Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

[Furyo]

10 bucks/euros/whatever is the current day market sweet spot I think. PvZ wouldn't be doing that well if it sold over that (it actually is 20 bucks on popcap.com) and this is I think what people are ready to pay for a game they haven't heard about except for raging reviews and a free demo. You'll still come out with that fresh coat of paint on your studio and game, and it would take just a little quirk to crush your game at first, so don't put all your eggs in the same basket and be overconfident.

As far as micro-payment, no it doesn't work well outside of Korea/China/Japan where they have vastly different gaming tastes than what we're accustomed to. I know large publishers are trying to find a way to make it work for themselves, but do yourself a favor, don't believe for a second you can succeed where they haven't yet.

[Skjalg]

definatly what tofu said!

[zaphod]

I feel you'd be laughing all the way to the bank if you tied the cost around 10 EUR. PvZ is doing super well and a lot of that has to do with its price + word of mouth ("Hey its really cool and only 10 EUR!"), where as others that are slightly more expensive aren't pulling as much fare - they lack the zombies however

If you release at 10 EUR, why not hold back a couple items from every category (carts and levels included) and release it a month or two later as a free update, to gain more exposure?

I think you could have a lot of fun in figuring out ways to draw players in, your production values are insanely high also - I don't think it'll be hard to convince anyone to pay 10-15 Eur if you can link them to some footage or at least get the word spreading like wild fire.

I would be open to any price between 10-20 USD, I think a lot of what it will come down to will be getting people's reaction towards what we plan to release + what advice the steam guys have to give us based on what they have experienced.

What do you think specifically about having a free version of the game running along with the paid version specifically?

[e-freak]

doesn't work. people won't buy if they can play a free version.

[Furyo]

Definitely. Even a demo that's too long will be enough to hurt your sales if people have enough fun with what little they have. If you're planning on a demo, I would limit its use in time, because you won't have a choice but to include a full working map and some goodies, which means your full priced version will only give more of the same. People will continue playing the demo if the only thing they get is more maps and models. You need to have more gameplay types and added incentive. Take Left 4 Dead as the working case.

[zaphod]

well, I would buy L4D in a heartbeat if there was a restriction like only paid players could play as Zombies.

I am mostly worried that there won't be enough of a user base to support a vibrant multi-player experience. So many multiplayer games get released and die because there are only 200-300 players trying to play at once. If there was a free component then at least there would always be people playing.

If we attract people that are only playing it because it is free, and don't care about all the other cool stuff you could do with the paid version - were they really going to buy the game in the first place? I'm not sure that is really a lost sale. Those people would still be a value to the game though because it is someone to fill up a server slot.

also, another quick accessory: "Eye Poppers"

[Furyo]

Can Eye Poppers make you see things on the road from further away? Would be a cool gameplay feature (assuming there are stuff in the game to throw around on the track a la mario kart)

[zaphod]

All of the customization stuff is purely cosmetic, otherwise things would get out of hand pretty quickly (we have a LOT of them).

[zaphod]

one more: "Hypno Glasses"

[Bic-B@ll]

how about free players cant use power ups?

[zaphod]

I was hoping that the restrictions for free players wouldn't need to be so obviously game-play stunting. I wouldn't have much fun playing against people who were really obviously handicapped.

Here are some of the ideas for restrictions I/we have:

-can access garage but not save new characters (you will always have the default character, but you can see how cool of a character you COULD have)

-limit some settings like resolution / custom key configuration

-free players have less priority when joining servers

-free players have pre-generated name perhaps ("Cheapskate4938")

-free players have no access to steam overlay? (friends / web / community)

-could do something drastic like make free players have a second or 2 delay to fire weapons when pressed, I feel that dumbing down the game might reflect negatively on whether they enjoy the game enough to buy it though.

Overall, we would really like people to still have fun playing the game, with the obvious showcase that you could be accessing a lot more features if you plunk down 10/15/20 bucks.

[dux]

I was hoping that the restrictions for free players wouldn't need to be so obviously game-play stunting. I wouldn't have much fun playing against people who were really obviously handicapped.

Here are some of the ideas for restrictions I/we have:

-limit some settings like resolution / custom key configuration

-free players have no access to steam overlay? (friends / web / community)

Those two would put me right off, even just to try it for free.

[zaphod]

That is why it is so hard to figure out what you might be able to limit or not without pissing people off. Personally I am most in favor of limiting cosmetic things like not being able to customize your character, not being able to have the name you want, etc. Things that wont be frustrating, but that most people that end up liking the game would probably want to be able to do.

You also have to consider what increased exposure the game might have by having a free version that might allow you to sell more copies as well. If there is no reason not to try the game whenever you want, I would have to imagine there would be a much larger word of mouth factor.

[tofu]

I think holding back anything from free players would be putting the question in there head of 'how much better will this be if I spend 10-20$ on it?' and unless it's something amazing, that can be communicated as being worth 10-20$, then you could have trouble pulling those people into paying customers.

I agree with Furyo that a timed demo would be the way to go, but maybe not right at the start. What seems pretty common on Steam:

Cheaper preorder

Release full price

Free Friday/Weekend (weekends are better IMO so Europe doesn't get screwed)

Discount price after playing that weekend

+ throw in a 1 week gift voucher? (The Ship does this, if I remember correctly)

The player receiving the 1 week gift may be inclined to buy it after it expires, due to seeing their friend continue to play it.

Or, consider a package deal for more than one copy, ala L4D and 4x copies. $15 USD for a single copy, $20 for two. 2x the player base, 2x the word of mouth, the added incentive of people talking about how it's only $5 extra for 1 extra copy.

You guys are on Twitter, I suggest also using that as a way to get more feedback on this #gamedev #gaming #gamedesign would be good targets - good way to expose your game also I believe there may also be some #indie follow too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/ Would also give you some good exposure, the community over there has always been up in arms over the high piracy rates of indie games etc. They'd give you further insights and feelings towards the matter. Sites that make it to the front page reach 20k+ hits that day.

[e-freak]

yes forget about restricting. someone will eventually hack it anyways in that case or the restrictions will be either too hard and therefore destroy the positive image or won't be hard enough to justify spending 20$.