class: center, middle # Creación de Videojuegos ### Monetization and Publishing --- class: center, middle # Monetization --- # Monetization - There are several ways to make money from your game - Classical: Write a game, sell it at the store (online or brick-and-mortar) - Ad-supported: Your game is free, but you get money for people clicking/viewing ads - Microtransactions: Players can buy "little things" in your game - Combinations thereof! --- # Game Pricing - AAA games usually sell around $40-$80 (25 000 - 50 000 CRC) - The *average* price for indie games on Steam is $9, with 21 000 units sold on average - Stardew Valley was $15, and sold millions of copies - Mobile Games are often free to play, or sell for less than $5 --- # Free to Play - You can also make your game "free" - How do you make money? Sell in-game items - The idea is that everyone can play your game, and spend money according to how much money they have - There are several pitfalls, though - Which items do you sell? --- # Pay to Win - Say you have a fighting game - Players can spend 500h to craft a legendary sword - Or they pay $20 - This is not necessarily a problem - However, if the players compete in the game it might be, and/or if they need a large number of such items --- # Free to Play: Cosmetic Items - A better (?) way to make money is to sell cosmetic (and convenience) items - For example, new hats for characters, additional character slots - It can be beneficial for player engagement to allow them to "grind" for these items - If there are 20 character skins for $20 each, and players can get one in 500h, a dedicated player can unlock a few of these --- # Loot Boxes - Loot Boxes have become very controversial - They can become part of a compulsion loop/addiction - Players also don't like that they may not get the skin/item they really want - Several countries have also declared them to be gambling and falling under gambling laws - Games usually display the odds of getting every item (Chinese law) --- class: small # Free-to-Play: Currency - Games usually don't let you buy items (or loot boxes) directly - Instead you buy some made-up currency like gems and then spend that currency on the items - This gets around some gambling laws - It also makes it harder for players to judge how much they are spending - Finally, if you sell 400 gems at a time, but your items cost 350 gems, the players have left over gems and are incentivized to spend more - You can also give your players 20 gems per week for free --- class: small # Free-to-Play Player Types - Whales are the players that invest "a lot" of money into your game, often multiple hundreds of USD - Dolphins are players that spend a little bit of money, by making maybe one or two small purchases - Minnows are players that spend (almost) no money on your game (sometimes "Freeloaders" are used as a distinct group that spends absolutely no money) - Some people argue that there should also be a category like "Megalodons" or "Mega-Whales" - However, none of the players typically spend a lot of money at once, Whales usually make many small purchases that add up. --- # Conversion Rate The "conversion rate" of a free-to-play game is the percentage of players that become payers. What's your estimate? -- For a typical free-to-play game the conversion rate is less than 5%. Candy Crush has about 8%. How many Whales? -- Whales make up less than 1% of your player base, often less than 0.1%. In other words, 0.1% of players pay for the other 99.9%. Treat your whales well, give them special offers, don't show them ads, keep them engaged. On the other hand, also treat the freeloaders well, or your game will die out and then the whales leave, too. --- # Ads - Ads are usually rewarded per 1000 impressions (views) or per click - Static images (or text) ads pay a lot less than video ads - Rates are variable and depend on the ad - Expect about $1 per 1000 views, and up to $0.25 per click - Video ads can get you as much as $50 per 1000 views! --- class: center, middle # Marketing --- # Marketing - Have a Website! - Social Media is key - Game Play videos that show off how great your game is draw in more users than screenshots or marketing text - But: Keep your videos short --- # Your Website - Your website should visually show all important aspects of your game - Make it easy to find the "buy here" button - If you have reviews or articles, include some quotes from them - Run a blog to talk about the development process and/or future updates - Don't abandon your site immediately after launch, keep it updated --- # AppStore Optimization - Websites rely on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to be found on google - Similarly, ASO allows players to find your mobile game more easily - Pick good keywords/tags; compare with your main competitors - If you have the budget, there are companies out there to help with ASO --- class: center, middle # Publishing --- # Publishing - We have talked about AAA publishing