Both real-time and turn-based for different scenarios You could go with real-time combat when defending your ship from boarders (in order to better portray the chaos); and you could introduce missions that take place on enemy ships where you board them with your team using turn-based combat. I think it makes a lot of sense.
YAY! Winners. I was sweating profusely when i read that it might be on Toucharcades homepage. What kind of release price are you going to implement? I reckon around £5 should do it. Hopefully, in the future, we can have some £0.69/£0.99 DLC packages too?
My gut feeling is that it will be more than a fiver... With the work they have put in and the hype surrounding this game.. They can easily go higher and we would still instabuy this.. I'm hoping that's not the case though, obviously!
For the love of all, please don't make it FREEMIUM. I will gladly give you monies upfront for the joy of not having to do so during the game. Charge a price to get you guys paid so I can enjoy the game.
Um....scrub the 'we' for 'you' please. I would not pay more than £5 for this game. It looks very promising at this stage - but even so I would personally not pay more than £5 for it - only very premium games cost that on ios.
Noted, in the heat of the moment I wasn't thinking. Apologies. However, I remember in around... 2008/2009 time games were worth £2.99 or £4.99 and I'd happily pay for those... and never seemed to have looked at games less than £0.99... ... makes one think how times have changed.
I would if the devs are successful in bringing the design -> working state. It's a big "if" & yes, few if any iOS are "worth" >£5, that's what actually makes a lot of them so worthwhile on a 3.5' screen, by complement. Some games in the app market even try to price at £6.99 (football manager handheld etc) knowing there's target for this that will stump up or that this will deliver exactly what these players want and so £6.99 is not too much to ask for. If the devs are v. confident of the end-product, they could shoot for a higher price point I think. It's about 'show of confidence' vs accessibility maybe? Valve's TF2 pricing may have worked something like this, I'm guessing? Lol is a good eg of another pricing of freemium model that is very well delivered: The App Store Needs Freemium Games Like 'League of Legends' Worth a good read.
The difference is footy manager is a renowned brand - they also have Sega behind them for marketing. So they can get away with charging £6.99 for a game. You also know it's going to be top quality due to who's making it. If Star command does well then they can raise the price... but to me it's an awful way to start marketing your game by charging that much. So few games cost that much on the store. Don't get me wrong this game looks great so far - but that's all it is at the moment - promise.
I paid $15 for Tactics on iOS and was happy with it. Scribblenauts, on the other hand, was $5 and I felt a little cheated - and from a design standpoint that really is an amazing game. Just felt like it happened to fast and that there weren't enough brain buster puzzles. We look at it based on a lot of things: dev time, similar apps in the market, current trends in pricing etc. Clearly we're going to charge the most amount possible without pissing off our fanbase - this isn't because we want to become millionaires and buy islands, but because it makes sense. Always charge what you're worth. We feel like 2.99-4.99 is about right. The game has been in development for a long time, its a big game. If this was a canabalt or doodle jump type game we would have huge ethical problems charging .99. All that said, man oh man have we come a long way from $60 games. I mean, we're having multiple page discussions over 3 bucks. Not saying its good or bad, just interesting how much the mobile market has changed perception of the value of games.
Not really the value---price doesn't have much correlation with value. Obviously the price has to be less than the value, or people won't buy it. But I buy things for less than ten bucks that can be worth a thousand dollars to me; the value can be way, way more than the price.
I suppose pricing would mirror several possible valuations if the devs managed say 2 possibilities: 1) quick & fun game sessions (management/combat) - just x1 move/thing! 2) Suf. challenge & choice - >1 replayable/"durable" # play-throughs Value for ppl seeking 2) would allow higher price (it's not doodle jump), but more ppl overall might be looking for 1) (a bit more of doodling in a fresh guise + more bells/whistles)? So how to max. pricing? 1) vastly more prevalent but 2) might be a good place to cash-in & earn initial positive vibes as well is sorta where I was thinking (as coxy says prob. not as steep as £5!)? If the game manages to encapsulate both^ : assumption it will be flier, at least 1) or 2), but if both, and if "we'll equal what you pay for with new/alt. content after launch" is part of the "positive sales" deal... how to effectively communicate that complicit part of the sales pitch? In the price or is that just the cherry on top of the rest? IE what's the best way to make it a flier? I was looking at Ravenmark (£2.99) and they are similarly angling at the v robust expansion route as well, they're even selling the neat soundtrack in iTunes, and there's a cool map so you can see all the eventual areas that are being expanded (like+). It's quality game but wonder if they communicated in the best way enough initial "buy-in" that they have plans beyond the average app (like+2) & would that have generated more launch sales? [Albeit possibly it's more niche (tb-tactical strategy) and the new IP may have less impact than trek+gds might possess]. Anyway 'a beguiling sport': Some v cool further reading - lol: Post-mortem mode7 game: Frozen Synapse Top 10 Features for mobile games - guy redwood
I think price is relevant to the perceived value of the game, not just the game itself, further updates, new characters, potential enjoyment value etc. Not to mention, we are all quite invested into the game now (some monetarily, the developers obviously, and the rest of the others who trawl through the TA forum seeking updates to the game). Anyhoo, like I mentioned previously *I* would be ok with buying the game at the price range mentioned by the dev.
Ok, prob. lot of useful feedback from early testers, jumping that for sec., wonder if devs have considered this approach: 1/ Core of game (GDstory managing/combat/growth): A competitive 0.69p 2/ Add all the bells & whistles, polish, art, strong design/fun AI etc whops up 2.00£ -> £2.99/$5 3/ Add extra £1 for early buyers for "Away Teams" 4/ = £3.99 Final release price: Advertise free update effect on early price! 5/ When Away Teams released IAP: £2/1.5 -> red. 4/ by £1/0.5p from orig. Release price? Sum: Early discount for expansion for early adopters, then IAP + orig. Price discount atst. Devs' Freemium plans seem fine to me on the side for single-player game. I've not done any "comparative analysis" of the region to price between but gen. hunch (figures r a quick scribble) & more familiar with £-currency for price:exp.value. My final thoughts but seeing as devs have a solid TBC sys., should be a consideration from the get go imo. Def worth including that info early. Last comment from me on pricing. Have to see how solid the gameplay is. ^_^
Really looking forward to this. Do you guys think you have a release date yet? Or at least an approximation?
I don't think price is even that important right now, they've been working on it so hard that any price would be fair. I guess you have to take into account the general public, like people that have no idea this game is even being made. I think this game will be amazing because the devs really care about this game. I've never seen a developer so active in getting consumer feedback. Plus the fact that it's been delayed for so long shows how much this game has to potentially offer. So any price from 3$ to 20$ could be reasonable. I guess it depends on how much content and replay value the game has and if it truly lives up to be the game that the trailer shows it can be. I imagine a price between 5 - 10$ which shouldn't be seen as too much just because normal iOS games sell as cheap as they do.
Kairosoft sell their games for $3.99 - and due to the long period of hard working development time and most likely more depth, I'd say aim for anything above that.
The thing is, people know what to expect from Kairosoft's games and so they're quite willing to pay that price. This is something new and anything above that will surely put some people off picking it up. I personally think $3.99 or $4.99 at most is the right price for this. sure, the game is most definitely worth more than that.. I have no doubt about it, but unfortunately that's not the way it works. Games always have to sell for less than they're actually worth otherwise they won't make money.
All this talk about pricing etc is utterly boring and academic. It will cost whatever it costs, debate it then.
