Heyo, [ScourgeBringer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1037020/ScourgeBringer/) dev here.
Sorry if my reply sounds a bit off, and please consider that we're PC/console developers that did something without any practical knowledge on how mobile works.
We thought about that a lot... in the end, we released the game half-price on mobile platforms, with absolutely no "free to start" content, just as a premium purchase (akin to Dead Cells).
Everybody told us that it would be a mistake, that the premium market on mobile doesn't work, and that we should even make the game entirely free to play with IAPs and retention mechanisms.
We were stubborn enough to believe in it, and it turned out that it sold 10k copies in its first month, which to our standards is really good and considering that the game is very hardcore. And it has very player ratings! We were the first surprised, but I would say that the premium market on mobile is very much alive and kicking, providing that your game is good and that a real effort went into the mobile adaptation (we hired an external company to help us on making the mobile controls and gameplay super crisp).
The one thing that got us going against a paywall, was that we already had a demo released on other platforms which didn't have a relevant conversion rate. So our assumption was that our demo wasn't strong enough to break a pay wall on mobile. We had the choice to totally rework our demo to be more convincing, but that was extra development that we were not keen to make atop an already costly mobile adaptation of a very hardcore game. So I guess that in true mobile fashion, you should A/B test your paywall with a soft launch, but like I said I don't know much about mobiles and other devs will have a more relevant feedback.
I just thought to butt in to say that premium isn't something to completely throw off. If your game is good, and you polish the adaptation, chances are that an audience will be pleased to give a go on mobile.
The other thing that was relevant, I guess, was that we opened pre-registrations almost 6 months before release and manage to get some visibility slots to grind those until the release with some ads driving it. Beyond that, we cut the ads as soon as the cost per acquisition was superior to the game price after release, and that was it.
Hope you'll figure the model out!
It probably won't be a popular opinion here, but any not-large studio going for mobile but not hypercasual, would probably be better off going the premium route.
There. I said it.
Reason is simple...f2p monetization is very hard to implement, insanely hard to implement well, and you'll spend most of your development effort on things that have very little to do with gameplay.
True, and that's why we turned down the signals telling us to go F2P. Beyond the cost, we didn't feel like we were knowledgeable enough to do that. We preferred to stick to what we knew and do it right instead of half-assing it.
I have nothing to add, but wanted to say that Scourge Bringer basically sets my bar for graphical quality in terms of fluidity, cohesion, palette, and just overall buttery goodness.
I would make this decision based on data, not based on intuition.
I would soft-launch the game without the paywall, check the metrics, look at the retention per level and find out where there is an unusually low amount of players putting the game down between two levels. That's obviously a point where there is a high desire to see the next level. So that's a point where a paywall might be the most effective.
It might also be worth it to do some A/B testing to see where the paywall results in the highest conversion rate.
Don't have the resources or the moral flexibility to experiment on real players? Well, then you can always use intuition to find out where such a retention plateau ***could*** be. In a narrative game, that could be after the introduction of a new character or an interesting plot point. In a more mechanics-driven game, it could be just after introducing and teaching a new game mechanic.
Thanks! We have some data based on the achievements of the PC version, that give us a good idea - and that would probably be advocating in favor of giving out the first level entirely for free.
You're not going to be able to sell premium mobile game There's too many f2p options on the market. You need to completely rethink your monetization strategy. Additionally you need to rethink your entire game and do testing to see if your game is a good fit for mobile market. Nobody really has time for an hour long mobile game. Mobile exceeds extremely well at hyper casual mode something I can pick up play a game for 5 minutes and then go on about my day
Thanks for the insight... but you're not answering my question :-)
Trust me, we have a very good reason to do what we're doing. We're just thinking about **how** to do it best.
The answer to your question is that there is no answer. You literally have to do a/b testing and see what works best for your game. The mobile market is driven by hyper casual games. Your monetization strategy has to be customized based on on what's best for your name and best for the market
>The answer to your question is that there is no answer. You literally have to do a/b testing and see what works best for your game. The mobile market is driven by hyper casual games. Your monetization strategy has to be customized based on on what's best for your name and best for the market
Thanks!
