Deathball Successor is out - Supraball
Moderators: Jay2k1, DavidM, The_One
Deathball Successor is out - Supraball
Check www.supraball.net
Re: Deathball Successor is out - Supraball
Since DavidM is taking opinions on business models, I've been thinking. Anyone can have an idea, but the ones who execute it are worthy of praise. I don't know how big and how far the devs want to go, but I believe this game could be huge, thus the ideas are going to be huge(a lot of work).
There are 3 viable pricing models, as I see it, and whichever one is chosen should reflect the vision of the project.
Fixed Purchase Price - short term
I have a pretty good handle of how games sell on Steam. A game is released for $40(10% discount for preorders). A successful game will sell a lot of copies in the first week and then drop as other games come out. 2-3 months after release a Steam Sale happens and you can buy this relatively new game for 25% off. The game sells a few more copies. As time goes on the price drops during Sales and eventually the base price of the game drops until you can buy this game for $5. At this point the game better have pulled the revenue it wants; it won't sell many more copies. Many games will release DLC to boost sales and get the game back out there in the minds of customers.
Deathball gives us good experience to see how this model works. I believe Deathball to be a Fixed Purchase Price model, even though it was free. I think the player base for Deathball was at it's largest around version 1.3. Unreal Tournament was selling well and players were excited to play this better version of Bombing Run, so much so that we we're making our own maps with custom graphics. But over time, the player base moved on to other games and there was no way of getting new players to buy UT2004 in the year 2006, learn about mods, find Deathball, install it, and play. It was doomed, as were all UT mods that didn't go standalone, but we had a good time.
This is a model for short term profit. As the sales and revenue dry up over time, there is less money for servers and ongoing expenses. DLC probably isn't happening with Supraball and I would hope the vision for this game is more long term. I believe the goal should be a game that is constanly gaining new players and retaining them for years to come. I do not advocate for this model.
F2P/Cosmetics - long term
First I'll admit that I've never played LoL or DOTA, I have played Path of Exile. From what I understand of them though, these games make money on cosmetic purchases. I bought a $10 item from PoE out of the goodness of my heart because I really liked the game and wanted to support the devs. Charity usually isn't a good business model.
This model gives all players access to all functions of gameplay, but allows players to buy things that do not affect the gameplay. With this model players would pay one time for custom uniforms, hats, particle effects, banners, tags, ball colors, taunts, dances, celebrations, etc. These purchases appeal to the vanity of the player who wants to look like a badass(or wants a cute baby panda to follow them around) and has the money to blow. There are some gamers out there who love this stuff, personally I don't get it.
As DarcseeD stated: "Imagine a dev spends X hours on a cosmetic item and it's put on sale for $5. If the game has 1 million players and 10% of those people buy that item, that's 100 000 x $5 = $500 000 dollars earned. If on the other hand the game has 1000 players and 10% choose to buy that item, the devs will only earn $500, which is unlikely to even cover the costs of creating that item." Sound advise.
The free part of this model should bring in new players as word of mouth spreads and the quality/appeal of the product is demonstrated. Designing Supraball to keep these players around is now the key. People won't buy that $5 panda pet if they aren't playing the game 2 weeks after downloading it. I believe player retention is the key to long term success for Supraball, but cosmetic stuff will not work at release.
F2P/Premium Subscription - very long term
This model is going to take a lot time and work, but it may pay off the biggest in the end. 12 years ago, I thought only an idiot would pay $15 a month to play a video game. I played World of Warcraft for about 6 years. Fuck me. Blizzard killed it. They made a game that was so good, they are now the gold standard.
Only just now DOTA2 has surpassed them. As I said, I've never played DOTA2 but I saw the film "Free to Play" and I thought, "This is what Deathball could have been!" Serious leagues, real life announcers, gamers who would watch other gamers facing off in DB-Cube, sponsors? prize money? global LAN competitions? Holy shit! Deathball WAS A SPORT! People love sports! Advertisers shell out millions to get to sports fans! Gaming will only grow in the future and Deathball could have been in this movie. This may sound pie-in-the-sky but I believe Supraball can follow in the mold of LoL and DOTA, and become a damn good, popular game. It must be designed so, to be so.
This model creates 2 classes of player, Freebos and Primos. Freebos pay nothing and play the base game. Primos pay a subscription fee and play the exact same game. Gameplay is the same for everyone, so this model becomes about what players WANT to pay for to make their experience better. We discussed cosmetics, but I would like to talk about features. Freebos can play Supraball to their hearts content, but they don't get the ancillary value that Primos get for their monthly subscription dollars.
