Consider updating the pricing

[Peet]

I got Aquaria in humble bundle 1, played it through completely and I loved it.  But I've always felt like $20 is a bit high for indie games.  (Be honest everyone, if you bought the bundle did you even pay $20 for all 5 games?  Statistics say you did not.   I paid $15, which put me above average).  It also seems high considering the game has probably saturated the market that is willing to pay that.


Other games in a similar situation have tended to lower their base price point, and also still participate in sales.  ( See Braid and World of Goo on steam.  I believe both games started at $20, are currently $10, and are both involved in holiday sales happening now. )


Consider setting Aquaria's base price at $10 and seeing if you can get in on sales.    I'm not personally planning on buying any more copies of the game, but I'm much more likely to recommend it to gamer friends if it's priced like that.

[Senorctenophore]

Honestly, I'm perfectly happy with the $20 I paid for this game by itself.  Heck, I'd be wiling to pay $30-$50 for it  (heck, if the other Humble Indie Bundle games are as good as this, I'd give them at least $60-$70 for the package, if they think that's fair, of course). Derek and Alec invested a huge amount of time and love and I think it's only fair that they be compensated for all their hard work.  I understand the need to stay competitive in the market, but we shouldn't trivialize their work by asking for dirt-cheap prices.
   Sorry if I come off a bit nasty.  I don't mean to be rude.  It's just that I'm a small business owner myself so it kind of pushes my buttons when people ask for things to be cheaper, cheaper cheaper... Sometimes it's worth paying a little extra for quality.

[Alphasoldier]

I bought both Aquaria when it came out and the Humble Bundle 1 when it came out, both at reasonable price. The only reason that the "statistics" is that low is because a lot of people are just scum and paid only 1$ for it.

Either way, I'm fully up for a sale on the game, in fact, I'm not sure why it's not in the current holiday sale of Steam, but it's still the owner's decision and this game is and will always be fully worth it's pricing.

[Peet]

My post is not in any way meant to disparage the quality of the game.


I am more specifically discussing price as it relates to the age of the game, whether it was made by a big name or an indie, and whether it has likely reached a plateau at its current pricing.  You say they deserve to be paid for their hard work, and that a lower price trivializes their work.  I would respond with 3 points.  First, I think it's safe to say that they have been compensated for their work to a degree that most indie developers never will be.  Second, it is very normal for games to move  to lower pricing over time, whether they were made by one person (Braid, I think) or a studio (Bioshock 2 -  on steam $10 dollars at the moment, base price $20, both certainly below its release price).  Third, that tendency to move to lower prices is not a commentary on the quality of the game, or the work of the people who made it.


I admit to being on the frugal end of game purchasing spectrum.  My statement that I have "have always felt like $20 is a bit high" could more accurately be stated "I am not likely to purchase any game at its release price, whether that's $20-$25 for an indie or $50-$60 dollars for a big studio game".  I do, however,  think I'm a more common specimen than someone who is willing to pay $50 for an indie title (at any point in its price lifetime).

[Aristobulus]

The game is WORTH $20, but that aside, it could use a lower price point just to help entice people to play it. The problem is, you don't realize it's worth $20 until you've already played it, so many people see the pricetag and then don't play it in the first place.

A sale or something would be nice, I was hoping Alec would put the game on sale or something so I'd have an excuse to advertise it over on SA.

[Alphasoldier]

I think that if the game on this site drops the price from 20 to 10, that they'll surely get a few more purchases, but most likely not a lot.
I'm completely unaware on why or how they won't drop the price, be it they don't have enough money and sell it full price (I think not), or are just too busy with their new game development, Derek on 360 Spelunky, Alec on Marian and whatnot more.

As to your 3 points: First the fact that they got a lot of money doesn't mean you would lower the price of your game immediately (I know it ain't immediately after this many years, but my point stands).
Second, yes it's normal for most mass produced games to lower their pricing, but I believe Aquaria never went above the 20, so I'd say just let it. I enjoyed Aquaria a whole lot more than a crappy game called TimeShift whereas I paid 50€ for, now it's either 10€ or 5€, if I'd played the game before buying it I would've known it's not even worth that much now.
Third, lowering prices is indeed not saying that your game sucks and thus it should be cheaper, though again, Timeshift; games like that really aren't worth a lot, but besides that it does mean it's not selling as good anymore. Second to that, the Humble Bundle, anyone who hasn't bought that... well I'm not even sure who wouldn't have, but still, anyone letting that chance slide might as well pay the full price.

