Developing an Android Phone App?!

What do you think is a good price point???

My hope is to launch an Android version first and then see if there is enough demand to launch an iOS version at a later time... (Due to the fees/cost structure).

It's a one-time purchase, not re-occurring revenue (like a subscription).

Perhaps if it was a subscription, it might be more appropriate like $0.99 per month and an annual fee like $9.99 (where you get 2 FREE months).

That's why I was thinking about $9.99 ... Because it's less than $1 USD per month considering you get 2 months FREE. And you ONLY pay the fee once... in a Pay-to-Own version (non subscription).

First of all "subscriptions" are a pain to manage, opt-in/opt-out, etc. And secondly my goal would be to recover $9.99... Because the iOS store charges $99/year for listing the Phone App.

Any additional thoughts???

I have decided NOT to create an Android Phone App for "Quest AC2".

The main reason is because I can do it with a "static" card added to a booster. In other words all I need to do is ADD ONE (1) extra card to each booster (so the total would be 13 cards) and make that "Hero" card a "RANDOM" insert which means there is "sort of" a collectible aspect... Not really what is important TBH.

What IS important is that Quests are bought PER BOOSTER. So if you want to add Quest #? to your collection, all you do is BUY that booster and you get all of the Quest Fragments and ONE (1) RANDOM "Hero" card for that Quest.

This is going to be much easier to manage and less likely to be problematic when you would need to charge your phone, etc. It was overkill for just a few "Hero" cards.

As a developer, I fully understand the "COMPLEXITY" of coding ALL the rules and components required to have a FULL DIGITAL ONLY "experience". That software is a b!tch to code. Plus it's very DIFFICULT to introduce new types of "abilities" which behave differently that are ALL UNDERSTOOD by the software and its components.

In my previous post, I gave a simple example. I'll re-iterate it here:

All players lose 2 Victory Points

PRESENTING A SIMPLE statement like this is easy. All you need to do is DISPLAY it and the player may take action and tell each player they need to subtract 2 Victory Points from their score tracks (which are player mats tracking the progress physically). SIMPLE.

BUT if I had to code a DIGITAL app to understand this, it would be a complete NIGHTMARE! Why? Well first of all the APP would need to understand the RULE: "All players lose 2 Victory Points". To start, all "Score Tracking" would need to be DIGITAL. And then the app would need to distinguish "ALL" versus "Selected Player" and then I would need to ADJUST the "score" for EACH digital Score Tracker. First of all... For this to happen, EVERYTHING has to happen on ONE (1) SmartPhone. Secondly everything for the "scores" needs to be DIGITAL ASSETS and coded to understand PLUS, MINUS "Victory Points".

This is a FREAKEN DISASTER! And why I never got involved in Software Game Development. It requires a very complexe MODEL, a DATABASE which is relatively flexible, and you need to MANAGE all the objects in the code.

This compare to DISPLAYING: "All players lose 2 Victory Points". Is a piece of cake. All you need if to track which "Spells" have been unlocked (some minor housekeeping) and let the players focus on the GAME ITSELF.

The difference is NIGHT and DAY. I'm not interested in the challenge of coding a digital game. All I want is ways to solve a problem and present it in a way that is not entirely possible from a TableTop experience.

Perhaps this illustrates the difference between both. Cheers!

The "core" problem is HIDING the "Spells" from the players. HOW do you have a way to "control" what players CAN and CANNOT SEE?! So maybe you could have a rulebook like Dungeon & Dragons in which you have a listing of spells but each on has LIKE "LOTTO TICKETS" silver coating to hide the nature of how to invoke the spell...

But who is to STOP a player from simply SCRATCHING away all the silver coating??? No one.

With a Smart Phone App, as a "player's aid", you can keep that information locked away in the App. It unlocks as player play the game and gain experience... Sure there is no way to prevent some players from "grinding" their way to learn all the spells... Nothing is perfect.

But a weeks worth of effort versus a couple of second to scratch everything away... Is a very BIG difference indeed!

I'm open to hearing other ways in which you can keep this information SECRET until the right time. Plus if the Phone App is randomized, that makes if even HARDER to obtain a full list of all the spells because they don't necessarily occur in the same order!

In any event, if you read through this... You'll start to understand the difference in complexity with what I want to code and coding a full blown Smart Phone Game.

If you WANT to play "Candy Crush Saga" ... You need to go out and BUY an iPhone. As far as my last experience reminds me, that game is unavailable from the Android Store. Oh course, by now there may be "knock-offs" that have been designed for Android Phones (See Update below).

I agree $1.99 for the App/Game/Tool is not too bad. The idea is to PAY for the development of the App/Game/Tool outside of the costs it takes to make the physical board game elements.

As far as seeing it as a "rental"... Well you have it on your PHONE. In an Android world, the game can remain in the Google Play Store for years and it doesn't affect the Developer. In the Apple Store, each YEAR you need to pay a registry fee of $99. So if I'm not making $0.00, I am assuming the costs to make that App/Game/Tool available and it would cut into my profits.

That's why for pure "economics", I would CHARGE for the App/Game/Tool.

And IF you get a NEW phone, you can give the older one to the kids so that they can PLAY the game without worrying about no cell service. All it is is a App/Game/Tool that works ONLINE and OFFLINE too. So your old phone has been given a purpose in life.

I'd imagine IF you got a NEW phone, you could also download the App/Game/Tool if you wished to do so. Like I said on the Android store, the fee is a one-time fee ($25). I don't see the problem of selling it at only $1.99 from the Android Store. The idea was to "offset" the cost of developing the App/Game/Tool in the first place.

It could MAYBE simply be "more expensive" on the Apple Store. Something like $2.99 considering that the fees are HIGHER, I can reasonably assume that the prices for apps are also more costly. I didn't want to under-serve the iPhone community. It's just a question of not having the equipment to conduct tests to ensure that a "cross-platform" tool would also work on the iPhone.

And I have ideas for WHEN such an App/Game/Tool would be required. In another design of mine (not for Quest AC2). But essentially, I understand the reluctance to "integrate" several "platforms" (Physical and Electronic) ... but the phone can do some heavy lifting when it comes to tracking "Experience", unlocking "New Abilities", and "Leveling Up".

So there are definitely "pros" and "cons" of developing such a game with these kind of requirements.

Update: Well it seems like Candy Crush Saga is now AVAILABLE for Android phones. And now there are a TON of options. So I guess with time, that game was ported from iPhone to Android. In addition to all the OTHER games offered by that Developer.