is this a good way to put a value on a game?

[PBChocolate]

Here's the formula, h / (d * r) and round to the nearest 5

h meaning how much hours of gameplay in the game, d meaning how many days it was to make the game and r for the resolution of the graphics. So lets say a game had 12 hours of gameplay, it took 21 days to make it and it had 16 bit graphics. It would look like this,

12 / (21 * 16)

So the answer would be, $30

 

[Indinera]

12 / (21 * 16) = something less than 1

 

[Solo]

No... I don't think this is a good idea. Number one, my game would be insanely expensive if I based the price on how long it took me to make it (7 years if you care). I chose $7.99 because that's the equivalent of an SNES game on the Wii Shop Channel (RIP per two days ago?), and I figure my game is about on par with an SNES game. As it turns out, this price is also fairly competitive when compared to other commercial RM games (on Amaranth and Aldorlea, anyway). Despite the massive volume of content in the game (some people have told me they've played for upwards of 100 hours, even to 150 and 200 hours without yet being finished), I wanted it to be competitively priced. I think that's important (and in my case, the graphics are a bit old-school, so I think it helps in that regard too).

 

[whitesphere]

I agree with Solo on this one.

It doesn't matter how long it took you to write the game.  Nor does the resolution of the game, really.  What matters is what competitive games, in the same space, are selling for.  Competitive means:  graphics style, gameplay length and game style.  For RPG Maker games, graphics style is probably the SNES 2-D overhead style.  And the game style is some type of RPG.

When I think "graphics resolution," I only think "is this 2D or 3D" not "this is 2D with 1024x768 resolution, so it costs more than one that's 640x480"

After all, when we buy a car, we don't say "X took their team 1000 hours to make, so it cost more than Y which took their team 500 hours to make."  We compare the expected value of the car to its competitors.  Granted, we expect to pay more for a Porsche than, say, a Toyota, but the 2 cars are in completely different niches.

For an idea, keep in mind, Skyrim, a full 3-D RPG for the PC, currently costs around $20 on Amazon.   

Granted, a complete RPG will sell for more than, say, a 2 hour casual RPG.  But it still must be priced competitively.  After all, we are in a niche market.  Frankly, I don't think anyone will pay $50 for a 2-D overhead style RPG these days.  Not when there are tons of RPGs in that style for less.

So, basically, see what RPGs in that style are currently selling for on the PC.  And use that as a starting point.

If I were selling a game commercially, I'd much rather have 10 sales at $8 each than 1 sale at $30.  That's assuming even 1 person pays $30 for the game.

 

[Euphoria]

I agree with them. If time comes into the equation these games would be ridiculously expensive.

 

[Mouser]

Here's the formula, h / (d * r) and round to the nearest 5

h meaning how much hours of gameplay in the game, d meaning how many days it was to make the game and r for the resolution of the graphics. So lets say a game had 12 hours of gameplay, it took 21 days to make it and it had 16 bit graphics. It would look like this,

12 / (21 * 16)

So the answer would be, $30

If you're trying to do what I think you are, you need to add in the projected number of sales. Take development costs and divide by that number and you (very roughly) have your 'break even' price.  If your game sells for less, you lose money. If it sells for more, you make a profit.

Time has to come into that equation unless you place no value on your time - which is fine if you're a hobbyist or doing this part time, as most would-be developers here are (just a wild guess).

The other side though, is the harsh realities of the market: nobody cares how much it cost to make your game. They don't care that you hired the TransSiberian Orchestra to do your background music and James Earl Jones to do your narrative voice overs. All they care about is how much fun they'll have playing it. They then (subconsciously) have a formula where they compare that amount of 'fun' vs other forms of entertainment to decide how much your game is worth _to them_.

If other games like yours are priced at $3.99 on a regular sale day, guess what your game is worth?

If you're game isn't hella fun (or at least entertaining, or something), nothing else matters: it's worthless.

 

[Peridot Gaming]

Here's the formula, h / (d * r) and round to the nearest 5

h meaning how much hours of gameplay in the game, d meaning how many days it was to make the game and r for the resolution of the graphics. So lets say a game had 12 hours of gameplay, it took 21 days to make it and it had 16 bit graphics. It would look like this,

12 / (21 * 16)

So the answer would be, $30

The only way you could get anywhere near 30 is by changing your formula to:

(d * r) / h

therefore using your example would be:

(21 * 16) / 12  =  28

rounding to the nearest 5 is then 30.

But as mentioned by others, I don't think you can use this as a good idea of a calculation for the cost of a game, especially if you are saying that a game that has taken only 3 weeks (full-time) to develop is going to be worth more than a lot of current RPG Maker games that are already out that had been in development for years.  I definitely would not be wanting to pay $30 for 12 hours of gameplay.

 

[orochii]

60 bucks is for AAA physical fresh releases. You can get fresh AAA releases on Steam at 40 bucks. I think (Amazin' Spiderman, 40$).

Consumers actually make the differentiation between AAA and Indie, because of budgets (actually is because of renown, like, paying because this says EA, Atari, whatever).

After all, I think that what people have just said is the way to go. Go and take a look at the actual market. See what prices are games that are, in some way, same kind. To the moon is 10$. And so on and so forth.

10 is fine. 15 if your game is pretty long (you know, like 20+ hours). I know people has said that don't try and put this into your equation, neither how much did it cost to you to make it, but since RM games content is made all by hand, you know... 5 extra bucks for all that content I think it's fine.

 

[Shaz]

See what other games your game compares to - graphics style, quality, content, length of play, etc. See what players who have paid for the games are saying about them. Are they happy? Do they think they got their money's worth? Make a decision based on that.

 

[Dark Gaia]

You should price your game to reflect how much you think it is worth compared to similar games. For example, I priced my game at $5.99. I selected this price point because that's what I thought the game was worth. It is shorter than something like Aveyond or Deadly Sin but is in a similar style. Based on that, it seemed appropriate to price it at roughly half the price of a standard RPG Maker game.

 

[Zeriab]

I love how the formula makes your game worth less the more days you work on it XD

Worth is a much better heuristic. What it actually can be sold for is also one.