Strike Eagle V 0.13

Now the level is fully fleshed out.  It is decently challenging.  The first time I played it, I died on the last volley of missiles.  And it is very fun to simply hold down the spacebar to clear the air with a missile swarm.  The challenge is getting the highest score, which means taking risks and not moving the plane too much because it tilts the horizon.

Now I have to round out the Briefing so that the player has more information that their mission is to take out the enemy air support, and a mention of the game’s controls with the keyboard and mouse.

Last is the adding the MochiAds leaderboards and MochiAds pre-loader instead of mine so your score becomes relevant to other people.

Check it out!

On a sad note…

Originally, I was contemplating on removing “Counterpunch Games” in favor of “Game Devigner.”  But today, the beloved cat, Louie “The Count” died today due to complications with diabetes.  So, in honor of “The Count”, I’ll be keeping the logo for this game to honor him and how much he meant to me, my family, and to all my friends.

Mediaweek highlighted WildTangent in a recent article citing massive profit gains in this downward econonmy.  People have been seeking more free games and entertainment and naturally drawing people to gaming sites.  Naturally, in difficult times, people will be seeking more value for their money.

I think this bodes very well for the indie gaming market because people are more likely to spend more time seeking quality gaming experiences for less money than using the normal channels.  Unfortunately, this also means an increase in piracy, but I believe that with the right pricing strategy, you can serve the market well and still get enough return on investment.

More than ever, it looks like the time is ripe for indies to really reap the whirlwind.  And if enough people find more meaningful experiences through their games, it could mean a whole new era of gaming, game distribution and pricing strategies.

The Escapist Magazine (of Zero Punctuation fame) recently put out a series of articles about piracy.  One of the articles I thought that was very interesting was one about the culture in Brazil where practically every piece of software available for sale is pirated.  This is very true in Asia as well.  But it was the price point that caught my eye:

The asking price is ridiculously small – usually around R$10 to R$15 (or $5 to $7.50) – but after a little negotiation, you can easily end up paying half that. You won’t, of course, receive a receipt; instead you might be giving a business card with the name of the game you purchased written on the back, with the promise that you’ll be able to exchange the game in that store if it proves to be faulty.

In general, there is speculation that the price of software – even AAA title software is too high.  Valve experiemented with Left4Dead by lowering it’s price point to see how much sales increases occurred at different price points:

10% Price Reduction – 35% Revenue increase
25% Price Reduction – 245% Revenue increase
50% Price Reduction – 320% Revenue increase
75% Price Reduction – 1470% Revenue increase

Note: This is revenue increase – not number of units sold.  The profits shot through the roof as the price came down.

I’m estimating that the correct price point for indie games is somewhere in the $3-$5 range.  This undercuts pirate prices.

In a bad economy, people will be seeking the most value for their dollar.  Games offer far more value than a movie because of replayability.  Therefore, a game that outprices books, comics, and even rental movies will do very well in this downturn economy.