a while back (like 6-7 months ago) I read an artical on new ideas for marketing games. One of the interesting ideas they proposed was to write small web based games (or collections there of) that users would pay a small monthly price to play (like say $5 a month). the games would be like yahoo is providing for free. Well currently I''m working on a simple game loosely based around the super mario brothers style of play. Alot of the game is based around exploring the world (Its single player only). I''ve been thinking about trying to try this game into the monthly subscription model. Here is what I''ve worked out so far. The game its self would be release for free (sort of a shareware thing) with a small set of levels (as like 10). Then when the player finnishes those levels the game will then prompt him create an acount. They would then be able to buy level packs as they finnish them (say another 10-20 levels for $5). "Pay as you play" if you like. The levels would be stored server side (they would be sent to the client as needed... (gfx sfx ect would probably be sent once and stored localy to keep bandwidth usage down as much as possable), by doing it this way it makes a pirated copy of the game more or less usless. true they could give out they''re account but to help stop this you would only allow one login per account at the same time (they would stay loged in for as long as they play). make this clear to them. At lease in theory this should stop the rampent pirating due to the fact that it would hurt the original pirates ability to play the game... that and they would be letting everyone see there credit card number ... This would also help the longevity of the game being that new level packs could be added from time to time. So what do you all think? Does this sound like it would be a profitable model for a single player game? Do you see any major holes?

"new level packs could be added from time to time."

Not sure that a subscription (regular monthly payment) would really be acceptable with this style of game because people may end up paying for a game they can''t play. To explain - someone is good at the game and completes all the available levels. They are now paying a monthly fee to sit and wait until new level packs are released. Unless you are sure you can release a new level pack every month this wont be popular.

Also those who join month one only get the original contant for their money and have to pay again on months two and three when new content is released. Those who join in month three get all three months worth of content for their money. It might be better to have a small charge for each level pack instead.

The fact that they have an account to log into that includes their personal data is a great anti-piracy idea. You just have to make damn sure that data is secure.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

quote: Original post by Obscure
It might be better to have a small charge for each level pack instead.

well I thought I had been clear on that. Guess not The monthy charge thing was part of an explination of where I got the idea from. How I was planing on doing it was with a fee for each level pack they get.

quote: Original post by Obscure
The fact that they have an account to log into that includes their personal data is a great anti-piracy idea. You just have to make damn sure that data is secure.

Yes of course, I would most defenatly make shure that it was secure. At least on par with SSL (probably just use SSL or something)

From my experience with java applet games I must say: you won''t take a $ out of them.:|
Right now the only java applet games from which you can get some proffit out of are multiplayer, like Runescape from jagex.com and that is quite complicated to work on. Single player games are meaningless, right now, no one would spend money and time online player a platform game when they could be playing Counter-Strike or Unreal for less.
That''s what I think, specially after seing that nobody really paid any attention to a shooter that took me two months to program in java.
Try an independent program in java with nice graphics. Perhaps a puzzle, and submit it to dexterity.com , that might work better.

Telmo "Shyro" Amaro - http://codingdreams.xrs.net

Ah, RuneScape. Excuse me while I go cry at the legions of friends of mine that are addicted to it...but I don't see how the company can make a profit. Look at the numbers of players. Maybe ten thousand registered users to about thirty thousand (I'm guessing, but I don't really see more than that) freeloaders? How can they pay for servers and personnel?

EDIT: Oh, and Dexterity isn't accepting submissions anymore.

[edited by - Edward Ropple on April 7, 2003 6:23:57 PM]