App Developers: Build a Great Game Before You Think About Monetization

It’s not just about money, Johnny. You have to make sure the quality is there.

Casual gamers love to read about “simple” games making a ton of money in the app stores.

Flappy Bird was making $50,000 per day for awhile. Candy Crush was pulling in more than $600,000 per day before that. While both games were making money hand-over-fist at one point, they did it in vastly different ways.

The struggle for many indie developers is finding the right way to monetize their game. Ads can be cumbersome and annoying to users. In-app purchases seem to only work at the perfect intersection of when a user gets hooked on a game but still wants something more.

Thousands of indie devs have failed because they they gave too much away and the user never felt compelled to buy anything. Many others failed because they annoyed users with ads or too many in-app purchases.

As an indie developer who doesn’t have money to employ data scientists and behavioral psychologists, how do you figure out how to monetize your game without ruining the fun factor?

The answer: Stop worrying about it.

A growing sentiment in the indie gaming community in NYC is that meetups and game jams used to be about coming together and talking about making cool games. Now, that’s seemed to transition into a bunch of people asking, “How do I get people to pay?”

This leads to myriad cliches, such as chicken vs. egg, cart before the horse, and so on. The best way to get people to play your game is to make it fun. The best way to get people to pay for extras or even pay a premium price for your game? You guessed it — Make the game fun, and give them a reason to come back.

Colin Fuller is the CEO and founder of the game development company Quikding llc. He’s created several indie games and has enjoyed moderate success. While app development isn’t his full-time job, he’s decided to use that to his advantage.

“My dream is to have a lot of fans of my creations, people who are excited about what I am putting out and feel fascination about the things I create for them,” Fuller said. “Because I have a full-time job, I have the luxury of keeping games as a fun activity only.”

Working a 9-to-5 probably isn’t the coolest idea for people looking to make their living creating video games, but how else are you going to fund your hobby and, you know, eat and live in a stable residence?

Fuller’s latest game, Cavesweeper on iOS, jumped to the No. 12 RPG and the No. 112 Free Game on the App Store when he changed the price from $1.99 to free.

While the success isn’t going to land him on the cover of Forbes, Fuller was happy to get his name out there and entertain thousands of people. He also noted that he doesn’t feel pressure anymore for one of his games to “hit it big” and find complete financial security overnight.

Connecting with the first few fans can go a long way in securing them as paying customers down the line. If you make the right impression on day one, you’ve bought yourself credibility and built the foundation for creating a loyal customer. And what’s a better way to make a good first impression than giving the audience something cool for free?

“These days I don’t feel any pressure about profit. I want to create something that people will think is perfect, new and innovative, fun, addictive,” Fuller said. “So, that is a better pressure to have, I think.“

Novel Concept: Charge for the game if you want money

Since the 1970s, gamers just had to go to the store and pay for the game they were going to spend hours playing.

In the mobile landscape, the freemium model has dominated the conversation (and the app marketplace profits) for more than a year.

But it feels like there’s a rising movement of indie developers in NYC who want to create great games, charge people for them (gasp!) and be done with it.

Lawrence Mascia, designer and illustrator at the thriving Goodnight Games startup, said he hopes to be on the front-line of the pay-for-quality movement.

“We’re very much in the field of you should pay money and get the full game,” Mascia said. “We want to give the gamers lots of value for their money, and I truly believe that through this more people will come under our banner.”

Mascia, who also holds a full-time job on top of developing games in his “free time,” finds the energy to make the rounds at events in New York, promote his work on social media and do everything else an indie developer should be doing.

He does all of that while working with a development team of more than 10 people. Mascia describes his labor of love as challenging, and he’s definitely thought about the freemium model and other ways of getting the customers’ money, but he’s stuck to his principles.

“Honestly, it’s a constant battle. We need to find ways to make money so we can stop stealing food from trash cans and living under the Brooklyn Bridge, but we have this need to make the games as good as possible no matter how long it takes,” Mascia said with a laugh. “That struggle is something I think will always be with us no matter what we’re doing.”

Pro tip: Don’t make sucky games

Fuller and Mascia don’t claim to be rolling in cash, but they’re making games they love and enjoying their work.

Each of their studios have achieved some success, and that’s come from taking their time with development, vigorous and honest beta testing, and staying active in the startup community.

When creating your game and embarking on your dream of making the next Clash of Clans or Candy Crush, just remember there’s one thing all of the App Store megahits have in common — there are a bunch of people in the world who genuinely enjoy playing those games.

App Developers: Build a Great Game Before You Think About Monetization