And I'm a frugal myself, I've spend so much money in the past on crappy single player games that I either got bored of real quickly or were finished within a day that I seriously don't buy them anymore. I usually just forget about them or if they look interesting, I play the demo or pirate, see how good they are from the first few minutes of gameplay and if I like it, I buy it. I'm fairly sure I started doing this right after having experienced Aquaria as well.

[Aristobulus]

However, sales DO bring attention to a game - and that's a reason they should probably think about having a sale. Like I said, if Aquaria goes on sale, that gives me an excuse to make a thread devoted to it over on SA, and do what I can for it - and perhaps they could get Aquaria put on the front page of Steam or whatever to announce it's on sale? That's wishful thinking, but it'd be nice. Point is, all of this is ways the game can draw attention to itself that it can not do unless it has a sale/lowers its' price.

[ZealousD]

The game is not only worth it at $20, but it was worth it at launch when it was $30.

But yeah, it probably is time to cut the price. $10 would be good.

[Klarden]

Game's worth 20$, every penny of it, sure.
But it's been 3 years and and it got lost in the ocean of indie games that cost less and are newer
People might not think it's worth the price, even with the demo and reviews, because they get indie games for 15$ usually, because they might think that "well, animations are too Flash-like" or whatever else.
With 15$-10$ price and more active participation in sales it would've got more attention it deserves.
Of course, maybe dev's are too busy with their separate projects now and that's why the price wasn't lowered.
But still, people like to compare. And when they see, for example, Bioshock for 5$ (on sale now, normally 20$) and Aquaria, released the same year, for 20$ (without any price cut during the big sale), Aquaria looks bad in their eyes.
Besides, indie games became too popular and crowded. My friend usually doesn't trust indie games. He says that "too many people do shitty games, but than staple them "that's indie" and the shitty game becomes an indie masterpiece". I, having played Aquaria, know that it was better than mst commercial games i've played for the last 7 years. But i had to play it, to know it.

[Aërendyll]

Some things to take into account:

1) Aquaria has already dropped price once - it was $30 when I bought it. (And I never regretted it either, the demo won me over for sure.)
2) Aquaria has been on the Humble Indie Bundle TWICE. This means the game has already been dirt cheap, since you could set your own price for it during the Humble Indie Bundle periods.
3) Not all games drop in price massively after becoming older. If I look at how expensive Super Mario Galaxy and other older Wii games are at a local store that still sells them as new (40 euros, which is over 50 dollars - those games started around 50-60 euros), I really wonder how one can think that $20 is cheap.  In fact, most of my second-hand games I buy for 20 euros, which would be at least 23 dollars. 
4) Alec and Derek might not be very interested in making another whole lot of sales. It's good that their games reach out to more and more people, but they make more games than just Aquaria. Who knows when their next game is done? You don't want Aquaria to overshadow new works. More Aquaria sales would help them promote themselves, but it might actually be a bad thing if taken too far. 

Personally, I think Aquaria already HAS been on sale. Twice. (Humble Indie Bundle, yes.) So I really don't get why a price drop is all that mandatory - it's something that's purely Alec and Derek's business.

[Ledgem]

The problem is, you don't realize it's worth $20 until you've already played it, so many people see the pricetag and then don't play it in the first place.

Totally true.  I found Aquaria through the Humble Indie Bundle 2 (and I discovered the bundle on its last day - lucky!).  I'd never played an indie game before, and had extremely low expectations for all of the games listed.  I probably wouldn't have bought the bundle at all, but I researched the games and Aquaria looked really nice.

Despite that, I figured that it would be relatively unpolished, particularly compared to games produced by big-name companies.  I didn't expect to get more than three or four hours out of it, either.  The game was largely a two-person effort - how in-depth could it get?

It was within the first two or three hours of playing that I realized my misconceptions.  There's more here than there is in a lot of big-name company's games.  I also felt badly - this game was completely worth its full price, yet the developers would probably get less than $1 when accounting for all the ways that the money was split.  I tried to make up for it by buying the OST and paying more than the minimum.

