Star Keeper PC

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

45 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

People cannot take a joke  

What was the joke, the 30$ pricepoint?

[zxdplay | 149]

Alright, I will consider the suggestions provided by everyone and reprice accordingly.
 the key point is that my actual income needs to reach the project's startup capital
One of the forum members asked me how much money is needed, and I mentioned that the project's startup would require approximately $10000. However, there may be adjustments made during the production process based on actual circumstances, so it is estimated that at least an additional 6-8K will be needed.

[zxdplay | 149]

2 hours ago, Gloves said:

I have to imagine that "1000 sales" is the goal at the $29 price point. 

OP is hoping to get around $20k (assuming he's accounted for the chunk that Valve takes) from the PC release, by my estimate. If his only goal was to sell a thousand he could put it up for a buck and be done quickly. 

Excluding Steam's commission and taxes, I can receive up to 65% of the total sales revenue.

Edited May 31, 2023 by zxdplay

[Tulpa | 3,492]

6 minutes ago, zxdplay said:

Alright, I will consider the suggestions provided by everyone and reprice accordingly.
 the key point is that my actual income needs to reach the project's startup capital

That's why people are saying price it lower. $30 and you just get us nuts buying it. And we're pretty small.

Price it at $10, you'll get a whole lot more people around the world considering it.

$5, you're in impulse buy territory.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Tulpa

[RetroX85 | 64]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That's why people are saying price it lower. $30 and you just get us nuts buying it. And we're pretty small.

Price it at $10, you'll get a whole lot more people around the world considering it.

$5, you're in impulse buy territory.

Absolutely agree with this   and also  agree we are a small group of nuts

[zxdplay | 149]

4 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That's why people are saying price it lower. $30 and you just get us nuts buying it. And we're pretty small.

Price it at $10, you'll get a whole lot more people around the world considering it.

$5, you're in impulse buy territory.

You're right, I'll think about it again

[Khromak | 768]

If it's $30, I will buy a copy for myself, maybe one for a friend or two.

If it's $10, I'd buy a 10-pack and give them to everyone even remotely interested in video games I know.

If it's $5, I'd buy a 20-pack and give them to every friend I have on Steam.

All I'm saying is, for my part I'm going to do my best to make sure this is a success, regardless of price point. I'll certainly be telling all my gamer friends about it, though it's not the biggest group tbh.

[zxdplay | 149]

7 minutes ago, Khromak said:

If it's $30, I will buy a copy for myself, maybe one for a friend or two.

If it's $10, I'd buy a 10-pack and give them to everyone even remotely interested in video games I know.

If it's $5, I'd buy a 20-pack and give them to every friend I have on Steam.

All I'm saying is, for my part I'm going to do my best to make sure this is a success, regardless of price point. I'll certainly be telling all my gamer friends about it, though it's not the biggest group tbh.

Thank you very much for your support

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I'm late to the thread, but good job on going this route.  Even better job taking the feedback that went into the weeds and finding the best ways about it going forward and adjusting as needed.

 

They are right, the lower you go, the more sales you get.  The idea is, if you price it high like a physical item only those who are hard core interested will bite. The lower you go the more sales you will get, it'll drift from gamers who care, and then from those who care into those who buy on impulse.  $5 is an impulse level for many, $10 still gets a good number yet not nearly what half that does.  At some rate you're too low to make the dent you need to develop the franchise to be further.

 

The benefit so far pricing aside, a good fair bit of quality of life tweaks improvements and additions have been done to the game to wisely make it an easier game to bet some money on buying.

[Jeevan | 8,910]

3 hours ago, spacepup said:

I don't think this group is the problem for being cheap.  In fact, I'd wager THIS group is probably the group MOST likely to pay $30 for the game to support a homebrewer.

It's all about strategy and knowing the platform.  I'm not making a quality assessment or judgment on the game, nor am I being particularly cheap, by saying that I think $30 is a *really* high price for this type of game on steam.  Ultimately, it is the developer's choice to price how they see fit, and do whatever they'd like.  I think some people are just sharing their thoughts as consumers of media on the platform, and what typically works.

