Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Vault Dweller: Age of Decadence needs to sell 45,000 copies to be successful

CRD

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Dec 23, 2014
Messages
297
Divinity: Original Sin 2
I'm really happy to see that the sales exceeded your expectations, that's good for everyone, since the team to the customers who we will see more games like this from you. And I even ended surprised when a I saw lot of people interested in the game on some Spanish forums that didn't knew the game existed before some threads and the release. The only problem was that some of them wanted to play but they couldn't because the language. And I tell you this, because even if you don't want to launch a kickstarter, maybe in the future if you change opinion, could think about making tiers to add multi-5 languages that I am convinced would give you a good boost of sales.

Shame that steam didn't put a top banner one week for you. Hope they give you at least a weekend deal in some months.

Anyway, congratulations, your game and work deserved it.:salute:

Day 1 for Colony ship, kc or ea.
 
Last edited:

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
I said that "We need to sell 30,000 copies in the first year (on top of what we already sold) to consider the game successful and secure our future", not that we need 30k copies to make the next game.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we launched. I hoped to sell 5k copies in the first 3 days. Oscar thought it was too much and tried to "manage my expectations" by suggesting that 2k copies in the first 2 weeks is more realistic. In the end we did sell 5k in the first 3 days which is quite a feat for a hardcore indie RPG out of Early Access. Gives me hope.

Naturally, giving up on the dream of making RPGs would have been the worst case scenario for me. As long as there's hope, I'll cling to it.
 

stony3k

Augur
Patron
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
470
Strap Yourselves In
I said that "We need to sell 30,000 copies in the first year (on top of what we already sold) to consider the game successful and secure our future", not that we need 30k copies to make the next game.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we launched. I hoped to sell 5k copies in the first 3 days. Oscar thought it was too much and tried to "manage my expectations" by suggesting that 2k copies in the first 2 weeks is more realistic. In the end we did sell 5k in the first 3 days which is quite a feat for a hardcore indie RPG out of Early Access. Gives me hope.

Naturally, giving up on the dream of making RPGs would have been the worst case scenario for me. As long as there's hope, I'll cling to it.
Do you know the GOG numbers yet? Or does that 5K include GOG? I'm hoping the sales at GOG were at least 20% of Steam (AoD seems perfect for the GOG audience)
 

Baron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
2,887
Naturally, giving up on the dream of making RPGs would have been the worst case scenario for me. As long as there's hope, I'll cling to it.

8f7d494f8bacd3b9475b359e7c012d31.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEIYiwx8fiU


42 tips and tricks to monetize mobile games and increase revenues.

Advertising:
  1. Banner ads – these usually cover part of the screen and can turn $2-$3 CPM. Not a huge revenue generator and somewhat annoying for users, but it is very easy to implement.
  2. Interstitials between levels – these full-size ads turn higher CPMs that can reach $10. If placed correctly, they can be less annoying to the users compared to banners.
  3. More games button – an easy way to get money from bigger gaming vendors. The user clicks on the button and gets a list of related games he might be interested in.
  4. Game Exit – Once the user finishes playing, you can present him one last full size ad.
  5. Icon drop – This option is available only on Android. The idea is simple, your game is authorised to send push messages to the user and these can be used to promote other games. Airpush is one company who specialises in that.
  6. Selling data – advertisers are on the lookout for consumer insights. In-game behavioural information can be used to predict user behaviour in the real world.
  7. Incentivized downloads / Offerwalls – Simple transaction where the user gets in-game coins in return for downloading and trying other apps. When this happens, you get paid by the developers of these apps. Here are a few providers of offer walls.
  8. A Second Offerwall – Since offerwalls are actually offering value to the user (he gets coins) there is no risk of annoying them. Having two offerwalls will generate more revenue than having only one.
  9. Coupons offers – The idea here is to reward a user in-game by offering him a discount on something he might want. What could be more fun then getting a 10% pizza discount after beating that really hard level? Kiip is one company who will pay you to add this to your game.
  10. Videos – The user watches a video ad, he gets in-game coins, you get real cash. Simple and preferred by most users. Adcolony is one company that can help you get there.
  11. Search – This is an easy way to get an average of $12 per 1,000 downloads. The user will get a search app installed along with your game. Startapp is offering this. Android only.
  12. Branded virtual goods – for games that have virtual goods in them, you could offer a branded version of them and get paid by advertisers.
Selling Content (DLC)
  1. Premium version – if you just moved away from making paid games, this could be an easy option. You release a light version of your game and allow users to upgrade to the full version via an In-App Purchase.
  2. Level packs – this is an advanced version of the former item on the list. Break the game into a few packs of levels and sell each one independently.
  3. Worlds (visual customisations) – with this option you create and sell a customised version of the original game by modifying the look and feel of the game.
  4. Wallpapers – some users will like your game so much, they will buy a wallpaper for their phone.
  5. Ringtones – if you composed an original music for your game you could sell it in your store.
Limitation Removal
  1. Remove ads – a popular item for many games. Once you have a version with ads in it you can sell a version without ads. Usually goes for $0.99.
  2. More Energy/Life/Turns – Energy mechanics means that your game is limiting continuos game play. Usually the limit will be at around 5-10 short sessions. Anyone that wants to go over the limit and continue playing needs to pay.
  3. More Time – games that requires the user to finish the level in a certain time can sell more time to complete the level.
Virtual Economy
In-game economies are driving more than 50% of the revenue in mobile games, so they deserve a big chunk of the list. I tried to break it down to components that you can mix and match rather than closed models.
  1. Characters / Avatars – if your game has a character that users can identify with, it makes sense to introduce more options in this category. It works better if the characters have unique attributes – e.g. one is stronger while the other one is faster.
    Megalodon is the biggest shark in Hungry Shark Evolution. It ‘only’ costs 900 gems, or 50000 coins.
  2. Training / Tuning – if your game has characters, you can allow users to buy training. If your game is about cars you can sell tuning.
  3. Advantage giving items – weapons or gear that give the user more abilities can be sold for real money transactions. Be careful with this one. it might bite back. Here is how to prevent pay to win.
  4. Upgrades for virtual items – games that has items the user can own will benefit from allowing the user to upgrade these items.
  5. Customisations – about 20%-25% of the users are interested in customising the look and feel of their character, car, weapons, …
  6. Resources – resources are items that can be accumulated and consumed by the user. They are usually the life blood of a game as they get users engaged in the shopping experience. They can also serve as a balancing mechanism.
  7. Manufacturing items – these are usually buildings that allow the user to obtain resources automatically over time or convert one resource to the other over time.
  8. Double coins – adding a double coins ‘cheat’ to your game for $0.99 can help you squeeze a bit more revenue. Some games allow the user to double more than one time.
  9. Save Me – “if you must cheat, cheat death”. Games that requires the user to start from square zero every time like endless runner would normally be a good candidate for this.
  10. Discoverable items – while most items users buy are owned by them, discoverable items require the user to also find them in the game.
  11. Surprise boxes – Users buy an item but don’t know whey they will get until they purchased. These are big in the Far East.
  12. Limited editions – Once you have a good set of items users like you can sell a limited series of one of the items. This gives the buyer an opportunity to feel special. You could also combine it with an auction.
  13. Seasonal items – Use the holiday spirit to boost sales. This trick is especially easy to implement if you use a SOOMLA store.

