One of my goals with pikadudeno1.com is to make it a primary source of my income. Payment-optional methods of making money like asking for donations haven’t worked, and I don’t expect them to (although Patreon has worked out for some people, and I may yet give that a try). The main plan is to charge for access to new content, and convince people that it’s worth it.
Before I try any of that, though, I want to make my website something I can proudly show off, so I can start sharing it with wider audiences and get some of my future customers hooked. Most of the pieces for that are in place by now, but I still need to release non-OpenID login options and Zapster Solitaire. Though Zapster Solitaire isn’t my most interesting game, it is far and away my most polished, so will be good for setting the tone on what my players can expect when I start charging money.
Once that’s done, I plan on writing the code to enable players to buy things. To test this code, Magic Puddle v4.0 will feature a name-your-own-price In-App Purchase. After that, I’ll make Signs of Life v2.0, adding puzzle packs that require set-price IAPs to play. I’m aware IAPs have a bad reputation with many players based on how mobile game developers have abused them, but I have ideas on how to communicate to players that my IAPs aren’t those IAPs, inspired by this article by Thomas Baekdal.
Eventually, I want to make new games that require upfront payment, as players already expect to do for high-quality indie games found on Steam and such. People will find it strange at first to have to pay for a browser game, but I have a few ideas on how they might be warmed up to the idea, and of course actually releasing on Steam is a possibility thanks to Web app wrappers like Electron. For now, I’ll keep the games in question a surprise~