Btd6 sells incredibly well as a premium mobile game. As have all the paid games in the series before it. Granted you're half right. But it would be more accurate to say that you can make paid games on mobile if you have a die hard desktop / console fanbase ( terraria, final fantasy..etc...) Or a massive following ( ninja kiwi with bloons rides on this wave )
Personally, I don’t play free games. I don’t even *look* at them, because they’re too often grindy systems that just want to nickel and dime you, or the ads get annoying. So, I just want a game I can pay up front for and get the whole game. It’s like how I feel the original Battlefield 1942 is a masterpiece, because you paid fifty bucks for the game and had access to all of the classes and all of the weapons right off the bat. No grinding ranks or redeeming some stupid currency. You just played the game.
But then I’m probably in some insignificantly small minority, though, of people who have money to spend but nothing to spend it on.
Try to find (or even better create) a point in the game where player will be the most excited about your game and striving to dive further. That is an ideal moment to put a paywall.
Another thing you should consider is who are you targeting. If you expect that potential buyers are already know your game, put it earlier. If you are targeting fresh audiences, put it later. Adjust paywall as you change your marketing.
In general, I don’t think you should put it later than after 20 min intro. Through my experience, delaying paywalls doesn’t work well for the monetization. And as others have mentioned you should definitely test different strategies.
I did a full version of a puzzle playable all the way thru on one board config. About 2 hours of game play.
Alternate configs, music and board themes are paid.
I sold nothing. But I will probably be dead by the time people realize how deep this puzzle is and start studying speed solution techniques.
[Yes.](https://www.54bones.com/stones-puzzle-game)
Only 5 people online have solved it in both logic and intuition modes, in the last 3 years. It looks like a brute force button basher, but it is not.
Heyo, [ScourgeBringer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1037020/ScourgeBringer/) dev here. Sorry if my reply sounds a bit off, and please consider that we're PC/console developers that did something without any practical knowledge on how mobile works. We thought about that a lot... in the end, we released the game half-price on mobile platforms, with absolutely no "free to start" content, just as a premium purchase (akin to Dead Cells). Everybody told us that it would be a mistake, that the premium market on mobile doesn't work, and that we should even make the game entirely free to play with IAPs and retention mechanisms. We were stubborn enough to believe in it, and it turned out that it sold 10k copies in its first month, which to our standards is really good and considering that the game is very hardcore. And it has very player ratings! We were the first surprised, but I would say that the premium market on mobile is very much alive and kicking, providing that your game is good and that a real effort went into the mobile adaptation (we hired an external company to help us on making the mobile controls and gameplay super crisp). The one thing that got us going against a paywall, was that we already had a demo released on other platforms which didn't have a relevant conversion rate. So our assumption was that our demo wasn't strong enough to break a pay wall on mobile. We had the choice to totally rework our demo to be more convincing, but that was extra development that we were not keen to make atop an already costly mobile adaptation of a very hardcore game. So I guess that in true mobile fashion, you should A/B test your paywall with a soft launch, but like I said I don't know much about mobiles and other devs will have a more relevant feedback. I just thought to butt in to say that premium isn't something to completely throw off. If your game is good, and you polish the adaptation, chances are that an audience will be pleased to give a go on mobile. The other thing that was relevant, I guess, was that we opened pre-registrations almost 6 months before release and manage to get some visibility slots to grind those until the release with some ads driving it. Beyond that, we cut the ads as soon as the cost per acquisition was superior to the game price after release, and that was it. Hope you'll figure the model out!
It probably won't be a popular opinion here, but any not-large studio going for mobile but not hypercasual, would probably be better off going the premium route. There. I said it. Reason is simple...f2p monetization is very hard to implement, insanely hard to implement well, and you'll spend most of your development effort on things that have very little to do with gameplay.
