(IMHO)

I like to support indie developers who take pride in their work and who show a willingness to correct mistakes and improve their games (and those who communicate with myself or their communities)...

... but...

... I rarely will pay over $10 for an indie.

Why?

Most times it's because of the limited gameplay and / or features. However technically proficient, if I see a price tag above $10 USD I'll often forego the experience... until the price has fallen. For instance... Kingsblood -- a game I definitely want -- just released elsewhere for $14.99... but the gameplay doesn't look like I'll get the full enjoyment for that price. The same for Dark Quest 3 -- another title I definitely want to play; the gameplay just doesn't seem robust enough to pay more than $10 USD.

Now, on the other hand Alaloth has come down (on sale) under $10... and it's been updated and added a Dragon DLC. That seems about right... or...

... I've been looking at Spiderweb's games ie (Avernum)... which all -- except the newest -- are under $10 on sale and all are quite hefty, long-playing, feature-rich experiences (albeit in an old style).

I may be unfairly de-valuing Lost Eidolons... Wartales... Wildermyth... (well-reviewed indies that I definitely want to play) and others by demanding a lower price point -- and I do once in awhile pay near full price for a game like Solasta -- but...

... at the same time...

... the fact that so many recent indies are on my wishlist shows me that the indie space is over-crowded and probably over-priced... especially in the current world market. Even on GOG -- which doesn't get every release -- my indie wishlist is backing up, but if I can buy a classic fully-realized AAA game of the past on GOG, I'll often tend toward that...

... unless...

... that $10 threshold is broken. Then I'll seriously look at the indie game(s).

ha!

Yeah... unless you're a video game YouTuber or your job somehow revolves around video games, I'd have to agree.

Yeah they can be more price sensitive, especially when sub-genres that get a little overcrowded (is it me or has the 'pixel-art rogue-likes' floodgates opened recently? I get so overwhelmed by the similarities I often don't 'value' them when each one's 'identity' blurs into each other).

Alaloth has a lot of content already, in my opinion. Also the game can be fully played through.
Wartales seems to have a tons of content, but I can't tell for sure since I don't have much time to play it right now.

But overall I can agree that some indie games might be overpriced.

Most definitely. That's another issue I'd not thought much on... but yes, it's a problem.

An aside...

One indie game I recently purchased from another store is Easy Red 2. The game was around $5 and offered SP squad-based battles with bots similar to early Battlefield across approx 10 maps... and... tons of user-generated maps. I was glad to pay the price...

... and...

... as the developer (one guy) started making a small profit...

... he began work on DLC... first Stalingrad... and now Normandy. Each was approx $5.

So that adds up to more than $10... why did I pay it?

I was invested in the game / experience, the developer is constantly communicating with the community (and updating the game!), and none of the DLC are mandatory. In fact you can find older user-generated maps for almost all of the locations from the DLC... just not using the studio's updated elements. In short, I was glad to pay it because Corvo Studios sold me on their (his) passion project / product.

Now, I tend to dislike when indies start with the idea of releasing a scaled-down game and then using paid DLC to get their return, but when the initial release is a full game... Thanks for the insight on Alaloth!

Yeah, I think the market is over-stuffed with indies... and... at a time when the global economy is slowing substantially.

I do think there's room for high-quality indie product to be priced above $10, but in this climate they have to REALLY sell me on the value proposition... and few do. Lost Eidolons was close... but... after watching a few videos, I was fine with waiting

I was looking for "the sad truth" about indie games, but all I found was someone with an arbitrary price hangup. No truth here, which is the sad part. Personally, I rarely pay more than $30-$40 for any kind of game; I don't bother making any distinctions between "indie" and "AAA" since my enjoyment doesn't depend on those things.

Thank you for setting me straight. ;)

You are correct that I have a price hangup...

... but...

... as the thread has progressed...

... my point would be that there is a glut of indies -- and of similar indies no less -- in the market at a time when most have less money to spend on games...

... and therefore...

... the prices will either need to fall... or... the promotion of these indies will have to get much better to entice "holdouts" like myself that their games are indeed worth the price.

I agree with the premise that indie games tend to be shorter and have fewer systems. Sometimes that can be delightful, but sometimes they can feel half-baked. It's really hard to tell which is which until you actually play it for yourself.

The Way is one of the ones that I really loved, and I recommend it any chance I get, but I don't know if I would have taken the plunge initially if it wasn't on deep discount.

Once again, I'm looking at a post I've written and thinking 'this looks exactly like something a bot would have written'.

IMHO this is important.

You got an indie game at a deep discount and you loved the experience. Would you have loved it at full price? And... did playing it sell you on future games from that developer?

Sadly the indie world is dominated by developers who want / need a higher price point to make ends meet, but...

... first the audience needs to know they want the product.

Maybe we need something akin to Spiderweb Games' long demos that hooked the customer? Or developers factoring in a cheap first game (almost given away) in order to build their market?

For myself, my price cap has fallen as my bucket of games has filled up.

First I was willing to pay a decent price for a single game.
Then only a low price for a game.
Then only a decent price for a bundle.
Then only a low price for a bundle.

Now I basically only claim free games. I have so many unplayed games that I don't feel I *should* buy more.

just for fun. Secret of Monkey Island was released in 1990. using a inflation calculator on average settings of a 2.61% inflation per year - getting an total inflation of 132.69%, means that the value of $20 in 1990 is adjusted to $46.50 in todays spending power.

Maybe this guy's talk will help put things into perspective.

For reference, Spiderweb has been operating since 1995~.

Something something indiepocalypse..

every time someone mentions that, someone else comes out of the woodworks telling that it's not true, now is the best time for indies.. I don't know. I think the answer is complicated, and it is both good and bad time.

But it's true that now all the kids who grew up playing games in 80s and 90s and even 2000s are old enough to be making games -- everyone and their dog is eager to make games. Modern game engines and asset stores make it (seem) easier than ever. And so the result is indeed that there are more indie games than I can even remotely keep up with.

Quantity alone wouldn't be a problem but.. simply being eager to make games doesn't actually make one a good game designer. There are indeed, for my taste, far too many rehashes of old ideas with not much new on the table. Or gimmicks that quickly get old. Frankly, I think most games are boring and not worth my time -- I would not play even if they were free. Standout titles are few and far between (and it is not always easy to recognize them), and games that actually blow my mind are virtually nonexistent. And yet my mind was blown by a doom mod just last week (I linked a very good video of it in a very boring thread).

Is it really a problem though? It just means I skip most of these games, no matter what the price. And if by hearsay or otherwise I find an indie title that seems worthy, I don't mind paying more than $whatever.

I don't think indies are special here though. To me, the big corpos are also creatively bankrupt and constantly betting on "proven" old formulas that appeal to the mainstream casual console gamer; the only novelty is in graphics and that doesn't interest me much.

Neither indies nor AAAs are brave enough to try something different and ambitious.

Sad subjective opinion about the whole industry, more or less.

It was kind of a one-off kickstarter thing, but yeah, I can definitely think of occasions where I've done that. I got Spacechem in a really old Humble bundle, and I ended up buying most of the dev's stuff on GOG, so yeah, the loss leader thing seems to work.

The other thing that can happen is for things to propagate by word of mouth, like what happened with Hollow Knight. When you have a good game and the awareness goes beyond that tipping point, it just seems to snowball endlessly. Most things won't ever see success on that scale, though. I guess it's like anything.