So, how does a person who have been releasing games for free to actually charging for them without the guilt of betraying the following by asking for money to spend on things like equipment, electricity, food.
Because I would like some advice on going from making and releasing free games to selling them.
Furwerkstudios said:
without the guilt of betraying the following by asking for money
If you're betraying people then you should feel guilty. I just don't understand how you are betraying anyone. If you gave someone something in the past, that doesn't mean you have to keep giving them stuff forever.
You should be more worried about actually selling product that betraying anyone.
That said, give your early fans a discount.
You don't owe anybody a continuous stream of free games, of course, but I think you'll find that people have significantly higher standards for paid games than for free games. You can easily see your existing fan base evaporate when they are asked to put their money where their mouth is and actually pay for your next game. So the question you should be asking yourself is “is this game a sufficient improvement over my previous games that I can justify charging a price for it?”
I'm looking to charge for compiled versions of my software. The source will remain open. I'm looking to use donationware pricing, where the minimum price the client pays is zero dollars; although you hope that the client will spend $5 or more. It's the least guilt-inspiring pricing model that I know of.
