Hey all. I was browsing for this topic but could find anything specific so thought I'd start a thread on the subject of 'revenue' in the store. We just released our game on the Oculus Store at the beginning of Feb 2017. We were super excited to finally get our game out in to the market since we had been working on it for about 8 months (not a huge dev cycle I know, but a big project for us). Since the start of feb 2017 we've had almost zero downloads and the game is priced at $4.99. Now I know that our game is not the best in the world, but I believe it is fun, and it is priced appropriately for the amount of content in the game. We are now working on a 2nd VR game but i'm wondering if there's really any point at all.
Are any other developers in the same boat? Have your sales been almost zero? How many downloads do you get a day? I'm very interested to know because this really defines the future of our business over 2017.
When i watch the trailer, I can tell its low budget. Not the graphics, but the shakyness of the camera. Im watching it on a screen and it reminds me of what not to do in VR. This deters people from buying even if its a gallery app. 6$CAD for this is a waste.
Also, people are hyped for touch, if your game doesnt support touch in some way then people arent going to bother.
No offence, I wouldn't spend $1 on this. No Touch support, low quality Indy game. Maybe like a year ago but I'm done buying shovelware and the like. No more. Only buying AAA, polished, Touch supporting, 360 supporting titles. It would have to be pretty remarkable otherwise.
The thing that sets me off: "Episode 1" No mention of how many following parts and when. Included with the price or will every part be €4.99? If I enjoy a game I mostly complete it in just a few sessions in a short timespan, so if I see a episodic title I rather wait till its done.
hey again guys. thanks for all the input. It's interesting to read about how Viramid is perceived. At the moment it doesn't have touch support, but it looks like thats going to be come more essential to support. We did get another download today so that brings the grand total up to 6, lol. We've been sharing the new video around more which could have some impact, but the old version is still live on the store. Just waiting for the oculus team to approve the new listing.
I think with the Oculus Rift PC crowd the requirements for larger AAA games is higher. Whereas on mobile a smaller game is more acceptable.
It's been interesting to read peoples views on this. Trailers are something I have always struggled with too and I am far from satisfied with my own. Your new version is much better. The easiest way to get the footage is to play and record the mirrored version, but that can leave you with choppy movement because our heads don't move as smoothly as you think and that doesn't look great on the video. I ended up balancing the headset on a tripod to record some parts of my video to keep it steady, but that meant I couldn't show the use of positional movement as much as I wanted and it made it hard to play the game. I assume other developers record scripted camera movement and interactions but that must eat up quite a bit of their budget and is difficult for a solo-developer or small team to factor in. Another approach is to record the screen from a non-VR version. That may be more feasible for you due to using a gamepad but gets more of a problem when you need to show Touch support or movement not easily reproduced with alternative controls.
For my next project I'm thinking about what will look good in the trailer and screenshots right from the start and that will dictate to some degree what gets developed. Good luck with your game.
thanks Jumbli 🙂 yeah i was also thinking the same thing about getting a trailer done. basically using the non-VR version to record game play and create a trailer from that. The other way I've seen done is people actually film themselves playing the game with the headset on, and so half the screen is the person playing, and the other half is the game play. Or it could be a small thumbnail in one of the corners which is showing the person playing.
I think the "picture in picture" approach works well for YouTube players and I've done it myself when trying to explain something in the game while playing, but I don't think it looks professional enough for the primary video on a store. The mixed reality videos where you appear to be actually in the game are really great though - I'd love to be able to do that one day.