Bigaston 🎮 Oct 25, 2024

Dear game dev professional that follows me.

Do you think it's a good idea to release something in early access in a real early access stage? Like with placeholder/needs works models and texture, gamefeel that's need a bit of polish. Or now players want really polished early access like

Hades 2.

And also, I'm thinking about the business model for my game.

Show threadBigaston 🎮 Oct 25, 2024

Full game at 6-8€ during EA, with new contents, maps and at the end, price upgrade + free demo with single player and only one map

Free Game with the "Gym" map but still multiplayer, and each planet as a DLC.

Show threadJeanOct 25, 2024
@bigaston I'd like more information! How much playtime do you want your game to have? What platform is it for? How long is an individual play session meant to be?
Show threadBigaston 🎮 
@jeanv I would like to say "Infinite Playtime" cause of the simulator/multiplayer aspect, but I think maybe 10h something like this. I want to publish it first on PC on Steam only, and I think playsession between 10m and 1h
Oct 25, 2024 at 7:35pmWeb
Show threadJeanOct 25, 2024

@bigaston (1/4) 🤔 I think early access is fine if the core gameplay loop is pretty set and most of what you're adding is new assets and levels. If you aren't confident in the gameplay, I'm worried that players would get a bad impression and stop playing before it gets good.

About pricing: I think it's likely that premium will work better than freemium for you on desktop. The most successful freemium games on Steam are live service games and you don't have the resources to pull that off. 🫤

Show threadJeanOct 25, 2024
@bigaston (2/4) I do think you can double your price estimate—Steam users tend to only buy things on sale, so if your base price is $6, half off means you're selling for $3 and only getting $2 because of Valve's 30% cut. Your work is worth more than $2, especially if players are getting an average of ten hours out of it!
Show threadJeanOct 25, 2024
@bigaston (3/4) About paid DLC: if you're doing early access, I think it would go over better to add this content when you hike the price for leaving early access. Adding it then would also be good in that it would give more new stuff for you to market the release with!
Show threadJeanOct 25, 2024
@bigaston (4/4) About the demo: I'm skeptical. For one, it's a lot of work. I anticipate that the people excited about your game will have already bought the early access version or will buy the full release without playing the demo. The people they ask to play with them will skip the demo. Who's the demo for, then?
Show threadBigaston 🎮 Oct 26, 2024

@jeanv thanks for all of your feedbacks!

Yeah of what I've talkes with other friends I think early access is not a good idea. I can't manage to handle the first publish period ahah

Yeah I think I will publish the game at maybe 10€, so that half price it's 5€ and it's I think a good price for the game.

For the demo, I see it more like a way to check if the player likes the feeling of the fly in the game. Because it will not be the same as other simulator, and if I can avoid refund

Show threadBigaston 🎮 Oct 26, 2024
@jeanv it's better. But yeah, fremium is I think to hard for me to manage with my small workforce