Should I raise my price?

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

I priced my game at $0.99 and frankly sales have been very disappointing. Everyone who’s played it has told me they like it. I suspect its a lot of sunshine being blown you know where.

My lite version of the game is getting some traction (100-200 per day, as opposed to 1-3 per day on the pay game) but I’m not seeing any conversions yet from it.

So here’s my thought process. Change the game to $1.99 to make it look like a more serious game (or even $2.99) since I’m obviously not getting the “it’s only 99 cents” crowd to buy the game.

Then after a while I can do a price drop/sale by bringing the price back down to 99 cents and see if that attracts a different group of buyers.

What do you think?
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#2

a clever mixture of upgrades and price changes is what you can do to stay visible in the appstore.



but the main factor of good sales is to be featured by apple or not… of course, this experience applies to the applestore only. [import]uid: 70635 topic_id: 11912 reply_id: 43458[/import]

#3

Yea, but how do you get featured? [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 11912 reply_id: 43460[/import]

#4

How does this sound: tweet out that the "Introductory price of $0.99 on OmniBlaster ends after the weekend and it will become $2.99.

Then I can offer sales in the future of either $1.99 or $0.99 to get price drops.

My question is will any one really pay $2.99 for a game that’s not at the top of the charts already?

If anyone wants to check out the lite version of the game (only one ship, no achievements, level unlocks) I would appreciate any feed back (mail me at rob at omnigeekmedia dot com) and let me know where you would price the full version, and things you like / don’t like about the game (my feelings can’t be hurt, I can’t make it a good game with everyone telling me its great) you can pick up the lite version at:

http://bit.ly/oblasterlite

Thanks
Rob [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 11912 reply_id: 43471[/import]

#5

I hear you, fella. The majority of us face the same problems. In my opinion, price is fairly meaningless. It’s easy to say it’s “only 59p” or “only a dollar” but there’s hundreds of thousands of other games that are also “only a dollar” - no one can buy them all, hence why free games get many more downloads. At the end of the day, I feel it’s marketing (money) and/or a nice feature somewhere (luck) that can provide a decent income from paid apps for indie developers like you and I.

A great strategy these days seems to be to release for free, and include in-app purchases for “full version”, or more levels, or whatever. Could be wrong.

Just my opinion!

cheeeers,
Andy

PS, is your surname Miracle? That’s cool if so, man. [import]uid: 38932 topic_id: 11912 reply_id: 43486[/import]

#6

Yea, my surname is really Miracle.

I released a lite version which has an upgrade button but its only been up for 3 days but its early and I’ve not seen any evidence of upgrades yet.

I’m not sure if I should be heavily promoting the free version or pimping the pay version either. [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 11912 reply_id: 43487[/import]

#7

in my opinion it doesn’t matter (that much) how cheap or expensive an app is.

the only thing that matters is: is it a great, good or a crappy app (-> a crApp)?

so… you have made a game.
ask yourself these questions:

  • what genre is my game?

  • does my game add something new to the genre or is it done like it was done a thousandtrillion times before?

  • does my game - in terms of look & feel & gameplay - meet with the standards that evolved in the course of video game history? or does it intentionally break with these rules?

  • does my mom like my games because she is my mom or because she actually likes the games? Is there anyone else to ask? maybe some fan of the genre? or some hardcore-gamer?

there are many many factors that can influence sales.
marketing-wise AND development-wise.
for indies like us the means for big ad campaigns are very limited.
your power lies in developing an extraordinary app.

good luck :wink:

-finefin
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#8

Some tips

  • If you have reviews, quote them in your description. eg “amazing!” - Pocket gamer

  • Keywords are everything. If you’re game is about bubbles for god sake dont waste keyword space by putting bubbles in the keyword. Keywords are about what people enter into the search box. Who do you know that will search ‘bubbles’ in the app store?

  • Forums Forums FORUMS! Search for all the forums you can and find the correct section to post in. Feel free to google my game 'Walkabout iphone forum" and post in the same sections I have. Be clever… when someone replies or posts dont jump to reply back… wait and use your repy to bump the post once its dropped a bit.

  • Contact review sites, even small ones to get back links in google. The more links in google the better. Month 1, 2 it wont make much difference, but after a while you’ll notice review sites you submit to will start accepting your game for review. They google your game before saying yes/no!

  • When you do contact review sites, make it easy for them to write an article. After the first blurb about how amazing it is, how its ranked this and than blah blah, give them a nice few paragraphsa about the game they could easily reword. Plus side they’ll use most of your positive sentances :stuck_out_tongue:

  • DO NOT change price too often if at all. If you have a substantial game then consider pricing above 0.99, otherwise DONT DO IT. While you have no traction it wont matter, if you ever do get traction you will start to get bad reviews. If you really want to charge more do it with In App Purchase. Remember a lot of FREE games are way better than alot of the paid games :confused: If you try to charge too much you wont get any sales. The more slaes u get the higher you rank and in turn the more sales u get.

  • Contact local tech magazines or websites. They are more interested in looking after local developers (well a little :P)

  • If you have a novel concept or a news worthy story, get a press release done. If you have ‘just another game’ save your money untill you have some features or awards or fancy reviews to tout.

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#9

Thanks for the suggestions. All good stuff!

What keywords would you recommend?

I used: space, shooter, sci-fi, arcade

Can I change them when I upload a new version?
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