Forums » Impact Engine » Does Impact Engine Ever Go On Sale?

Hello everyone...

Do any of you know if this will be going on sale during the "Black Friday" event where most things tend to give some form of discount.


Regards,
Patrick.

Black Friday is a very American thing. Impact is written by a German dude.

And tell me: Why should a discount be given at all? Impact is relatively cheap I think. I run a small business as well and I never give discounts. Discounts are stupid marketing methods that sometimes even damage your brand without providing much benefits – though this depends on the niche/type of business you're in.

I understand that it's am American thing, but even the UK has recently taken up with it in regards to most digital goods and softwares.

I know it is pretty affordable already, but I wouldn't be able to buy a copy for every person I would like to work with on the project I have coming up, maybe myself and one or two others, but if it were to go on sale for a limited time, more people could grab it. Even if it was $25 off, or even less, I know a handful of people that would be able to purchase it already.

It's also confusing that an EU developer would list hist product on his site with USD and then you expect me to know off the top of my head that he is German... C'mon... lol

Just because the developer is German doesn't mean that he has to be ignorant to the rest of the world and I am sure that he is not, based on the choice of listing his product with an American currency to the rest of the world... I can respect if the developer just outright cannot afford to put the engine on sale, I would even totally understand it, I was posting to ask more about the possibility of such a thing is all, I don't see that it would hurt the product in question at all. Many companies have proven (in this line of product) that those kinds of sales just improve the user base which only helps this kind of product. The only time I can see it hurting the engine is if it is consistently put on sale, and for an insane amount, that would hurt the current customers who paid full price and would probably annoy a lot of people, but offering up a limited time sale for a reasonable discount, I think it would be nice. Again... I would understand completely if the developer just cannot afford to do that though.

Discounts are definitely not "stupid marketing methods" that is just totally ignorant. I don't agree with how 'some' companies use this type of marketing with their products but to say that the entire method as a whole is stupid is just ridiculous, I don't understand how someone who runs a business can have that kind of attitude and be successful, but clearly you must be getting somewhere with your business, otherwise you wouldn't have felt the need to let everyone know.

Not to say that everyone isn't entitled to their opinions... and every business man has his own methods and preferences, but you can't say something is stupid just because you don't personally like the method.

I was hoping that the developer or someone who was in touch with him would know the answer to this and be able to give a meaningful response, but I guess I will just assume that the answer is "no" and I will return to using Phaser.io with the friends that I want to work with, save everyone the trouble and save a little cash along the way. If this ever goes on sale, I will be sure to pick up multiple copies to distribute amongst the friends that I will be working with though, and spread the word to a few friends that have seen and like Impact that just can't afford to make a purchase seeing as to them it is 100% a hobby... hint hint to Dominic Szablewski.

@Apiheld, maybe I took your reply the wrong way, but I am hoping for a more solid response and not just some speculations and then "witty" attitude about business. Clearly we won't agree on what is stupid within regards to business and what is not, but I am hoping to get some clarity on whether or not Impact will ever have a sale of some sort :) I want to get more of my friends into HTML5 game development! I personally would like to work with this, but I would prefer being able to work alongside and with friends on projects over becoming a lone wolf developer with something they cannot afford.



Regards,
Patrick.

Sorry, if my reply sounded a bit harsh or even arrogant and thanks for your elaborate reply. You certainly have some valid points.

If this whole thing is about getting a bulk discount, I guess the easiest thing would be to write Dominic an email and ask him for a specific discount, if you and your friends buy a bunch of copies.

Discounts are definitely not "stupid marketing methods" that is just totally ignorant.

Okay, I guess I over-simplified. Discounts have their place, but I see discounts as something like a last resort in marketing efforts or something that must be used to segment your customers in a certain context (see below). It's usually not a sustainable marketing method. A general discount is probably okay only if you can use it to tap into traffic sources that might be closed to you otherwise (think: Black Friday deals website or something). This is however mostly to add some cash to your baseline and nothing that I'd consider strategic.

However, if you want to add more people to your user base, it might be a better idea to either reduce the price in general, find other monetization mechanisms, or (the best way), find marketing channels that make sense, or segment your customers in some way.

Giving a discount is often a sign that your product cannot be distinguished from competitors. You can see this when some companies are giving out discounts all the time. This is poor branding.

If the discount is too big, people might even wonder if they pay too much if they pay the normal price and feel ripped off (negative effect on the brand).

Context-based discounts: If I were the developer of Impact, I'd use e. g. Ludum Dare to advertise for Impact.js and offer a heavy discount, because Ludum Dare has many indie devs and beginners, who want to get into game dev, but are quite inexperienced. They are unwilling to pay a lot, but they are willing to get good results after 48hrs and might pay a certain fee for a good toolset. But then, a discount makes sense, because it segments customers based on value they get out of the product, whereas a general Black Friday discount doesn't achieve the same effect. You get no segmentation.

An experienced gamedev who wants to release a game and charge money for it gets an engine for 99$, which is a good deal for him. An inexperienced gamedev who is unlikely to derive a lot of value out of Impact gets a discount.

I guess for you, it's quite similar. Your friends are too inexperienced to pay 99$. The value they get is very limited. So maybe, a bulk discount makes sense for your situation.

Why do I care about all that stuff? Because, and this applies to all of us, at some point, if you want to make money with indie game development, you need to think about a way to do marketing for your games. Currently, we see a race to the bottom in app prices, which is entirely unsustainable for indie game devs or small business owners. In app stores, the top 10 or something earn millions, the rest earns pocket money. The app store is already a place that is "discounted all the time", because apps are way too cheap and people even complain about paying 99 cents for a game that "lasted only 10 hours".

Anyways, interesting discussion. I'd love to hear the opinion of someone who sold games on platforms like Steam, which give out discounts all the time.

Edit: And btw, I'd love to see more people using Impact.js. This means more discussion here and more plugins :)