Cosmetics
People love to customize their avatar. Let freebos customize themselves a bit, but give primos access to more options. Primos shine brighter, can use more celebration dances and verbal taunts after they score a goal, and maybe the crowd goes a little wilder.
Statistics/Achievements
Freebos can see how many goals, assists, etc they get in a game, but Primos can see their stats for their career. Add in some long term goals to shoot for with an achievement system and you have players hooked long term.
Pick-up Games
We Deathballers know that the pick-up games organized in irc were 50x better than the pub server games. We had assigned positions on the field, and everyone became knowledgeable about every strategy possible, over time. So let the Freebos have fun in their pub servers, the better game is for the Primos in Pick-up servers.
Leagues
If you think pick-up games were fun, league matches were even better. We trained, we scouted, we were on the edge of our seats. Reputation, glory, and championships were on the line. Hard fought matches were won and lost by the smallest of margins. This is an experience I WANT to pay for. Primos only.
Pick-up Tournaments
Got an hour to kill? Get in a pick-up tournament. 8 teams of 6 players, 20 minute games. Play the Quarterfinals, 4 teams advance. Play the semifinals, 2 teams advance. Play the final, winner gets the cup. Primos only.
Super-Primo Features
Got a tight knit team? Serious about Supraball? Well, for a one time payment of $XXX we'll set you up with your own server for a year, a custom team uniform, a custom banner featured in our maps, when your team scores the anouncer yells "TEAMNAME SCORES!" instead of "SCORE!"
Special Events
Win the league, get a free month of Primo service. Win this special tournament for Freebos, get a free month of Primo service. Score 1,000,000 career statistics, get a free month of Primo service.
All this must be done in-game. When Deathball was at it's peak, it was still a chore to organize pickup games, and schedule league matches in chat, or on message boards. People go to Wal-Mart because they can get a car battery, some jeans, and a banana in one place. In DavidM's poll I voted for a one time purchase of $30 because, as a shrewd consumer, I want all of this value for a one time fee. As a producer, you should want as many of my dollars you can get, and I believe this model is the way to do it. If Supraball is a niche game then you will get revenue from the hardcore players. If Supraball blows up then the profit is exponential and you can buy your own football team.
Hey, I said it would be hard. Shit, I don't know how much of this is even possible. But this was my vision today and I hope it serves the Supraball team well. This wall of text was made with all respect and admiration for the developers. I couldn't do any of this, my UT2004 mod didn't come close to the quality of Deathball, and the quality of what Supraball will be.
Thanks for reading,
Fooman
There are 3 viable pricing models, as I see it, and whichever one is chosen should reflect the vision of the project.
Fixed Purchase Price - short term
I have a pretty good handle of how games sell on Steam. A game is released for $40(10% discount for preorders). A successful game will sell a lot of copies in the first week and then drop as other games come out. 2-3 months after release a Steam Sale happens and you can buy this relatively new game for 25% off. The game sells a few more copies. As time goes on the price drops during Sales and eventually the base price of the game drops until you can buy this game for $5. At this point the game better have pulled the revenue it wants; it won't sell many more copies. Many games will release DLC to boost sales and get the game back out there in the minds of customers.
Deathball gives us good experience to see how this model works. I believe Deathball to be a Fixed Purchase Price model, even though it was free. I think the player base for Deathball was at it's largest around version 1.3. Unreal Tournament was selling well and players were excited to play this better version of Bombing Run, so much so that we we're making our own maps with custom graphics. But over time, the player base moved on to other games and there was no way of getting new players to buy UT2004 in the year 2006, learn about mods, find Deathball, install it, and play. It was doomed, as were all UT mods that didn't go standalone, but we had a good time.
This is a model for short term profit. As the sales and revenue dry up over time, there is less money for servers and ongoing expenses. DLC probably isn't happening with Supraball and I would hope the vision for this game is more long term. I believe the goal should be a game that is constanly gaining new players and retaining them for years to come. I do not advocate for this model.
F2P/Cosmetics - long term
First I'll admit that I've never played LoL or DOTA, I have played Path of Exile. From what I understand of them though, these games make money on cosmetic purchases. I bought a $10 item from PoE out of the goodness of my heart because I really liked the game and wanted to support the devs. Charity usually isn't a good business model.
This model gives all players access to all functions of gameplay, but allows players to buy things that do not affect the gameplay. With this model players would pay one time for custom uniforms, hats, particle effects, banners, tags, ball colors, taunts, dances, celebrations, etc. These purchases appeal to the vanity of the player who wants to look like a badass(or wants a cute baby panda to follow them around) and has the money to blow. There are some gamers out there who love this stuff, personally I don't get it.
