All it costs to publish on Hosted Games is whatever you drop on cover art. Which for some people is zero since there are images out there available for free if you don’t mind looking a bit chintzy. If you’re telling people to avoid spending money and then mention advertising on Facebook…that dog won’t hunt.
I fully intend for my next WIP to go out as a freebie, assuming the company agrees (since it’s always their call). I want as many people as possible to download it. Both as a thanks for how awesome everyone was to Parenting and because I have a sinister master plan.
I don’t mean purchasing ad space, lol. Creating a fanpage for yourself on facebook is free, as is advertising to your friends. Lord knows my acquaintances do it with their mixtapes.
I agree that many customers equate apps = free or VERY cheap. It’s unfortunate for us, but true.
I wish we could better equate our IF to books instead of “games” which do have a low-value connotation in some peoples’ minds, especially since our HGs and CoGs are complete products, meaning they don’t nickel and dime you like those “freemium” games do. Sure those games can afford to be free because they make money off the 10% “whale” customer base. Our IF is a complete product, there’s no other product to try to sell down a funnel.
Yes, many indie authors (of regular books) price their first-in-series as free or $.99, but 1) many other authors still advise against giving away your hard work, and 2) many indie authors can write a book in a month or two, so it’s less work being given away AND they will have a series of 2, 3, 10, etc. other books in the series so once they get a customer in the pipeline that’s some nice $. We don’t have that. I don’t know how many IF writers are cranking out a quality HG in 2 months. And I don’t know how many IF writers have a backlist of 10-20 games that are all making monthly royalties.
Our games just represent a lot more work than (most) books, and I don’t see how giving away a game for free is going to help someone’s career. I mean it COULD, assuming you can crank out a lot more games in that particular series in a relatively short period of time, but most people spend 1-2 years creating these products, so that’s not going to happen.
Obviously people can do what they want, and I understand the idea of trying to get your stuff “out there,” but I really do think putting stuff out for free devalues your work. I can already see people saying, “Your first game was free, why isn’t game #2 free too? Can’t you make money with ads?”
Now if someone is approaching this 100% as a hobby and not a business, then yes all of these economic arguments go out the window.
My take is that I’m not planning to make a career out of writing. I do it for fun, and I already have a job, so I’m going to continue writing for fun. If I publish anything, it’s going to be for free. (A sentiment which genuinely seems to confuse some people, as I’ve had someone tell me in the past that if I don’t write for money, why the hell am I writing?)
That said, for folks who do intend to make a buck or two off their work, I think the best way to do it is already in place: first three chapters to have a look, if the story hooks you by then, slide a cool tree-fiddy two dollars over at the author to see some more.
It is free, but you also get what you pay for. Social media is stuffed to the gills with people trying to do just what you described. The overall success rate is…not great. Publishing on HG or CoG gets you more eyes than a whole truckload of social media shilling can. However, you have to actually deliver, because if your story sucks out loud all those hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of people downloading it will see that too and you’ll have a different sort of reputation issue.
Everything has a cost. By making a game free on HG, you give a choice on how they want to pay it. If a reader doesn’t want to spend money to unlock the ad-free option, the ads let them spend time instead. If you don’t want to do either, that means you prefer the cost be paid by the author in the hundreds of totally uncompensated hours they spent crafting the story/game. Not a ton of people are going to want to write a story if people pick that route, I imagine. It’s essentially what those who pirate stuff are choosing, and they’re not our favorite people.
This whole thread is about creating a free or very low cost game, by people who want to do this as a hobby, not a career.
Some people just want to give stuff away. I’m removing myself from this conversation, now, as you don’t wish to see where I’m coming from. Have a nice day.
I think part of the problem here is a matter of scale. For better or worse IF is a commodity we’re selling, like furniture or gasoline. If I bought free gas for 100 people I’m a nice guy. If I supply free gas to 1,000,000 people I’ll be sued into oblivion by the oil companies for devaluing their product. This is an extreme example but the idea is the same here. If you make a game and leave it on dashingdon unpublished to play for free it’s small and only really affects you, but if you publish it and compete with similar games from authors who need the money you’re not just affecting yourself anymore. Now you’re devaluing their product also.
If the money is really burning a hole in your pocket, or anyone elses. You could donate the money to charity. Preferably for something related to the work in question. Such as a war story going to wounded warrior, or a game about chimps going to some zoo somewhere. Raising money directly, and showing people why it’s important at the same time.
I say value yourself, your time and your work. If you are just making a small easy project for practice and it’s finished but you just want feedback, I’d consider doing it for free, but if you genuinely put in a lot of work and you’re confident in it, I don’t think a dollar or two is too much. You can always do a free demo too!
Just wanted to bring up that a lot of people who read these stories are teenagers/kids with no access to a credit card or parents who would be willing to make online purchases for them (for me back then, I was just too shy to explain my desired purchases to my stoic Asian parents lol). Hence no matter how cheap a story is… $0 is the most you’re getting out of that audience.
A lot of my reviews for The Parenting Simulator on Google Play fall along these lines. If I had a nickel for every time I saw a variation of “I would buy the full story if my parents would let me” or “I’m just a teenager, I can’t pay for this”, I’d be eating nickel soup.
That has to be a decent percentage of my 1-star reviews, too; most people don’t take it out on the story that they can’t afford to get the whole thing, but some people are like the proverbial fox with the grapes out of reach.
@Thourne Fortunately, every one of the HG and CoG stories released has a free demo (except some of the really, really old ones before they did it that way). While a few people misunderstand it as a bait-and-switch move, it’s really just to let readers try before they buy.
I know that CoG does discounts on games sometimes. Maybe you can have your game price be $2 but have a discount period where it’s free for a while? I’m not sure what’s the minimum amount they allow but if pricing is an issue that bothers you this much, I think it’s worth talking to the staff about it.
I think that might be a thing that could cause a real uproar because a lot of people who paid for the game would be quite upset If it suddenly is a free game for a while. That could cause really Bad reviews