I think that the price is completely fair.  Indie developers are overcoming handicaps by needing to get the word out and in having to break misconceptions such as what I held, but sporadic sales and bundles help to accomplish that.  I am now tuned in to the indie game scene, and look forward to what's coming out.

[hmh]

I got Aquaria in humble bundle 1, played it through completely and I loved it.  But I've always felt like $20 is a bit high for indie games.  (Be honest everyone, if you bought the bundle did you even pay $20 for all 5 games?  Statistics say you did not.   I paid $15, which put me above average).  It also seems high considering the game has probably saturated the market that is willing to pay that.

Hmm, I think a game like Aquaria is worth at least US$ 50,00.  It is easily one of the most beautiful, refreshing and enjoyable games I have played in a long time.  I got Aquaria through the HIB#2, and if I knew beforehand how good it was, I would have paid US$ 50,00. As it stands, I paid for three copies of HIB#2, at US$ 15,00 each.   I sort of feel like I ripped off the developers by getting it at such a bargain.

I really do not think Aquaria needs a price cut.  If anything, it deserves some worth-of-mouth to the demographics that likely didn't play it yet, such as Linux users (like me).  I am adding it to the Linux game tome NOW if it is not there yet.  I am extremely happy that it was included on HIB#2, or I might not have come across it.

And the whole idea that an Indie game should, somehow, cost less than US$ 20 just because it is an Indie game  is extremely strange to me. WTF should I pay less for something with such high quality as Aquaria?  This game is _GOOD_, and it clearly took a LOT of effort go make.

Oh, I did buy the OST as soon as a noticed the gem that Aquaria was. And not just as some extra compensation to the developers, that OST stands on its own.  Too bad the signed OST is sold out, or I'd have bought that one instead of the standard US$20 OST.

And if someone ever starts a commissioning campaign for Aquaria 2 and bitblot indicates that they would be willing to write the sequel, I will shell in US$ 50 for it, as long as its code will be open and run in Linux (NOTE: I am perfectly fine with the data set being restricted, like things currently are for Aquaria 1).

Hmm, now I think I should try to allocate some coding time to write a script to upgrade Aquaria LUA scripts from v1.1.1 to the syntax required on the latest unreleased patched versions, so that I can play the released MODs :-)

[Peet]

If you don't agree, you don't agree.  I personally think it's a little ridiculous so many are eager to say they would(emphasized because I assume that none of you actually have) pay $50 dollars for this game, as if that statement of its "worth" is meaningful in a conversation about where the price should be set.  (Worth is so subjective it's almost not worth(ha) discussing.)  I think it's silly that some of you can't get past the notion that price is somehow a reflection of quality.  In this industry, it certainly factors in, but just as certainly is not the primary factor.

If you have not noticed that there is a clear pricing difference between indie titles and large studio titles, then I am not going to try to make you see that.  If you don't understand the reason behind why that price difference would exist, I am not going to try to make you understand it.  If you have not noticed that games generally follow a pattern of a series of price reductions as they age, I am not going to attempt to convince you that they do.

I like Aquaria.  I think it is a very high quality game.  I spent a good amount of time playing it.  But it is not the Jesus of video games.  If someone has $20 dollars to spend, they have a wide variety of high quality games to choose from, many of which are younger than Aquaria, and many of which are large studio games.

I assume that the mostly likely reason for not touching pricing recently is because they're simply busy people that do not currently schedule much time to think about old projects.  That's fine, but I made this thread because I thought they could use a nudge toward what I believe is an appropriate change  (which might even result in a revenue increase).

[gymcandy655d]

Ha ha, If there is price about 10$ then i am agree, It also look like huge considering the game has probably saturated the market that is willing to pay that.

[Echolocating]

I think $20 is the most I would pay for an indie game (I would never spend twenty on pure speculation though). However, I must admit that $10 is the sweet spot. Heck, I buy most of my full commercial games at $20 to $30 after the price goes down (Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age, for example). I'm patient that way... and cheap. I admit it.

However, Aquaria is one of the few games (indie or not) out there that's actually worth $60; that's the problem with asking the community about a price point. If Aquaria was more than $30 though, I never would have bought it... and I never would have played one of the most magical games I've ever experienced.