As DarcseeD stated: "Imagine a dev spends X hours on a cosmetic item and it's put on sale for $5. If the game has 1 million players and 10% of those people buy that item, that's 100 000 x $5 = $500 000 dollars earned. If on the other hand the game has 1000 players and 10% choose to buy that item, the devs will only earn $500, which is unlikely to even cover the costs of creating that item." Sound advise.
The free part of this model should bring in new players as word of mouth spreads and the quality/appeal of the product is demonstrated. Designing Supraball to keep these players around is now the key. People won't buy that $5 panda pet if they aren't playing the game 2 weeks after downloading it. I believe player retention is the key to long term success for Supraball, but cosmetic stuff will not work at release.
F2P/Premium Subscription - very long term
This model is going to take a lot time and work, but it may pay off the biggest in the end. 12 years ago, I thought only an idiot would pay $15 a month to play a video game. I played World of Warcraft for about 6 years. Fuck me. Blizzard killed it. They made a game that was so good, they are now the gold standard.
Only just now DOTA2 has surpassed them. As I said, I've never played DOTA2 but I saw the film "Free to Play" and I thought, "This is what Deathball could have been!" Serious leagues, real life announcers, gamers who would watch other gamers facing off in DB-Cube, sponsors? prize money? global LAN competitions? Holy shit! Deathball WAS A SPORT! People love sports! Advertisers shell out millions to get to sports fans! Gaming will only grow in the future and Deathball could have been in this movie. This may sound pie-in-the-sky but I believe Supraball can follow in the mold of LoL and DOTA, and become a damn good, popular game. It must be designed so, to be so.
This model creates 2 classes of player, Freebos and Primos. Freebos pay nothing and play the base game. Primos pay a subscription fee and play the exact same game. Gameplay is the same for everyone, so this model becomes about what players WANT to pay for to make their experience better. We discussed cosmetics, but I would like to talk about features. Freebos can play Supraball to their hearts content, but they don't get the ancillary value that Primos get for their monthly subscription dollars.
Cosmetics
People love to customize their avatar. Let freebos customize themselves a bit, but give primos access to more options. Primos shine brighter, can use more celebration dances and verbal taunts after they score a goal, and maybe the crowd goes a little wilder.
Statistics/Achievements
Freebos can see how many goals, assists, etc they get in a game, but Primos can see their stats for their career. Add in some long term goals to shoot for with an achievement system and you have players hooked long term.
Pick-up Games
We Deathballers know that the pick-up games organized in irc were 50x better than the pub server games. We had assigned positions on the field, and everyone became knowledgeable about every strategy possible, over time. So let the Freebos have fun in their pub servers, the better game is for the Primos in Pick-up servers.
Leagues
If you think pick-up games were fun, league matches were even better. We trained, we scouted, we were on the edge of our seats. Reputation, glory, and championships were on the line. Hard fought matches were won and lost by the smallest of margins. This is an experience I WANT to pay for. Primos only.
Pick-up Tournaments
Got an hour to kill? Get in a pick-up tournament. 8 teams of 6 players, 20 minute games. Play the Quarterfinals, 4 teams advance. Play the semifinals, 2 teams advance. Play the final, winner gets the cup. Primos only.
Super-Primo Features
Got a tight knit team? Serious about Supraball? Well, for a one time payment of $XXX we'll set you up with your own server for a year, a custom team uniform, a custom banner featured in our maps, when your team scores the anouncer yells "TEAMNAME SCORES!" instead of "SCORE!"
Special Events
Win the league, get a free month of Primo service. Win this special tournament for Freebos, get a free month of Primo service. Score 1,000,000 career statistics, get a free month of Primo service.
All this must be done in-game. When Deathball was at it's peak, it was still a chore to organize pickup games, and schedule league matches in chat, or on message boards. People go to Wal-Mart because they can get a car battery, some jeans, and a banana in one place. In DavidM's poll I voted for a one time purchase of $30 because, as a shrewd consumer, I want all of this value for a one time fee. As a producer, you should want as many of my dollars you can get, and I believe this model is the way to do it. If Supraball is a niche game then you will get revenue from the hardcore players. If Supraball blows up then the profit is exponential and you can buy your own football team.
Hey, I said it would be hard. Shit, I don't know how much of this is even possible. But this was my vision today and I hope it serves the Supraball team well. This wall of text was made with all respect and admiration for the developers. I couldn't do any of this, my UT2004 mod didn't come close to the quality of Deathball, and the quality of what Supraball will be.
Thanks for reading,
Fooman