Saturday Morning RPG - (by Joystick Labs, LLC) [Universal] - Episode 3 out now!

[MightyRabbitJosh]

Originally Posted by TimEggers

Why not make the free download Ad supported? With no adds or an IAP for add removal in later episodes?

I think ads bring in too little for it to be worthwhile - 1000 ad views generally only gets you $0.05 - $0.40 (if you're lucky). For the end payoff I think ads would just impact the player experience too much.

We're thinking about a ton of strategies to try and turn sales around and the most popular idea is a season pass - which would basically be an advance purchase of all the content we plan to make for the game at a flat rate. We would discount the pass for those who already bought Episode 2.

[Xexist]

Originally Posted by MightyRabbitJosh

I think ads bring in too little for it to be worthwhile - 1000 ad views generally only gets you $0.05 - $0.40 (if you're lucky). For the end payoff I think ads would just impact the player experience too much.

We're thinking about a ton of strategies to try and turn sales around and the most popular idea is a season pass - which would basically be an advance purchase of all the content we plan to make for the game at a flat rate. We would discount the pass for those who already bought Episode 2.

Involve people somehow? Purchasers of additional content can get randomly selected to have their username used in future content, or something like that

[TimEggers]

Oh ok cool.

I'm glad you guys seem to be getting really good critic reviews and many good AppStore reviews.

I'm very hopeful that with a few gameplay tweaks and exploration of new strategies you guys will be able to quickly convert enthusiasm into financial success.

Really, I'd love to throw even more money at you guys. I adore SMRPG.

[MightyRabbitJosh]

Originally Posted by TimEggers

Oh ok cool.

I'm glad you guys seem to be getting really good critic reviews and many good AppStore reviews.

I'm very hopeful that with a few gameplay tweaks and exploration of new strategies you guys will be able to quickly convert enthusiasm into financial success.

Really, I'd love to throw even more money at you guys. I adore SMRPG.

We're confident that we can turn our fortunes around at some point. I don't think we'll be Scrooge McDuck'ing into any coin piles, but we're hopeful that we can at least pay off our debt.

As an aside: how does everyone feel about equippable batteries in the game that would allow you to pick a method of charging? There would be a default battery that requires no input, a classic tap-charge battery, a rhythm battery, and a gauge charge battery (this would be like a golf game gauge that would fill and unfill with you needing to stop the fill at the peak). This would provide four options to players that can be switched between at any point.

We wouldn't get to see this implemented in the next update, but it would definitely pop up in the subsequent one. It seems like the ideal solution to the tap-charge dilemma.

[devensega]

Yes, changeable batteries is a superb idea. I have always been partial to a swingometer like those in Tiger Woods.

If you do a season pass can you offer the soundtrack, art book or somesuch? RPG fans lap that stuff up.

[oooooomonkey]

I'm really sad to see the low sales figures. Especially as I really love the game.
I'll jump straight onto a season pass when ones offered. :-)
And the golf style meter would be cool (I could see me using that instead of tapping)
Also I'll be all over the soundtrack when it gets released.
Seriously I can't get enough of the nostalgia. You have managed to capture my childhood in a game and I love it. :-)

[Jdragoon19]

Originally Posted by MightyRabbitJosh

I was able to check sales data today and I'll be open about it - we've had a pretty good number of downloads (32k from Thursday to Sunday), but we've only had ~500 sales. Overall we're seeing a 1.5% conversion rate from download to purchase, which is pretty sad. What this means is that we're nowhere near what could be called a financial success (considering Apple gets a 30% cut, our investors get 50%, and so on).

The low sales have actually opened our eyes to why Square-Enix charges $18 for an RPG on iOS. I guess sales are low for JRPGs in general on the platform. Doing a free one probably wasn't the greatest idea from a financial standpoint.

Even though we're seeing really low sales - we aren't going to abandon the game! We're committing to three more episodes, with Episode 3 being the biggest yet (two huge new environments, several puzzles, six side quests, six new enemies, and a few new notebook covers). Episode 3 sees Marty fighting evil Botchangers who are attacking Shadow Valley's Ronald Reagan dam. Episode 4 will take players into the sewers of Shadow Valley to do battle with "The Sweater". Episode 5 will take Marty into space to fight a shadowy villain from Commander Hood's past.

After we launch Episode 5 on iOS we will be launching the game on the PC with the hope that we can realize financial success on that platform. If we see success there, we will create and release Episode 6 - which will bring Marty face to face with Commander Hood in an epic final battle.

We're going to be reactive to the feedback you guys have given us - I'll be posting a change list for the next update as soon as I get the list hammered down.

Thanks again for all the support and constructive feedback!

Unfortunately, this is the risk you have to take for the price approach you guys took with this game. AppStore customers are bad when it comes to games that are free and with iAP. Most people (unfortunately) don't buy iAP. Most likely the hardcore iOS gamers will buy the iAP. Even though this game is great, I highly doubt any of the casual gamers will buy the iAP.

EDIT: (In addition to Xexist's post) If I wasn't apart of TouchArcade, I wouldn't know that there was even a Episode 2. There really isn't any notification of it either, unless you press on the "Episode" cassettes and you see the "Episode 2" cassette.

[VaroFN]

I like the batteries idea too. It could solve the charging dilemma, while keeping the funny style of the game.
BTW, I don't know if this is just me, but the Space sticker seems to have scratch difficulty 1, while the description says 2. If that isn't right, what is the difference between the Space sticker and the Cheese sticker?

[TimEggers]

Equipable batteries is a sure fire crowd pleaser (be sure to offer a pop-up tutorial explaining how to equip them and what they each are). Sounds great to me.

And yes Ep 2 is obviously there, beating Ep 1 will pop up a screen asking you of you want to play Ep 2...

I've seen that screen several times...

[andsoitgoes]

One thing I noted, just to bring this up, is that I could not see the stats of the tools purchased from the vending machine. I just sorta... Guessed.