First Steps in Commercial Games

[SHiNKiROU]

From a book about developing apps: iOS users are more likely to buy apps than Android users, so the Android app is free with ads.
If I sell software, I would make it cheap so I can get more good reviews ("$1 is too cheap for that high-quality game") and avoid bad reviews ("$10 for that piece of crap?")

I also found Kongregate. You get ad revenue and no extra programming required, but you can't host Ren'py games in Kongregate.

[jack_norton]

Don't worry, on mobile you'll still get the "is too expensive" even if you price your game at $1

[Jason]

Don't worry, on mobile you'll still get the "is too expensive" even if you price your game at $1

I know how that feels, there are just too many commercial game haters around here when people who are doing it for free are just "mostly" dependent on their guardians.

Sales doesn't happen magically, it needs marketing and can be a lot harder.

Commercial games requires a set standard otherwise it will fail w/the slightest mistake.

While I absolutely respect people who do things for free, I'm not stupid enough to mock/disrespect people who do commercial work in front of and/or behind their backs since they have higher risks, has to be innovative or has some gimmick to attract audience, and there's this need to take care of every team member.

Free game developers (especially dependent ones) should stop assuming what goes in commercial when they haven't got any experience with it yet regardless if they've read stuff about it or not. It's like reading information about how a bicycle works without actually riding it themselves yet. What if they're overweight and got problems balancing it in the way or so?

/rant.

[akizakura]

A lot of really interesting discussion. I know this is a bit late, but since I don't think I've seen it mentioned, I'll add this thought:

For me, the more places I have to input credit card info, the lesss I am tempted to go for a paid product over a free one. This is more superstitious than logical - I realize sites like PayPal may be no better protected. Howeer, not having to enter my credit card number in a service I already use makes me feel more comfortable. I don't mind paying for apps - especially to support indie devs doing work that interests me - but the payment method will have a big influence. Just another thought.

[clannadman]

What would you think of a commercial game that used free things like free art or music?
Is it wrong to charge people for a game made with public domain assets?
Do you expect 100% original assets if you're going to pay for a game?

[Sslaxx]

Mostly original is what I'd like, but even AAA games sometimes use stuff you wouldn't expect (for example, a substantial amount of the textures in Skyrim come from Oblivion; some may even come from Morrowind). It's more what's done with the assets that counts, rather than the assets themselves. I don't really expect games to use 100% original assets 100% of the time.

[PN04]

What would you think of a commercial game that used free things like free art or music?
Is it wrong to charge people for a game made with public domain assets?
Do you expect 100% original assets if you're going to pay for a game?

Commercial games use free art and public domain content all the time, but they can't have it be obvious, even sourced stuff should be altered if you can manage it and surround it with original content as well. So sometimes you may have to compensate by giving the consumer more of what you can create yourself or by lowering the price to a point that makes up for the lack of original things. Of course if something is still 90% free content I think you're going to see hesitance in purchasing it at all.

[Sslaxx]

I don't bother to check which assets a game uses are public domain or CC-licensed and I'd imagine a substantial whack of the gaming audience doesn't either. I wouldn't really worry about what other devs would think of it - I'd be more concerned with the reception of the game by the gaming public at large, and that isn't likely to be influenced so much by the licensing, public availability or otherwise of sounds, graphics etc. used in it.

[TrickWithAKnife]

As devs, not paying attention to licensing may potentially get people in trouble, especially with commercial games.
Even if legal matters don't arise, there's a lack of professional courtesy.

[clannadman]

What are some other ways to make money from visual novels besides charging for the games themselves?

Other than hosting advertising, I can't think of any

[papillon]

Donations, merchandise? Not recommending them but they're options at least.

[PN04]

Merchandise is probably your next best bet, if your characters are interesting or marketable enough you might be able to get away with shirts,trinkets or other items related to them. There's that new thing going around called Patreon, where you can ask people if they like your work to donate every time you release content, this could be good if your VN is episodic and could be released and a consistent reoccurring time frame.