[dcre]

We had a similar thought process. The games that make money through IAPs (Candy Crush is the obvious example) tend to be play-forevers with complex in-game economies of bonuses and powerups, plus all those timers and limits to get you to pay up, etc.

The more traditional games — games with more genuine depth behind them, from the point of view of the "hardcore gamers" you mention — when they make money, they tend to be pay-up-front. They're charging more for a significantly more personal and higher-quality engagement, and can partially make up for lower quantity that way.

But even then it's been really hard to know how to approach these questions. My advice is to release something small quickly, because being in the situation is the only way to learn what works and what doesn't. That's not exactly what we did here, and though I'm really happy with how the game has turned out, we sometimes felt like we were fumbling in the dark on the way to this point.

[cclogg]

Yes, I totally get what you mean. The hilarious thing is making something small ends up always taking longer lol =P