before - What about Indie games? - What about different platforms? - How would you even get started? --- # Self-Publishing - Just sell your game from your website! - People pay money (use some payment provider), and can then download your game - Piracy? - How do you get people to your website? --- # Other Publishing Options - You can also publish your game through some other platform - Usually these platforms charge a fee to sign up, and take a percentage of your earnings - There may also be some acceptance requirements - For consoles these requirements are usually stricter --- class: small # Steam - $100 to submit a game for publication - 70% revenue goes to the developer (75% if the game makes more than $10 million, 80% if it makes more than $50 million) - Over 100 Million users - There are several tools for promotions, including weekly discounts, discoverability ("see more like this"), etc. - Players can request a refund for your game for 14 days, if they played for less than 2h --- # Epic Games Store - 88% revenue goes to the developer, you can also use Unreal Engine without paying royalties - Newer store with fewer customers (but Fortnite is a big game!), and submissions are currently strongly selected - Epic says the store would open to all developers in "the second half of 2019" - Two no-questions-asked refunds per player within two weeks of purchase --- # Discord - Many (200 million) gamers already use discord for (voice) chat - They recently announced a store - 90% revenue goes to the developer - Players can request a refund for your game for 14 days, if they played for less than 2h (same as Steam) --- class: small # Humble Bundle - Originally sold bundles of indie games - Now also has a store for their 12 million customers with 75% revenue for the developer (10% go to charity!) - Also offers two other services: * Humble Gamepage: Host a website for your game for free and sell it, 95% revenue goes to the developer * Humble Widget: Provides a payment widget for your own website to sell your game with, with 95% going to the developer --- # Itch.io - Smaller, indie-focused store - Pricing is generally "pay what you want", but you can set a minimum price - Revenue sharing is also "pay what you want", you can give itch.io 0-30% of your revenue - You can upload anything (that is legal): games, art assets, books, comics, etc. --- # Google Play - You have to register as a developer (once) for $25 - 70% revenue goes to the developer - If you make your game free you *can not* change it to paid later - Google also offers ads --- # Apple Store - You have to register as a developer for $99/year - 70% revenue goes to the developer (85% after the first year, if you have a subscription-based app) - All apps are put through strict review (and sometime rejected rather arbitrarily) --- # Consoles - To publish on (major) consoles, you need a DevKit - It's usually a bit of a process to register as a developer and get these - Nintendo and Sony actually loan them out for free, while Microsoft gives them away (but there's a waiting list) - You need to show that you are registered as a company and have an actual game in development --- class: center, middle # Conclusion --- # Conclusion - It was the first time I taught this class, I enjoyed it a lot! - I hope you enjoyed taking it, too - I apologize if some of the content seemed a bit rushed/not well prepared - Also check out PF 3341 for my master's/PhD level class on Game AI! - Y'all were a great audience! --- # The Future - I hope you all had fun with your projects - If you have any intentions of publishing them in any form, I'd appreciate it if I got a link or something - I'd also be happy to advise you on how to proceed with publication, but there might be better people for that - Come to the ASODEV breakfast! --- # Feedback - If there is an official evaluation, please participate - You can also let me know if there is anything you particularly liked/disliked (for example by posting anonymously and/or privately on Piazza) - What was your favorite/least favorite part of the class (if you want to share)? --- class: center, middle ## Thank you all for your participation! --- class: small # References - [Indie Game Pricing is more Art than Science](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-08-23-indie-game-pricing-more-art-than-science) - [Are Indie Games Too Cheap?](https://www.pcgamer.com/are-indie-games-too-cheap/) - [Indie Game Marketing Tips](https://medium.com/@aprofita_co/14-indie-game-marketing-tips-d8add7c3b5d4) - [Places to Publish your Indie Games](https://ninichimusic.com/blog/2017/9/1/11-places-to-publish-release-your-indie-game) - [Indie Developers Don't Like Steam's New Revenue Sharing Policy](https://kotaku.com/indie-developers-dont-like-steams-new-revenue-sharing-p-1830830493) - [Console Publishing for Indie Games](http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SlawaDeisling/20150223/237040/How_to_get_on_consoles_as_an_Indie.php)