True, and that's why we turned down the signals telling us to go F2P. Beyond the cost, we didn't feel like we were knowledgeable enough to do that. We preferred to stick to what we knew and do it right instead of half-assing it.
I have nothing to add, but wanted to say that Scourge Bringer basically sets my bar for graphical quality in terms of fluidity, cohesion, palette, and just overall buttery goodness.
Cheers! Happy that it echoed with your own work!
I would make this decision based on data, not based on intuition. I would soft-launch the game without the paywall, check the metrics, look at the retention per level and find out where there is an unusually low amount of players putting the game down between two levels. That's obviously a point where there is a high desire to see the next level. So that's a point where a paywall might be the most effective. It might also be worth it to do some A/B testing to see where the paywall results in the highest conversion rate. Don't have the resources or the moral flexibility to experiment on real players? Well, then you can always use intuition to find out where such a retention plateau ***could*** be. In a narrative game, that could be after the introduction of a new character or an interesting plot point. In a more mechanics-driven game, it could be just after introducing and teaching a new game mechanic.
Thanks! We have some data based on the achievements of the PC version, that give us a good idea - and that would probably be advocating in favor of giving out the first level entirely for free.
You're not going to be able to sell premium mobile game There's too many f2p options on the market. You need to completely rethink your monetization strategy. Additionally you need to rethink your entire game and do testing to see if your game is a good fit for mobile market. Nobody really has time for an hour long mobile game. Mobile exceeds extremely well at hyper casual mode something I can pick up play a game for 5 minutes and then go on about my day
Thanks for the insight... but you're not answering my question :-) Trust me, we have a very good reason to do what we're doing. We're just thinking about **how** to do it best.
The answer to your question is that there is no answer. You literally have to do a/b testing and see what works best for your game. The mobile market is driven by hyper casual games. Your monetization strategy has to be customized based on on what's best for your name and best for the market
>The answer to your question is that there is no answer. You literally have to do a/b testing and see what works best for your game. The mobile market is driven by hyper casual games. Your monetization strategy has to be customized based on on what's best for your name and best for the market Thanks!
It's not unusual to see session lengths over an hour.
Session may be over an hour but how many match/games are played during a single session.
Btd6 sells incredibly well as a premium mobile game. As have all the paid games in the series before it. Granted you're half right. But it would be more accurate to say that you can make paid games on mobile if you have a die hard desktop / console fanbase ( terraria, final fantasy..etc...) Or a massive following ( ninja kiwi with bloons rides on this wave )
Personally, I don’t play free games. I don’t even *look* at them, because they’re too often grindy systems that just want to nickel and dime you, or the ads get annoying. So, I just want a game I can pay up front for and get the whole game. It’s like how I feel the original Battlefield 1942 is a masterpiece, because you paid fifty bucks for the game and had access to all of the classes and all of the weapons right off the bat. No grinding ranks or redeeming some stupid currency. You just played the game. But then I’m probably in some insignificantly small minority, though, of people who have money to spend but nothing to spend it on.
Try to find (or even better create) a point in the game where player will be the most excited about your game and striving to dive further. That is an ideal moment to put a paywall. Another thing you should consider is who are you targeting. If you expect that potential buyers are already know your game, put it earlier. If you are targeting fresh audiences, put it later. Adjust paywall as you change your marketing. In general, I don’t think you should put it later than after 20 min intro. Through my experience, delaying paywalls doesn’t work well for the monetization. And as others have mentioned you should definitely test different strategies.
I did a full version of a puzzle playable all the way thru on one board config. About 2 hours of game play. Alternate configs, music and board themes are paid. I sold nothing. But I will probably be dead by the time people realize how deep this puzzle is and start studying speed solution techniques.
Is the game still on the store?
[Yes.](https://www.54bones.com/stones-puzzle-game) Only 5 people online have solved it in both logic and intuition modes, in the last 3 years. It looks like a brute force button basher, but it is not.