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Comment by robofanatic | Hacker News Reader

great story and the game looks cool from the screen shots and videos in the app store. wonder if you have plans to introduce a free version with in-app purchases. bet you will get more users.

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You know, we've considered it and we've been approached by a couple of publishers in the "hyper casual" space to go the route of free-but-with-IAPs. First the terms of industry-standard contracts are onerous. And second...well, I personally love casual games. And I never minded paying a reasonable amount for games I play. And then there are games like Two Dots that I really, really liked but the endless monetization just gets to be too much.

This is just our preference. We don't have anything against ad-supported or IAP-supported games. We just feel that there is still a pool of mobile players out there who don't mind purchasing a casual game outright.

And who knows, we might decide to collaborate with a publisher on a future game. We'll see what the future brings.

Congrats on the release!

I can only say anecdotally from my own experience, but the games we had listed for a price got 1% or less of the downloads of the same game after we made it free. People complain about free with IAP, but the $ shows otherwise.

This is something that's a dilemma for us. Thanks for your input!

I started out same as you, charge a dollar or two for a quality game seems like a fair trade. But I can't count how many conversations I had with people who would balk at 99 cents while either holding their $5 daily latte or paying another $10 for gems/energy for the "free" game they were playing. It's frustrating but the mentality of the mobile market. There are good/ethical and bad ways to approach it, though. I wouldn't do anything rash with your first game; let it be as-is out there for a while and try different ways to advertise or work with user feedback and see how it develops.

I was reading about how the mobile game space has taken a totally different path from PC/Console games. Players are largely onboard with the "value" of even the most casual games on the latter platforms. But there is now a lot of resistance to mobile games that aren't free...even though a player's regular spend on an IAP-monetized game might actually exceed the cost of even a subscription-type model.

Indeed. Free with IAP is the model for mobile gaming, because nothing else makes nearly as much money.

If you want to do this as a business, free with IAP is a must.

Mysterydip, how do the sales compare of a game with IAP vs one with an upfront cost? (I ask as it is conceivably that fewer than 1% of people who get the IAP version pay, in which case you've made as much either way).

I've not done IAP, just ads and amazon underground (which has since been cancelled). My games weren't geared for IAP. Underground by far made us the most. To be sure there's companies squeezing every last drop psychologically out of its free users, and it irks me to no end. Games are supposed to be fun.

First thing I thought when I looked at the Apple Store version was 'good on you for charging, and for more than $0.99.'

Out of curiosity, when were you approached by publishers? After you had launched?

Yep, after. And all hyper casual (lol @ the term) publishers have a free-to-IAP business model.

I meant kind of trial to buy model, not ad-supported per se. There may be a lot of users who might give a try to the trial version which may just be a skimmed down version, if they like it they'll buy! I think a lot of people are afraid to spend money (no matter how little) and then get disappointed (not saying this game is disappointing)

Just my 2 cents.

I appreciate your 2 cents, seriously.

I'm not the author, but personally, I'm hostile to freemium games.

This is especially the case in multiplayer games. Making it free removes a check on "low quality users" - e.g., hackers, griefers, etc.

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