What prices should I put to pledges?

[The Lewd Gamer]

I've been working on a game for the last month and I plan to release a first alpha version by the end of this month or mid June at the latest. The game will be a 100% free to play, but because I still gotta pay the bills I have set up a Patron/SubscribeStar, and what I am wondering is: What prices should I put to pledges?

I want everybody who played the game to have access to the discord server, so that would of course include supporters. The only difference is that I will give different roles based on the pledge. And although I welcome any reward suggestion, what I specifically want to know is what prices should I put to (let's say) five different pledge tiers (also asking how much would you be willing to pay if it were a game you'd REALLY like).

Also, I want to say that I know there are other threads that talk about this, but:
1. I couldn't find any that is newer than 2018 (and I think fees were different back then, which changes things).
2. I want to have an opinion from other people who probably missed those (maybe because they joined later and never posted on old threads like me).
3. Also, many of them talk about paywalls, which I don't want to have. My game will be 100% free to play and all rewards should not contribute to gamplay experience (e.g. p2w).

 

[DynamiteJoe/RenMan3DX]

I think it's hard to set prices without knowing the benefits per tier, but personally I'd pledge 10-15$ tops for something I really like, and still probably wouldn't do so forever, gotta spread the love
Also, not sure exactly what do you mean with rewards shouldn't contribute to gameplay experience but I think it's perfectly fair that supporters get a bigger say on the direction of the game if you plan to be doing polls for some of the content.

 

[Winterfire]

Visit a bunch of Patreon pages (popular ones) and copy what they do.

 

[The Lewd Gamer]

Also, not sure exactly what do you mean with rewards shouldn't contribute to gameplay experience but I think it's perfectly fair that supporters get a bigger say on the direction of the game if you plan to be doing polls for some of the content.

Well, let's say my game is an RPG, then I wouldn't want to give a lv100 sword as a reward, for example. Also, nothing that would heavily impact or delay an update (like custom scenes and such).
About voting: Yes, I have thought about it and I decided to give voting rights to some tiers and above.

I think it's hard to set prices without knowing the benefits per tier, but personally I'd pledge 10-15$ tops for something I really like, and still probably wouldn't do so forever, gotta spread the love

This is useful for me, I guess it is what I'm most interested in. For how much would you be willing to pledge and for how long? Which I know depends on the game, but imagine it is a game you really like.

 

[DynamiteJoe/RenMan3DX]

Well, like I said, 10-15$ tops. I have pledged for more but it's been the "one time only" kind of pledges with rewards like "create one character for our game", things like that. And not very often... I think twice in my life.... and I kinda regret it xD
For how long... well... I'd say I do it for 2-3 months then it depends on how quick the game gets updated and how much content per update for me to "come back" for another 2-3 months.
Basically, not only I don't have the time to be replaying games each time they get a bit updated, I found out I end losing interest in them due to burnout

 

[Rafster]

Take a look on Patreon pages of games that are similar to yours. Look at their tiers, benefits and prices, and adjust yours accordingly to what your game offers and what do you want.

 

[The Lewd Gamer]

Basically, not only I don't have the time to be replaying games each time they get a bit updated, I found out I end losing interest in them due to burnout

Good to know. I plan to make monthly (or bimonthly) updates with weekly dev log for supporters as a reward. In general, I gathered (from other different threads also) that I should do what I would like other devs to do if I were to pledge to them: Keep supporters updated and put dedication to the game. And everything else would just be cherry on top. So I'll do exactly that. Thanks everybody for clearing my thoughts!

ALSO, if anyone else is interested in sharing what is the maximum you'd be willing to pay and for what rewards, I'll be reading.

 

[Meaning Less]

ALSO, if anyone else is interested in sharing what is the maximum you'd be willing to pay and for what rewards, I'll be reading.

Most people using patreon don't do so because of "rewards" that's an illusion. They do it mainly because they want to support that creator, and the monetary ammount people are willing to donate will depend on how good your game is to them simple as that.

Rewards are just bonuses that most people completely ignore, stop wasting your time on nonsense and focus on doing a better game if you want to find supporters.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Most people using patreon don't do so because of "rewards" that's an illusion. They do it mainly because they want to support that creator, and the monetary ammount people are willing to donate will depend on how good your game is to them simple as that.

Rewards are just bonuses that most people completely ignore, stop wasting your time on nonsense and focus on doing a better game if you want to find supporters.

More precisely, the "rewards" are what their name mean, a thanks coming from the creator for the support you shown for his project. Therefore, anything that looks like a demonstration of gratitude is a good reward. It can be private renders/drawing that only the patrons on a given tiers (or above) will see, some preview of a scene that will be in the next update, the possibility to test a game mechanism, a bit of exclusive content, or nearly whatever you can think about.

 

[Jaike]

Don't set your lowest tier too low. Sometimes you see one bottom tier for less than 2 $, that's too low. You want your supporters supporting you, not your pledge platform.

More precisely, the "rewards" are what their name mean, a thanks coming from the creator for the support you shown for his project. Therefore, anything that looks like a demonstration of gratitude is a good reward. It can be private renders/drawing that only the patrons on a given tiers (or above) will see, some preview of a scene that will be in the next update, the possibility to test a game mechanism, a bit of exclusive content, or nearly whatever you can think about.

More about this, not going against what anne wrote, it's likely some of those rewards get leaked at a point. So if you control the topic here and a leaked version is uploaded, you aren't allowed to remove it. Not even if it's an unstable test version.

Another common reward is to let supporters vote. Not sure what I think about it if it's about small details, but it's a really bad idea if it lets supporters control the dev's vision for the game.

 

[woody554]

Most people using patreon don't do so because of "rewards" that's an illusion. They do it mainly because they want to support that creator, and the monetary ammount people are willing to donate will depend on how good your game is to them simple as that.

Rewards are just bonuses that most people completely ignore, stop wasting your time on nonsense and focus on doing a better game if you want to find supporters.

I completely agree. but for example in my country it's illegal to collect donations for a private company/person (anti-scam laws) which is why you're required to actually sell a service or goods for that 'donated' money to make it a sale. so you kinda have to make up these dummy-rewards even though you only have them to give people a choice of different size donations.

 

[anne O'nymous]

More about this, not going against what anne wrote, it's likely some of those rewards get leaked at a point.

One interesting thing about this is that it totally depend.

You've games that systematically have the "patreon edition" leaked, and others for which the said special edition was never leaked. I guess that it say a lot about the relation a creator have with his patrons ; when the relation is good, the said patrons tend to respect more the creator and so just leak what would anyway have been the "free version" few weeks later.
Another way to do is to make the reward independent. A small mini story can easily fit in a 200 MB or less archives, and still be something interesting for the patrons. But in the same time, it will be something too short for someone to want to leak it ; especially if it's something not directly related to the story and with just a bit of nudity.

Another common reward is to let supporters vote. Not sure what I think about it if it's about small details, but it's a really bad idea if it lets supporters control the dev's vision for the game.

Yes, votes should be limited to small details ; If you hesitate between two dresses by example. The patrons will feel more involved ( "Hey, I'm parts of those you've to thanks for this dress that you like" ) but in the same time you keep a full control over the story.