Your game costs too much.

[ericvondoom]

Hey, game maker. Much like 26,000-plus other people, I like your YouTube channel. I like your cute voice, cute art, and positive game making tips. But I would never pay $11 for a modern/old-school JRPG from you, and it seems that based on your sales this first month of release, a significant section of your fanbase would agree.

Sure, this slow start can be blamed on the poop-show that Steam has become these last couple of years, or several other factors not entirely in your control, but the one thing you could've controlled to help move your product was the price point. While $11 seems reasonable for an indie game, you must realize that there are castes within the indie sphere.

The most visible indie games, like Hand of Fate, Spelunky, and Cuphead are highly polished, highly marketed products with rather large budgets, comparatively speaking. They can get away with charging $20 or more. The games with less marketing prowess tend to be cheaper. The games that have no marketing campaign and an enthusiastic amatuer's level of polish should really lower their expectations at the price point.

So, why go cheaper? Isn't the price point supposed to reflect the quality of the game? Nope. What I've been alluding to is that price point is supposed to reflect the level of market awareness. A million people will pay $80 for Call Of Duty Digital Deluxe when they see commercials for it on ESPN. Hundreds of thousands will pay $10 for Lisa: The Painful when they see a write-up for it in Game Informer. When you lack market awareness, you generate it from word of mouth. To get those first mouths, the barrier to entry must be cheap. Look at LiEat: 100,000 sales, an Overwhelmingly Positive score, and a $3 price point.

You could've seen this coming. On your own channel, your Gaia's Melody (RMXP) Let's Plays barely get 2-3 thousand views, while a video about character creation tips released in the same week ends up getting over 80,000 views. Part of marketing is knowing your audience, and it's clear that your audience isn't flocking to you for your game. Here on Steam, you're an unknown entity with a homemade commodity, and from a marketing standpoint, that's not worth $11.

I really don't want to rain bad vibes on you or your game. From what you've said on your channel, you've had too much of that already. And I apologize if I'm being Captain Hindsight with my advice. I truly hope that you're successful in your endeavors.

With thanks,
Eric

[SaliaNifo]

I really appreciate your detailed analysis. You brought up some good points that we hadn't considered. I will discuss this with Echo and we'll give it some serious consideration.

I'm curious to know what you think a good price would be given your above analysis?

[ericvondoom]

Personally, I'd pay $5, though I wouldn't say $7 is entirely out of the question. If you want this game to get in the most hands possible, though, then I'd go with $5 or less, and then charge a little more for the sequel.

It very well could be that price isn't the biggest issue, if you could solve the problem of the lack of awareness. That ship might've already sailed, though. As Jim Sterling says, "You only get one launch date."

Also, please don't take me too seriously. While I do stand by everything I've said, I'm no professional. I'm just some guy on Steam who's seen way too many games get thwarted by their ambitious price tag.

[SaliaNifo]

Well you're not the only person that had mentioned the price being too high. As you've said, the sales numbers are a metric to go by, and they seem to suggest people think the price is too high. Awareness may also be a problem as well, but neither me nor Echo really know anything about marketing. We're just a two person team, and I mostly handle programming fixes and dealing with the public. Anyway, I appreciate your input, and it's something we'll consider, though I'm not sure how to bring it up with Echo.

[Danko]

Hey. Saw this thread and felt like I needed to give you a second opinion, if you wanted one. This is a product of love and you put a lot of heart and hard work into it. You shouldn't feel obligated to lower the cost of your labor if someone says so - you will see those "too expensive" threads in basically any game on steam.
You should take into account that this is a very niche game that won't appeal to the core steam audience so lowering the price won't likely increase the audience and sales by much, so it's generally OK for niche products to have above average price.
Personally I think that when the discounts will roll in, the price will be just fine, and I'll be glad to grab it. So I suggest you stick to your pricing policy - people who want this game will get it on sale, people who don't - won't get it anyway.
// fellow subscriber and game maker.

[Danko]

Also I think that comparing it to LiEat or other products is not valid. LiEat is an extremely short title, while this game promises above 20 hours of content.
I strongly feel that charging below 10 USD for a 20+ hours game is cheapening the author's work and should not be a norm.

[SaliaNifo]

Really appreciate the input guys. I talked with Echo and it looks like we're going to leave it as is for now.

[Dussy]

$11 is not that much It may be an odd number for the price but it is well more than worth it.

[kyg]

Originally posted by Danko:

Hey. Saw this thread and felt like I needed to give you a second opinion, if you wanted one. This is a product of love and you put a lot of heart and hard work into it. You shouldn't feel obligated to lower the cost of your labor if someone says so - you will see those "too expensive" threads in basically any game on steam.
You should take into account that this is a very niche game that won't appeal to the core steam audience so lowering the price won't likely increase the audience and sales by much, so it's generally OK for niche products to have above average price.
Personally I think that when the discounts will roll in, the price will be just fine, and I'll be glad to grab it. So I suggest you stick to your pricing policy - people who want this game will get it on sale, people who don't - won't get it anyway.
// fellow subscriber and game maker.

I agree strongly with Danko. The OP wrote a lot and he makes some good points, however, arbitrarily lowering the price is not going to help. There are three traits that are at play here: public awareness, price, and rpgmaker.

The people that are your fans will likely purchase it at almost any reasonable price, which $11 fits right into; however, you do not have a lot of fans and you are not making many more on Steam, which is filled with people that have a horrible disdain for Rpgmaker games/developers.

In short, $5-10 is a reasonable price. Steam discount/sales will take care of the rest.

[Hamster_ruso]

$11 is a reasonable price, I don't understand why they say thats it costs too much.

[yael.markovich]

Originally posted by ericvondoom:

Hey, game maker. Much like 26,000-plus other people, I like your YouTube channel. I like your cute voice, cute art, and positive game making tips. But I would never pay $11 for a modern/old-school JRPG from you, and it seems that based on your sales this first month of release, a significant section of your fanbase would agree.

Sure, this slow start can be blamed on the poop-show that Steam has become these last couple of years, or several other factors not entirely in your control, but the one thing you could've controlled to help move your product was the price point. While $11 seems reasonable for an indie game, you must realize that there are castes within the indie sphere.

The most visible indie games, like Hand of Fate, Spelunky, and Cuphead are highly polished, highly marketed products with rather large budgets, comparatively speaking. They can get away with charging $20 or more. The games with less marketing prowess tend to be cheaper. The games that have no marketing campaign and an enthusiastic amatuer's level of polish should really lower their expectations at the price point.

So, why go cheaper? Isn't the price point supposed to reflect the quality of the game? Nope. What I've been alluding to is that price point is supposed to reflect the level of market awareness. A million people will pay $80 for Call Of Duty Digital Deluxe when they see commercials for it on ESPN. Hundreds of thousands will pay $10 for Lisa: The Painful when they see a write-up for it in Game Informer. When you lack market awareness, you generate it from word of mouth. To get those first mouths, the barrier to entry must be cheap. Look at LiEat: 100,000 sales, an Overwhelmingly Positive score, and a $3 price point.

You could've seen this coming. On your own channel, your Gaia's Melody (RMXP) Let's Plays barely get 2-3 thousand views, while a video about character creation tips released in the same week ends up getting over 80,000 views. Part of marketing is knowing your audience, and it's clear that your audience isn't flocking to you for your game. Here on Steam, you're an unknown entity with a homemade commodity, and from a marketing standpoint, that's not worth $11.

I really don't want to rain bad vibes on you or your game. From what you've said on your channel, you've had too much of that already. And I apologize if I'm being Captain Hindsight with my advice. I truly hope that you're successful in your endeavors.

With thanks,
Eric

[SecondLeaseGamer]

$10 is fine. I plan on grabbing it payday. The biggest issue at play here are people feeling like RPG Maker games are all generic garbage. This is a game that actually took time and effort. I wouldnt back off of the price. In-fact, I think $10 is the perfect price for your work while you guys work on honing your craft.

[HBunny]

$11 is too much?

[August]

If everyone on Steam had their way, all games on steam would be free.

[August]

Also, a general rule of thumb, on a price to play time scale, its roughly a dollar an hour. If we follow this rule, then GM being a 20+ hour game, should cost $20+. She sold it at a cheaper price than she probably should've.

Also, If she changed the price now, she'd annoy people. Lower the price, and you piss off people who already purchased the game. Raise the price, and you piss off people who haven't bought it yet.

It's probably best to leave the price as is.

[August]

Also, Steam thinks the word piss is a rude word. Hilarious.