How to implement "donate to support further development"-feature?

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#1

How would you implement a donate-feature for a free game/app to support further development of the same game/app?

For example: We have made about 25% of a game (framework is done and we already have a playable demo which takes a little bit more than 5 minutes to play through.
The game has a lot of potential, and it’s easy to expand the “universe”, though time consuming because of art and such.
Unfortunately we can’t afford further development without funding.

What we are thinking is:
We consider publishing the demo as a free game, and with the donate-feature implemented enabling
each player to supports us with one (or more?) donation(s) of 1$ or more.

If we get enough donations (this will be a fixed number) we will have enough money to continue making the game.
We must also consider that we get 0-50 donations and that won’t be enough by far.
So basically we can’t guarantee that the game will be continued. Of course everybody that wants to make a donation must be made aware of this.

Given that we get enough donations the ones that made the donations will automatically receive the rest of the game (when it’s done) through an update.
Players who hasn’t donated, and install the game after we have made the rest of the game, will have to pay 1$ in some way. (We probably don’t want to launch the full game as a free game, and then force the players to do an in-app purchase in order to continue playing)

Do you think this is a good idea?
In general: How would you implement such an idea? (for example by using your tutorial above, or maybe by using a different approach?)

(I have already posted a similar query at Peach’s techority-site, but I believe coronalabs-forum to be a more “correct” place to ask for help. She might of course provide me with an answer here.) [import]uid: 96516 topic_id: 29499 reply_id: 329499[/import]

#2

Hey there, I haven’t seen your post on Techority although that is likely because I have a lot of emails (including comment notifications) that I am trying to catch up on currently.

I think you would be much better off using Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, honestly. Maybe even AppBackr if that’s your kind of thing.

This would be tricky to track and you’d have problems trying to distribute it. You could do it but crowd funding is definitely a better bet IMHO.

This is of course just my 2 cents - take it with a grain of salt :wink:

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 29499 reply_id: 118485[/import]