hi all i just had a strange thought ... i''m an independent game developer (did''nt sold any game yet) but hopes so i just wonder if there''s any factors or laws that do not allow me to sell my game for just 1 $ yep just 1 and also i want to know what would u do if u find a good dxball or something is being sold for just 1 $ (a little bit of info: i leave in egypt and i''m sure that there''s not any law that can stop me ) that''s all thanx for yr time

Honestly, I wouldn''t give a $1 game a second glance, let alone go through the hassle of paying for it.

If it looks good, I wouldn''t give a second thought to paying a buck for a game.

quote: Original post by r
i just wonder if there''s
any factors or laws that do not allow me to sell my
game for just 1 $

I suppose people should be able to pay via their creditcard (VISA for example). Pay services can handle this for you but it will cost you more than $1 for every money transaction.

$5 for a funny game wouldn''t be a problem for me as well, if I got to try it out first.
I must be able to be entertained at least one evening, though.
So add plenty of levels that are easy to complete.

quote: what would u do if u find a good dxball or something
is being sold for just 1 $

Your question assumes that the customer knows that the game is good before knowing the price. The opposite is more likely to happen, the customer sees the price of the game and assumes that it is crap and does not give it a second look.

Personally I would not start entering my credit card number on a site asking for $1 for 3 reasons.

1) The low price would make me suspicious of fraud, like how some porn scams claim that they just need your CC number to verify your age and promise not to charge it (yeah, right).

2) Getting out my credit card is tedious enough to make me go play one of the many free games on the net. After all, I would not expect much difference in quality between a free game and a game that costs $1.

3) Unless the website of the game is really professional or if the game is branded by some big-name company, the low price of the game would make me assume that the developer of the game is an amateur, probably a kid.

In other words, if you decide to charge a very low price for your product, you need a really good and CLEAR justification why the customer should not believe that the price reflects the quality of the game.

[edited by - HenryAPe on January 9, 2003 12:31:16 PM]

I might check out a game for $1, but how are you going to collect my money? Every credit card processing place has a minimum fee they charge, which can be greater than a dollar. Same problem with checks, money orders and such...they''ll cost more than they''re worth to process.

The only way this would work is if you sold a bundle of games...say you had 20 of these dollar games, and I could pick 10 for $10. Then the expenses of the transaction might work.

Amongst shareware professionals it''s commonly considered poor marketing to charge anything less then around $15 for your product. In fact many shareware authors have noted distinct and sustained increases in sales of their software after INCREASING the price. I know one developer who has increased the price of his software to almost double its original cost in small increments and each time he saw his sales increase.

thanx guys

actually u made me aware of something really amazing


there''s too much idiots with ccs in the universe
that hopes to buy any crap for 15+ $ but never looks
at the other crap that''s less than that just because
it''s not in their range of paying (less than 15$ so
it''s less than their class or level)

there are two simple reasons u should''nt buy that
game:
1- the one above.
2- u r blind not to see all that screenshots and
may be a demo.

also i didn''t know that the transactions costs more
than a dollar so lets say that the price is more
than the costs by a dollar ok what do u expect (how
much could i get from that game knowing that it''s a
really good game that may worth more than its price)
i mean could the low price get me more money?


thanx all

Read the post above your own.