Part 2: There’s Always Next Time

The Pitch

If you’ve played the free version of Drunken Masters, you know that it’s huge. Ridiculously huge, and filled with so many different modes of play and levels that you’d probably be sick of it by the time you actually ran out of things to do. The free version isn’t limited by any means, and the premium version only offers a few superficial bells and whistles to play around with.

The game that inspired me to sell a premium version, Swords and Sandals 2-Crusader, is almost the exact opposite. The free version of the game is limited to just a few levels. Just as you’re getting into the game, it stops. Almost every player is left immediately wanting more, and the premium edition of the game is marketed to fulfill that desire.

Without any sales data for Swords and Sandals 2, I can’t really say which technique is more effective. I’d guess that their sales per play ratio is much higher, but releasing a demo of a game- particularly a flash game- has negative implications as well. First of all, it would be much more difficult to find a sponsor (not a likely concern for the SS2 team, but it is for most of us). Then there’s the obvious backlash from the players. SS2 is a brilliant and professionally developed game, but its average review score at Newgrounds is only 7.2, and its rating is just 3.93. That’s not horrible, but for a game as fun as SS2, it’s clear that most of the negative feedback has come from players that felt cheated by the demo’s limitations.

Recommendation:

Most of us are developing these games independently, and releasing a demo version is risky. Expect a lower sales-to-play ratio by releasing a full free version, but expect a higher number of overall plays and a much easier time with sponsorships. With this approach, it’s important to reassure players that the free version isn’t crippled or inferior, and to convince them that the premium version will provide even more entertainment.

Timing

Releasing Drunken Masters before the Deluxe Edition was ready was not the best move. If the Deluxe Edition had been available for immediate download, rather than pre-order, I probably would have sold at least one hundred more copies than I did. I was a bit concerned about the game’s sponsorship potential because of the Deluxe Edition, and I waited until I’d secured a sponsorship before actually investing serious time in the extra features. In the end, only one potential sponsor gave me a hard time about selling a premium version on my site, and his offer wasn’t that great in the first place.

Recommendation:

Before you release the free version, finish the premium version and set up your sales site and your payment system.

Transactions

To date, PayPal’s made about $140 from sales of the Deluxe Edition. They continue to take 24% of the profit from each sale. That’s exorbitant, but I haven’t found many options that are much better for independent developers. PayPal and Google Checkout both offer sales systems that charge a smaller flat fee per transaction, but these options can cost hundreds of dollars for initial setup, and charge monthly fees.

There is another potential method of selling premium content that I’m definitely interested in, and I’ll be following this report up with a proposal that goes into more detail on that.

Recommendation:

Getting cash in your PayPal account on a daily basis is nice, but it’s just too expensive. There are some alternatives, but none are very practical for an independent developer. Hopefully there will be better systems in place in the near future.

Delivery

I set up a sales website based on the free Joomla Content Management System. It doesn’t require much technical knowledge, and if you’ve already got a server somewhere, you’ll be up and running in a day.

Setting up automatic delivery to customers was a little trickier, but if you can make a flash game, you can set up a system like mine. I used two free Joomla extensions for the job. The AEC Subscription Manager receives notification from PayPal whenever a customer makes a payment, then automatically creates an account for the customer and e-mails the customer with his or her login information. The DOCMan file management extension allows customers to download the Deluxe Edition, while preventing unauthorized downloads.

Recommendations:

If you’re experienced with internet applications, then you’ve probably got this one figured out on your own. If not, the system I used has worked out nicely, and I recommend a similar set up, at least until something better comes along. Keep security in mind as well- I included “sitelock” code in the Deluxe Edition that would disable the game if it ran from any address beginning with “http”, and created a MochiBot specifically for that version. It’s only been uploaded to one game portal so far, and it was removed by portal administrators the same day.

Part 3: There’s a Better Way

The Deluxe Edition of Drunken Masters won’t pay the bills, but it’ll definitely buy a few six-packs. The profit from a premium game is a nice addition, and makes the extra development time a worthwhile investment. The transaction costs, however, are a huge expense, and setting up a billing and delivery system is inconvenient.

There’s a better way to do this, and there are several companies already employing that method– it’s just being used for other platforms and other content.

The ideal system would involve one website that sold premium versions of several different games. In the game, players would be encouraged to buy the premium version to unlock additional content and features, and would be directed to the sales website.

At the sales website, the customer would be able to access the premium version of the game by spending credits. As an example, the Deluxe Edition of Drunken Masters on this site would cost one credit. The customer could purchase credits from the sales website in bulk amounts. For example, a single credit would cost two dollars, a pack of five credits would cost five dollars, ten credits would cost nine dollars, and so on. After purchasing credits, the customer could then spend them on the premium version of the game.

The first benefit of this system would be the reduction of transaction costs. A larger website selling multiple games could afford to invest in a more cost-effective payment processing system. Any remaining transaction costs would be spread over multiple credits (when bought in bulk “packs”), rather than being deducted from each game purchase.

The second benefit is in additional sales. Customers interested in getting a better deal would inevitably purchase larger credit packs. After buying the premium version of the game that they originally came to buy, they’d have credits left over to purchase additional games. This means more sales for the developers of later purchases. It also creates another stream of revenue for the developer of the initial purchase, who could be paid a commission on the “referrals” that his or her game generates.

Finally, this sort of marketplace eliminates the need for developers to set up their own sales sites.

This isn’t a new concept. It’s been used for downloadable PC games, for MMO’s, and for the latest generation of game consoles. It’s time that we had something similar available for Flash game developers. If you’ve got the technical resources and the capital to build a system like this, you can sign me up.