How much to charge for a runner game

[Conbeef]

Hello all,

back in February I've participated in a hackathon and came second(I was cheated). The company that hosted it hired me and my team to make a game. Basicly a runner similar to jetpack joyride, only thing with my country's theme. They are asking for a price but I'm not sure what to charge ._. If I'm going too high or too low. Can y'all give me some tips please .

Thank you

 

[NPT]

$4.83

 

[Conbeef]

$4.83

Why? Why so low??? I'm setting up a data base for them that contains the high score of the month, most played and total points. The artist cost more than that. Though you might just be trolling, that is too low even for a troll xD. Thanks for reply thougg

 

[NPT]

To demonstrate to you that nobody could possibly give you any kind of meaningful answer on the amount of information in your original post.

The fact that you provide more information, justifying charging more is pretty compelling evidence you haven't provided enough evidence.

Now what else have you neglected to provide that people need to know?

 

[FrostyCat]

Any arbitrary amount can be justified with the little information you started with. That's the point NPT wanted to make.

For the game, how long will you be working on the game, and what is the hourly upkeep for your entire team? Any additional contractors, extra business costs (e.g. business lunch with your client), additional products to purchase? Answer those questions, tally up the totals, add that to your grand total.

For the database, do you have experience coding server-side applications, and if you don't, how much can you afford to spend to hire? Who will be hosting the database, where will it be hosted, what is the expected upkeep for it (e.g. hosting fees, administrative maintenance, warranty, duration), up to how much should it scale? Answer those questions, tally up the subtotals, add that to your grand total.

For administration, how much tax, markup, bank, accountant and/or legal fees do you expect? Any other odds and ends that may be applicable to your project? Answer those questions, tally up the subtotals, add that to your grand total.

Make a list. Check it twice. Add it all up.

There is no way you can defend against NPT's figure or justify an invoice to your client without doing this.

 

[FlameFrog]

Rami Ismail (50% of Vlambeer, the creators of super crate box, luftrausers, nuclear throne and more) once said that you should think of the highest possible number (like a totally ludicrous number) that you would ever charge for the game.... and then go a little higher just in case. Turns out, a lot of people will pay a lot more than you think for a game.

I think it's in this talk here:

If that's the talk I'm thinking of, there's also some numbers in there which might give you an idea.

 

[Conbeef]

Oh I'm very so

To demonstrate to you that nobody could possibly give you any kind of meaningful answer on the amount of information in your original post.

The fact that you provide more information, justifying charging more is pretty compelling evidence you haven't provided enough evidence.

Now what else have you neglected to provide that people need to know?

Oh I'm very sorry. That's very silly of me. Well, first of all I should say its a team of 5 and we're sharing the profits. The setting is the city of Nassau Bahamas that will loop until the player lose. A stereotypical Bahamian guy dogding obstacles like cars, seagulls etc.. collecting floating coins and power ups to boost the score and make dogding obstacles easier. That's basicly it for the gameplay. The main menu is very graphic. It has a tropical parallax background. Also, I should add that its an html5 game.

Any arbitrary amount can be justified with the little information you started with. That's the point NPT wanted to make.

For the game, how long will you be working on the game, and what is the hourly upkeep for your entire team? Any additional contractors, extra business costs (e.g. business lunch with your client), additional products to purchase? Answer those questions, tally up the totals, add that to your grand total.

For the database, do you have experience coding server-side applications, and if you don't, how much can you afford to spend to hire? Who will be hosting the database, where will it be hosted, what is the expected upkeep for it (e.g. hosting fees, administrative maintenance, warranty, duration), up to how much should it scale? Answer those questions, tally up the subtotals, add that to your grand total.

For administration, how much tax, markup, bank, accountant and/or legal fees do you expect? Any other odds and ends that may be applicable to your project? Answer those questions, tally up the subtotals, add that to your grand total.

Make a list. Check it twice. Add it all up.

There is no way you can defend against NPT's figure or justify an invoice to your client without doing this.

Thank you @FrostyCat

 

[leonfook29]

Also, which platform? Different platform will have different justification for the price. From your description, i wouldn't pay anything more than $2 for it, as what you've described doesn't have any hook to it that tell me i can get a lot out of it from playing your game. I mean, i can get Downwell for about that price, and countless other endless runner for free, why should i spend more on your game? What's the special feature that you have and other endless runner don't? There's still lack of info about the game that i think people have a hard time giving you the answer.

 

[FlameFrog]

Also, which platform? Different platform will have different justification for the price. From your description, i wouldn't pay anything more than $2 for it, as what you've described doesn't have any hook to it that tell me i can get a lot out of it from playing your game. I mean, i can get Downwell for about that price, and countless other endless runner for free, why should i spend more on your game? What's the special feature that you have and other endless runner don't? There's still lack of info about the game that i think people have a hard time giving you the answer.

I believe he's talking about selling the game as a whole to a company, not the price for it to be sold to users (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[leonfook29]

I believe he's talking about selling the game as a whole to a company, not the price for it to be sold to users (correct me if I'm wrong).

Oh wait, i think you're right.

 

[BLang]

If that's the case, then calculate the hours you and your team put into the game, multiply by hourly rates, add any expenses you had related to development, marketing and publishing of the game, and possibly a bit of overhead to kick off your next project.

 

[Jon]

Historically runners are very poor monetizers. They certainly wouldn't monetize as a premium download. You might follow the example of Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride and focus on personalization IAP items. Crossy Road is basically an endless runner and it uses similar monetization strategy.
Also, if you are looking at Android, consider Amazon Underground which pays you by the minute when people play it. This has worked really well for Jetpack Joyride in particular.

 

[RangerX]

The best advice is to observe the market. Look at how similar games and successful similar games are sold at. Know what are your selling points, the attractive features of your game that you should focus on to give a good impression.
If you game is having more great features than those similar games, crank up the price some.