After watching the trailer, I would 'expect' to see the game priced on Steam at $10 or maybe $15.  It's simply sharing an expectation given previous experience with the platform and purchases, not trying to knock the game or make an assessment on what it is 'worth.'

For example, the ios platform is incredibly competitive, and you'd be laughed out of the room for pricing a game at $30.  I know that's ios and a very different ecosystem, but it's just an analogy to express how the platform matters, especially given how much competition there is.  Back to steam, the challenge will be standing out in a sea of retro-themed platformers, and getting people to bite the initial bullet.

As mentioned above, you could always price it to start and then lower it later depending on the reaction.

The only other thing I'd suggest for thought, is that pricing on steam does impact the expectations from consumers about the quality and amount of content they are getting.  They will be much more strict/harsh on a game priced at $30, than say, $10.  The reason that matters, is that people can be brutally honest in reviews - and if a game starts out with low or mixed reviews, it makes future sales a bit more difficult as it impacts search results, ordering, desirability, etc.

However it goes, I certainly wish you luck with the project and hope it is successful for you!

 

Great thoughts and agree.

1 hour ago, zxdplay said:

Alright, I will consider the suggestions provided by everyone and reprice accordingly.
 the key point is that my actual income needs to reach the project's startup capital
One of the forum members asked me how much money is needed, and I mentioned that the project's startup would require approximately $10000. However, there may be adjustments made during the production process based on actual circumstances, so it is estimated that at least an additional 6-8K will be needed.

Think as well that you might get returns if folks don't like it.  So the higher the price, the more likely the returns on steam.

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

That's why people are saying price it lower. $30 and you just get us nuts buying it. And we're pretty small.

Price it at $10, you'll get a whole lot more people around the world considering it.

$5, you're in impulse buy territory.

Yep, agreed

40 minutes ago, Khromak said:

If it's $30, I will buy a copy for myself, maybe one for a friend or two.

If it's $10, I'd buy a 10-pack and give them to everyone even remotely interested in video games I know.

If it's $5, I'd buy a 20-pack and give them to every friend I have on Steam.

All I'm saying is, for my part I'm going to do my best to make sure this is a success, regardless of price point. I'll certainly be telling all my gamer friends about it, though it's not the biggest group tbh.

100%, also, what is your steam username? 

@zxdplay  Glad to see this coming to fruition, and glad you are open to suggestions!  So my thoughts are $5 absolutely buy.  $10 if I work OT and $30 if I am drunk .  You definitely need to price accordingly as others have said and go from there.  Might I suggest reaching out to others here, be it @Scrobins, @FireHazard51 etc. to help promote and find folks who can promote.  John Riggs would be a good one to reach out to as well.  Also, any other streamers who stream straight homebrew etc. would be a good way to "promote" your game for the low price of $5 or $10.  Give them a free steam key and they can sing the gospel of Star Keeper on high to promote it.  People will buy it if you get enough attention on it.

That said, best of luck and I hope to be able to play this game and support a Homebrewer .

Edited May 31, 2023 by Jeevan

[RetroX85 | 64]

I agree that John Riggs should know about this. He has made a youtube video or 2 about this game and I believe he would not mind promoting this PC release with another youtube video.  Great idea @Jeevan

If anyone wants to let John Riggs know (and other YT homebrew content creators), that will be a good way to spread the word about 'Star Keepers' PC release. 

Edited May 31, 2023 by RetroX85

[Murray | 2,448]

Free NFT with every purchase!

[Khromak | 768]

55 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Also, any other streamers who stream straight homebrew etc. would be a good way to "promote" your game for the low price of $5 or $10.  Give them a free steam key and they can sing the gospel of Star Keeper on high to promote it. 

This is a great idea. I will try to find a way to casually drop the game in the suggestions of Twitch streamers I watch

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Added two cents agreed on John Riggs, met this guy at the arcade expo this year, and he genuinely cares and enjoys stuff like these projects.  He actively has featured this game before, and so many others and helps to promote them.  It would be a benefit to do this and given the likely double dip into the sequel going on NES would be an even larger motivation to him as well to care even more.

