Bundle Games

[dreamingdaze]

I was browsing the web and saw a bunch of visual novels and games in bundles (you know Humble, Indie Gala, etc). Perhaps I'm a bit naive, but I was stunned by how low the cost was for a ridiculous amount of games (no this isn't advertisement, lol).

While yeah, as a consumer, its nice to have such low prices for commercial visual novels...I felt a little uneasy. Like, I know "advertisement" and "exposure" is always key in succeeding but to be honest, I can't imagine game makers being able to survive if they sell their games for pennies. Visual novels/games that I know must have taken ages to make (with tons of cost in art, coding, etc) are being sold for a buck at most and probably pennies/free at worst. Not being a commercial game dev, I dunno the turn over/profit/advertisement on these bundles so I was legitimately curious---are these worth it? Do they pay off or do they actually harm the indie game dev? I don't favor the bundle game sites since I know which games I like and I'm quite happy to buy direct, thank you very much. But I was curious if this was actually a good thing since well...they seem to be everywhere.

[SinaAzad]

Well , I actually think thats a good marketing they are doing , first , the low price may push some people to try visual novels for the first time , it is better than trying the cracked version and never pay a cent for it , right ?
some producers even prefer to put their work (which did cost them alot) for free in order to advertise themselves !
for example 4 leaf studios released katawa shoujo for free ... that was all i need to start reading visual novels , and if one day they build another visual novel , and put it for 30$ I'll be the first one to buy it !