Something I pointed out on Twitter and elsewhere in the last few days: A lot of creators don't have much or any experience with setting prices for a product, and would greatly benefit from some guidance there when putting their product up for sale. When you see that empty price box and you have to decide what you're going to charge for your game that you worked hard on, it can cause a lot of anxiety for people who maybe have never had to think about their game as being more than a labor of love, and that's hard to put a price on--but there are prices that customers are expecting to see for certain products, and creators should have the benefit of that insight.
Something to the tune of a Recommended Price selector with a few choices, as well as the option to set your own different price, might be helpful. Here's the break-down that I presented on Twitter and elsewhere:
- Free - The Freebie: A sampling of something larger, intended to give players a taste of what the creator is capable of
- $5 - The Quickie: A short or quick game that can be played repeatedly and with little time commitment
- $10 - The One Shot: a longer, evening-length game that can be played with little or no preparation, with no requirement to play multiple sessions
- $20 - The Campaign: a longer, multi-evening game that may require commitment from players to invest in an experience that does not end with the first session
Give the creators the option to set their own price (like they do now), but start with those four options as a way to give them a consistent starting point. (If a creator wants to set an alternative Minimum Price that is below their selected Recommended Price, continue to let them do that as well. Creators seem to have a better intuition about setting their minimum prices.)