Pricing a Game

[SonnyBondsAtOnce]

say- I made a full length game...
SAY- I wanna sell it..
how should the pricing method go? what makes a game worth different that other games?
production time? art (or course) good music, etc...

[WHAM]

Overall quality is the best way to determine price. It is also the hardest quality to identify by yourself.
I believe the best way might be to ask other people (a test audience of preferrably at least five people) what THEY would be willing to pay for the game. If the response is primarily in the "three bucks to nothing at all" -range, it is best to re-examine the game and think again on whether or not it should even be commercial. If the responses are in the "five bucks or more" category, you should have a good idea on where to go.

In going commercial, the most important thing in my opinion is to have the game properly tested before release. As long as it works right and there are no game-killer bugs on release, you should be pretty well off.

Other than that, make sure the game is fun and you have a playable demo available, so you can gather some extra feedback before release.

[m0ds]

Wham touched on an important point. Learn about your target audience. If you want your game to be bought by younger people, can they really afford 20 dollars?

Does your game offer something unique, or specialist, or is it run of the mill? People will pay more for things they can't find anywhere else.

Production time shouldn't be an issue, unless you have team members to pay. Games in development for a decade aren't going to be any more expensive than a game that's taken a year to make. You can't just up the price because it took you a long time to make it. Its your responsibility to make sure it happens in a comfortable time frame, it's not fair charging the customer extra because you took your sweet ass time over it  

Generally though people would expect more from a more expensive game. A few rooms, a few puzzles and a couple of music tracks doesn't really warrant twenty dollars. You kind of have to use some common sense. Look around at other games being sold by individuals, companies and so forth, take into consideration what they may have to cover with their cost of the game - and you'll be able to apply the same methods to your own product.

A good bit of research would be to ask a chap named Dominic Pompo as to why he paid 30 dollars for a game called "Its My Life" It would be kind of interesting to know the processes that went into that game being 30 dollars, because it didn't even look like 3 dollars worth to me.

Also, legally - it's worth taking into consideration whether you'll be paying tax through your sales. I can see that being a direct factor on the pricing of a game. I'm no angel, and I know a small game can slip through the net, but a game expected to sell in the thousands - well, you wouldn't want a nasty letter from the tax office in the future!

To be fair, all AGS games seem to fall into three prices: $4.99, $9.99 or $14.99. These usually dictate a short (or old) game, a medium (or weakening sales) games and long (or brand new) adventure. However if you can justify $29.99, there is no reason you should not charge it. Feedback is very important.

Above all else - how much do you WANT to charge? How much do YOU want to make? If it's YOUR product then at the end of the day, you're the boss. And as I touched on before, price can always be dropped, games can always be re-marketed. And by the looks of things, sales for adventure games are continuous. Take D. Gray. He still sells his Hugo collection, and that's been available for what, 14 years or so? He admits it doesn't sell as well as it used too - but he gets a steady stream of income from it, all these years on. And those games are hardly top quality art and music filled (though they certainly aren't expensive). So...good luck!

[SonnyBondsAtOnce]

thanks, by production time I meant whether I should put the effort and payments of other team members as well..
also, I think I'll only sell it online, no CDs or tangibles....

[Dave Gilbert]

When I first started selling commercial games I experimented quite a bit.  I once wrote about it at length on my blog, but I've always found $14.99 to be the sweet spot for my games.  People will inevitably complain that it's too expensive, but whenever I sell games for less I always make less money.

[Radiant]

what makes a game worth different that other games?

Proper spelling and grammar would help  :

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

It also depends on market expectations. I aim my games at book buyers, and most books are cheaper than most games. Then there's long term strategy. If you plan on doing just one or two big games you'll charge more than if you pile 'rm high and sell 'em cheap. Nobody makes much money at first anyway, so it's worth thinking what you want your offering to look like in five or ten years.