[casual_games] New Issue of Casual Games Quarterly is available

[Lennard Feddersen]

Rusty Axe typically provides a free, no-DRM solution version that has a 
limited # of levels.  Battle Castles gives away 4 stages/1 level on the 
Rusty Axe website version, other online retailers typically give away 1 
hour.  What I'm interested in figuring out before my next Battle Castles 
upgrade (minor fixes, adds an internet high score feature) is:

1.  Should I give away more direct $ in exchange for a DRM solution.  
Any casual space #'s on how much piracy might, really, be costing me?
2.  When and if I should launch a price reduced version that carries 
advertising.

Any thoughts?

Until I have a version that provides substantial multiplayer and lobby 
functionality I don't think that Battle Castles is really going to make 
more $ than at the $19.99 price point but I would be happy to see others 
in this space make more $ by doing so.  One thing that I think we should 
consider is that a $39.99 version of just about any title in this space 
can be readily reproduced and sold for less and so such a version is 
going to have to introduce some barrier to entry to protect itself.

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



John Szeder wrote:

>The most important takeaway on that front for me was the issue of length of
>game demos.
>
>There is some sensitivity in how much to show people for free that needs to
>be fine tuned in order to provide enough interest to people to create a
>customer, and there is a little evidence in there to support that an hour is
>just too much.
>
>The other thought is that you can create feature locks and privilege levels
>for games. This way you can explore some scenarios, and have a DLL or lib
>you link against that is provided by the DRM partner to provide an API to
>expose the privilege level.
>
>Potential Levels:
>
>FREE - user has paid nothing, only gets levels one and two
>BRONZE - user paid 9.95 for the basic game, gets all levels but no powerups
>of type X, no leaderboard
>GOLD - user paid 19.95, gets levels, some powerups, leaderboard
>PLATINUM - user paid 39.95, gets levels, powerups, secret levels, cheats, in
>game personalization features, etc
>
>  
>