubisububi Well-Known Member

    Oct 8, 2009
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    I think the App Store would be a much healthier place for developers if $2.99 were the norm rather than the exception. I hope it works out for you. Although I will surely be buying it, I'm worried that iOS gamers have gotten as stingy as those on Android, and it's going to take some time to reform our expectations on what a mobile game is worth. Are there any data on whether games that are free to download with full game unlocks via IAP do any better than straight premium titles?
     
  13. WeirdBeard

    WeirdBeard Member

    Dec 17, 2013
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    We considered the "Free with full unlock IAP" approach. However, we chose against it for the following reasons:

    - The app would still be listed in the free charts. Our biggest problem with this is that it would get the image of a F2P game, scaring of a premium target audience.

    - We would have to look for the "sweet spot" to introduce a paywall. Introduce this too late and your players might not feel the need to make the purchase as they can enjoy themselves with the free part of the game. Do this too early and you might annoy your players and lose them altogether. Finding the sweet spot is very hard and requires careful analysis and tweaking. One of the reasons we wanted to leave F2P behind is because we realised we didn't have the resources nor the motivation to spend heaps of time on this. We'd rather spend our time making the game as fun as possible from start to finish.

    - We think that in this day and age, where iOS gamers have gotten so used to energy systems and pay-to-win models in F2P games, they would be unpleasantly surprised by a monetization model that requires them to pay for a full unlock. Even though it's more like the demo model many gamers are familiar with, we think it might be taken another way.


    We don't know of any games on the App Store that implemented this model successfully. We do know of tons of games that are premium and are a huge success. And we'd gladly try to be one of them :)

    Obviously there have been many games that released a lite version for free as well as a full premium version. This used to be very popular, but has become less and less common in recent years. Does anyone have any examples of successful iOS games that have a paywall with a full unlock IAP as their monitization model?
     
  14. Krista_PROMATION

    Krista_PROMATION New Member

    May 29, 2014
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    Thanks Jamescam! I made the trailer, was loads of fun :)
     
  15. It says release date is june 3, so it releases tomorrow?
     
  16. WeirdBeard

    WeirdBeard Member

    Dec 17, 2013
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    #16 WeirdBeard, Jun 3, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2014
    And of course big thanks to you Krista!


    Yes the game is out today world wide on iOS! You can download it in App Store.

    We're super excited to hear what you think!
     

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