[RetroX85 | 64]

Just now, Tanooki said:

Added two cents agreed on John Riggs, met this guy at the arcade expo this year, and he genuinely cares and enjoys stuff like these projects.  He actively has featured this game before, and so many others and helps to promote them.  It would be a benefit to do this and given the likely double dip into the sequel going on NES would be an even larger motivation to him as well to care even more.

Agreed, having him know the potential to raise funds for a 'Star Keeper 2' by selling Star Keeper on PC would definitely peak his interest, including a physical release of the 2nd game.

He could not only promote it, he knows who to reach out to for physical releases if the development of Star Keeper 2 comes to fruition. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

That's true because he had this own media made into NES carts, saw it on the table at the show, a number of titles both his and others for sale.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

29 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

That's true because he had this own media made into NES carts, saw it on the table at the show, a number of titles both his and others for sale.

His own media? Nice!

[erac | 78]

Yeah Yeah Beebiss 2 was made together with Mega Cat, yeah.

[BlackVega | 583]

Well, 30$ high or not you still can't deny the fact there are production costs for this in the 1st place. Maybe the creator will lower the price in the future if sales are growing, who knows. There are worse examples than this. For instance Umihara Kawase Fresh is sold at 60$ on Steam which is just a quick Nintendo Switch port. Well maybe it's not 100% comparable to 8bit style Star Keeper but people say 60$ for something like this is just an absolute ripoff

[Ferris Bueller | 495]

I can text Riggs. What's going on?

[spacepup | 2,404]

40 minutes ago, BlackVega said:

Well, 30$ high or not you still can't deny the fact there are production costs for this in the 1st place. Maybe the creator will lower the price in the future if sales are growing, who knows. There are worse examples than this. For instance Umihara Kawase Fresh is sold at 60$ on Steam which is just a quick Nintendo Switch port. Well maybe it's not 100% comparable to 8bit style Star Keeper but people say 60$ for something like this is just an absolute ripoff

I can't speak for everyone - but I know my own comments about price were not really meant to be a judgment about what it is worth or whether it is a ripoff.  I don't think $30 is an unreasonable price for a homebrew game.  I just know that the current digital gaming landscape is quite brutal and competitive, and while Star Keeper has a special history for retro enthusiasts and the homebrew community, for people outside of that world, it may *appear* to be 'yet another' retro-style platformer on Steam, of which there are tons and most of which are very inexpensive.

Ultimately, the dev/op will have the final decision and can price this however they see fit.  I definitely wouldn't want them to price it too low and undersell themselves - so I don't really know the perfect answer as to what price is the absolute best.  My earlier suggestion of what I "expect" it to cost, is purely based on experience with steam and what I usually see.

Some publishers definitely choose to start high and lower, also - so that is always an option like we've discussed.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

11 hours ago, fcgamer said:

His own media? Nice!

5 hours ago, erac said:

Yeah Yeah Beebiss 2 was made together with Mega Cat, yeah.

Yes and it's what erac said.  That is exactly what my thoughts were, if he can win over a PC version with the sequel getting PC and NES with Riggs, he's tied to mega cat and mega cat does high quality development and publishing so that would be a perfect match to get a high quality NES release done in the west away from the grubby claws of the CCP (which clearly is a concern with the comments of the old thread.)

[ecmyers | 97]

I would suggest sending Steam keys for the game to YouTube creators like John Riggs with big followings and an appreciation for NES homebrew games, as well as some Twitch streamers who play games like this, so they can review and/or stream the game and raise awareness. If the game is priced at $9.99 (seemingly the sweet spot for digital versions of NES homebrews) or less, some people who watch these videos would just buy the game to try it for themselves.

Edited June 1, 2023 by ecmyers

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I paid 9.99 for dead cells when retail was 19.99 for digital. 
 

Star keeper is not a bad game, there just isnt enough content to justify that pricepoint. Straight up. 

[RetroX85 | 64]

8 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

I paid 9.99 for dead cells when retail was 19.99 for digital. 
 

Star keeper is not a bad game, there just isnt enough content to justify that pricepoint. Straight up. 

I think anywhere from $5 to $10 is legit price point.    but I'll pay whatever 87Arts wants to charge for the game on steam.