Billing
While Google and Apple provide the main billing services, they don’t have full coverage in international markets. Most people in Brazil, for example, don’t have a credit card, so making in-app purchases becomes very hard for them.
  1. Carrier billing – This option is available only in Android. The purchase is added to the bill users get from their carrier. Fortumo is one company that will help you get there quickly.
  2. Vouchers – Codes that can be purchased offline or online and redeemed in the game for coins. Supported by both Apple and Google.
  3. Wallet Payments – Think PayPal. Users might have a balance they are looking to get rid of. This option is available only for Android. If you are interested in this option, you might want to partner with an aggregator like PaymentWall.
Merchandising
  1. T-shirts – Your fans want to show how much they love your game? You can sell t-shirts in your game.
  2. Lunch boxes – Popular Merchandising option with kids games.
  3. Branded cases – What could be a better match for a game then a shield for the user smartphone.
From keychains and plushies to action figure sets, speakers and costumes. We all want to be in Rovio’s shoes.

Social
  1. Duels – Even a game that is completely free can turn into a cash machine when you let users compete for prizes against each other. Nextpeer can help you get there quickly.
  2. Tournaments – An extension of Duels with more participants. Requires a bigger user base or some marketing efforts. Works best when the game simulates a real world game that has real world tournaments.
  3. Gifting – Give users the option to give coins or virtual goods to other users. Spending $0.99 on a gift might make more sense to some users compared to spending it just to get ahead in the game.
 
Last edited:

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
VD
If you want to do a spanish translation I would be honored to help in such a worth endevor
PM in case you are interested
Oh and a squad based State of Decay kind of combat happy game would be lovely indeed
Oh and the price on GOG of $18 is an impulse buy for anybody with the slightest interest in RPGs so I sincerly hope it is selling well there too
 
Last edited:

Shin

Cipher
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
677
Not planned at the moment. We won't take it to KS without a playable build and if we have a playable build, Early Access is a much more straightforward way, without stupid tiers, stretch "goals", and upselling.

While I can get behind this answer I'm still wondering if the extra publicity a (successful) KS campaign brings doesn't outweigh those cons? Sure you have to prance around like a pony for a month but it does seem to work out for Larian..
 
Weasel
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
1,865,661
Steamspy doesn't seem to have updated owner data yet but looks like concurrent players on Steam is peaking at just over 600.

9aoOo56.jpg


Lots of people are checking out youtube gameplay videos since the launch:

8Es0v6X.png
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
VD
If you want to do a spanish translation I would be honored to help in such a worth endevor
PM in case you are interested
Oh and a squad based State of Decay kind of combat happy game would be lovely indeed
Oh and the price on GOG of $18 is an impulse buy for anybody with the slightest interest in RPGs so I sincerly hope it is selling well there too

We are working on it, more people is needed: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3176.0.html
 

JudasIscariot

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
2,001
Location
IV Republic of Polandia
Serpent in the Staglands Codex USB, 2014
VD
If you want to do a spanish translation I would be honored to help in such a worth endevor
PM in case you are interested
Oh and a squad based State of Decay kind of combat happy game would be lovely indeed
Oh and the price on GOG of $18 is an impulse buy for anybody with the slightest interest in RPGs so I sincerly hope it is selling well there too

Castellano or espanol Spanish?
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom