If you love your game, set it free....

[Matt Snyder]

I posted the free PDF playtest of Nine Worlds to all and sundry yesterday. I was of two minds about this. I had much success releasing Dust Devils as a free PDF, then later as a full-fledged game, for-sale game. I wasn't sure I should do that again with Nine Worlds, being somewhat uncertain whether releasing the rules like this was a good idea. I got over it.

My solution? Low-res, screen-quality PDF. When people view it on screen, the images are ok, but not fantastic. When printed out, the fonts are glorious (and therefore reading's a breeze). The pics, not so much. It's a really inane tactic, but part of my thinking is that few people will be inclined to keep the thing as a "final" product, even though the game's system is all there.

It ain't much "security," but it's enough to make me more than comfortable with people getting a good, solid look at the game. Hopefully, it'll create some solid feedback as well as some demand for the game.[/b]

[ethan_greer]

I'm right there with you, Matt.  I'm going to do the same thing with Thugs & Thieves when I get the document hammered into shape.  I'm going to leave out illustrations and just make the text available in PDF.

Once the game is published and for sale, I'm planning on removing the PDF.  Is that how you planned on doing it with Nine Worlds?

[Mike Holmes]

Well, and since this is a playtest version, then presumably the final version for which you intend to charge will be improved by the playtesting. Making it still worth getting. So I see no problems with this tactic.

Mike

[Clay]

Matt,

I can assure you that this is a brilliant plan. You've sold two copies of Dust Devils to me because of the free playtest download that I downloaded and loved.  If I hadn't downloaded the playtest, I probably wouldn't have purchased the game either time.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Is since I uploaded my free preview people have been downloading it INSTEAD of buying my games. I only sold four games this week, but 40 people downloaded my preview.

My making a basic explanation of the game available free may in fact be driving away potential customers, and the one thing I've heard about the free version (which I haven;t sent out for review) was basically an unfavorable comparison between my system and Tri-Stat (the basic assumption being that all anime games MUST be Tri-Stat oir they aren;t really anime games).

[Lxndr]

In general, more people will look at a preview of, well, any game, than will actually buy it.  10% download -> customer seems a pretty good ratio, all things being equal.

[Matt Snyder]

Michael, as Clay suggests, I've had good success in offering Dust Devils (and hopefully now Nine Worlds) for free PDFs. It worked greatly to get my name and game "out there" in people's minds. Last year at GenCon, I had several people say, "Yeah, I know that game, I think I downloaded it."(one in the bathroom, no less). I consider this good marketing. I'm not too troubled about "lost sales." People could easily pirate my PDF games anyway, and there's precious little I can do about that. But I have found that the people interested in this hobby, the folks who would actually play my games (which is all the customers I'll ever want) are more than willing to pay for the final versions.

Clay, good to know my free-then-pay offering worked for you! I appreciate you buying (and playing I happen to know!) Dust Devils.

Ethan, yes I will remove the playtest version. And my reason for doing so is more that the game will have changed than it exists for free!

[Matt Machell]

Hey Matt,

I think this is the right way to go about things. A free playtest edition works wonders for drumming up interest. I've been a bit lax with finishing off The Agency, but meantime the playtest version is getting about 10 downloads a day, and getting reviews. Hopefully this is building up the people who are "aware" of the product, and will check the final commerical version when released.

I think I commented on this before, but the layout for Nine Worlds is sweet.

-Matt

[hieronymous]

The tactic we've taken with Rêve is similar but a bit different. The players' book, Journeyers, contains all the game mechanics and character generation rules, except for magic. In the Dreamtime is the magic book and Worlds contains DK material (that's Dream Keeper): sciences, cosmology, creatures, plants, etc.

Journeyers is a free download, which we offer in both a fully-illustrated version and in a text-only version without a couple of optional chapters, for those who prefer a lighter download. The complete game is (all three books) $13, for about 200 pages of PDF material. Naturally there's free scenarios etc. on the site. So far, I can confirm we've got about an 8% ratio of downloads to purchases--not thrilling, but I'm OK with it, and that seems to be consistent with Lxndr's comment.

[Bankuei]

Hi Michael,

Have you gotten any feedback from the folks who have downloaded your games?  In many cases it may be that they simply found themselves not interested after seeing the playtest rules.  I've downloaded tons of online games, read the rules, maybe played them once, then deleted them.  So far, most of the free games I've downloaded, that I regularly use, or would consider using, haven't been pushed for sale, otherwise I'd buy them.  This includes a homebrew FF game, Zodiac, Otherkind, Towards One and Draconic to name a few.

Besides, if you find people are regularly using your rules, then you've effectively pulled an "Indie D20" and can start looking at pushing supplemental rules or setting info for sale.  

Chris

[ejh]

Yeah, Michael, I'll chime in here too and say you shouldn't assume that everyone who downloads your free game is someone who would have bought a copy.  That's wildly unlikely.

Now, if you had been selling forty a week UNTIL you put the free download up and then it dropped to four, that might be the case.  Otherwise, I'd doubt it.

The Baen Free Library experiement suggested that allowing free downloads of a book can actually increase sales of the hardcopy version.  It stands to reason -- people often re-purchase things they like.  (How many people here have only ever owned one copy of their favorite book?  CD?)

I got a free PDF of Trollbabe from Ron for doing the comic art, and when I saw a printout copy available at GenCon, I snapped it up, cause I wanted a nice bound copy with color cover art, and it was a steal at $10.  The fact that I had the PDF didn't discourage me.

I also bought InSpectres though I had already *paid* for the PDF (though I didn't do that until Jared offered me the deal of just paying the difference between the prices -- something he doesn't usually do, but he wanted the sale.... but if you do the math, you'd see that the money transferred from me to Jared was the same as if I'd gotten the PDF for free and paid full price for the book. :)

Seriously, I suspect that in most cases (you may for some reason bye an exception but I wouldn't know why) the publicity and goodwill generated with the free PDF is going to outweigh any lost sales from people who would be willing to pay tfor the PDF but are not willing to do so if it was free.

Heck, even the free "startup edition" -- the chopped down rules -- of InSpectres helped inspire me to pay for the full PDF.

So I think the "offer some kind of free PDF with complete rules, even if it isn't as polished as the pay product" is a really excellent strategy overall.

(IMHO, YMMV, and other "this is just my opinion, I could be wrong" disclaimers apply as usual.)

[contracycle]

This sounds a lot like CrippleWare.

[ethan_greer]

What's "crippleware?"

[Clinton R. Nixon]

This sounds a lot like CrippleWare.

This sounds a lot like an off-hand comment without much substance.

Ethan, crippleware is:

 1. Software that has some important functionality deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a working version.

2. (Cambridge) Guiltware that exhorts you to donate to some charity.

3. Hardware deliberately crippled, which can be upgraded to a more expensive model by a trivial change (e.g. removing a jumper).

It's a word with a negative connotation, and doesn't make a lot of sense here. In addition, "this" in Gareth's sentence could have meant anything. I have no idea what he's referring to, as most of the ideas in this thread are very different from one another, ranging from giving away part of your game, giving away the playtest edition of your game, or just plain giving away your game.

[contracycle]

It all depends what "this" means? [rolleyes]

As for a negative connotation, that is hardly something with which I am endowing the word.  I'm not sure I'd accept the connotatiopn anyway - its the correct jargon for a product that ships, broken, as a trial.  It does have negative associations, but thats a consequence of its performance not something that has been maliciously attributed.  Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.