Are You Willing to Pay???

Image By: SalFalko

How much is TOO MUCH for an Android game? How much is too little?

These questions plague me as a I prepare to release my upcoming game on the Android Market, hopefully within a month or so. I've spent nearly a year and a half, mostly after hours because I have a day job also, developing a rather simple ball-jumping-platform-puzzler... for lack of a better description, and I'm quite proud of it. Heck, it even has an on-device level editor you can use to create your own levels! But it's no Mario. In fact, it's more along the lines of something like Lunar Lander. Will people be willing to pay 99 cents for something I've poured countless hours into? And honestly, it feels a little devaluing (is that a word?) to charge a mere buck for something that's taken so much time, effort, and... sacrifice.

There's always a cost, or many costs, when you pursue something you truly enjoy. And I'm talking about more than just the cost of the man-hours invested in a project! In my case, I can't tell you how many family movie times, story times, or bedtime songs I've missed to "keep plugging away" at some urgent-seeming code. In retrospect, I doubt that any piece of code is ever that urgent.

Also perhaps ironically, I haven't played any games in a long time, which is a very sad fact for someone who used to love first-person shooters and who is also on a journey to become a GAME developer! The truth is, whenever I consider playing a new game, my thought process goes something like "Why should I play another game right now when I could be using this precious little time to work on MY game?"

And let's not forget the cost of lost sleep and late mornings. Feeling dead tired in the morning because you were up until 2 or 3am the night before is a major drain, repeated occurrences of which can (and in my case did) lead to major burnouts. At one point I had to take a couple months hiatus from my personal development to get some rest. That was a tough call for me, but was important to get some sanity back. In the end, taking some time off allowed me to get some distance and come back with fresh perspectives.

All this isn't to say I regret the time I've spent working on the game. Over time, I've established a discipline of only developing a couple nights a week, though they do still tend to be late nights requiring a major shot of caffeine when I wake up. But I think it's good to realize with any passion you pursue, unless you're lucky enough to already do it for a living, that there are many potential costs to consider.

So if you're about to pursue something awesome on your own time, the question remains...

Are you willing to pay?

Oh, and... keep your eyes open for a game called "JUMP!" landing on a market near you very soon :)