How much to charge for your game?

There is no right and wrong answer to this question. For every person you ask, you could get a different answer, with valid reasoning to back it up.

From what I've seen on the RPG portals, good games can sell for $10-$20, with players not complaining or expressing regret. This is on average. There are some really cheap games ($5, say) that people have said weren't worth the money, and a few higher than those prices that they've said have been worth it.

So there's no "best price" for an RPG.

I think you should base it on how long your game is (extending the duration by making players backtrack a lot or by using large maps that aren't interesting does not make the game worth more money), and how good your story is. Compare it to others, see what they're charging, and what customers are saying about the price - and about the game. Is your game good enough in comparison to charge a higher (or the same) price? Custom resources don't necessarily make a game better or worth more money.

If you sell your game through smaller RPG portals, you can set your own price. Once you start heading to the bigger casual portals, you're stuck at their competitive $6.99 pricetag.

Another thing is slowing down the hero on purpose, and players don't like it either.

Indeed, there is (much) more to a RPG than that. A good scenario, good characters, good replay value, can also make a huge difference.

As for the topic - I don't have a definite answer. I'm always experimenting, with the mindset of trying to be fair to the player. Do your own experiments and see what works best for you. If you want to go commercial, it is likely you will release more than just one game, so you can always adjust based on your past experiences.

Pricing can be really tricky, most people equate lower prices to lower quality even though you may be thinking of being fair to the customer they may just think it's cheap because it's bad. This is especially critical on your first commercial game, where people don't know what to really expect.

I always thought 10$ for a good game was fair, as long as your game is enjoyable and not a chore (In game tutorials/hints, gameplay options, etc).

My 2cents on this subject.

If you are hiring a 2d artist, pixel artist, musician or coder, then your game will probably be running on a medium budget. You are definitely targetting the stars with such a team and it will take 4-12months at least of development for such a premium rpgmaker game. The game will probably have many custom assets in terms of graphics/musics/battle or menu system and it will probably be on a league of its own. As any respectful Rpg, it should also have 15-30hrs at least of gameplay with a good scenario. So, a base price of 15-19.99usd seems the way to go for first time comers.

If your game have only some custom assets since you are on a low budget, you are probably not aiming for fame and want to make a 1st step in the commercial market to test the waters. The development may be easier than a premium game with probably a 2-5 months of hard work for completion. A base price of 10-15usd seems fair.

If you are on your own for this one, then it may means that you want to get a name first in the market, sell the game for fun or that you don't have sufficient budget to hire people. So the game will probably be more likely to ressemble a typical rpg maker game with some tweaks here and there. The development for such game will depend on your free time and dedication since you are the sole leader on this project and not depending on anyone. A price of 10 usd or lower seems fair.

Now if you've made an Rpg game with RTP in 2-4 weeks and want to sell it. Then you must ask yourself if this game is really worth the hassle to be put in a commercial market without saturating the market itself. A good Rpg takes a lot of time from the developper to polish the story/gameplay/battle system/bug testing and probably no serious rpg will be developped in a 1 month time frame for a commercial market. Of course, there are exceptions where a good rpg can be finished in 1month but this is rare. If you are this category, a price of 3-9usd seems appropriate for this.

Again if you don't have knowledge of coding scripts, a good game can be done with Events only.

Game pricing is a funny business - it almost seems to utterly defy the laws of Supply and Demand (note: in a 'free' market price determines Supply and Demand, not vice versa)

Take MMO's. They were at $14.99 a month FOREVAH. Seriously, I think going all the way back to The Realm and Meridian59. Only very recently have developers dared to brave new waters there, and that with many of the big boys running to FTP models.

PC games (not MMO's) seem to fall into two categories: AAA and casual, with not a whole lot of room left in between for stuff to live. I suppose you could say the nostalgic stuff at good old games fills that void, along with some Steam. AAA games are priced at $49.99 and up ($59.99 quickly becoming the new standard), and casual games clocking in at $19.99 (often for a 'collection) or lower. Online distribution says that Thou shalt pay $6.99 per game, unless it is a collector's edition in which case thou shalt charge $12.99. Sales and daily deals shall be $2.99. Anything else is right out.

Art assets. Conventional wisdom says you need to have lots of good custom artwork to sell your game, but I remember a AAA title from not too long ago called The Witcher (which justly earned many awards and accolades) which had a cast of several. You had Fat Merchant #1-29, Scrawny Old Hermit #1-17, Peasant Woman #1-46, etc... Yeah, the game took some flak for that, but everything else was just so over the top outstanding it was easy enough to overlook.

On my Nintendo DS I'm playing some of the old Dragon Warrior (now called Dragonquest) games. They didn't even bother to change the horrible translations (and some of these were bad... like 'All your base are belong to us' bad). They can always use the 'nostalgia' excuse, personally I think they just didn't want to throw any money at them, but they still sold pretty well at $19.99 for quite a while before the price started coming down as the newer ones were released.

What does any of this have to do with RPG Maker games? I don't know. Maybe everything. Maybe nothing. Does the person buying your game know it was made with RPG Maker? Do they care? Did the people buying and raving about Knights of the Old Republic know that the engine was lifted lock, stock, and barrel from Neverwinter Nights? (Seriously, they didn't even change the class names in the .2da files)

Some games (and software development in general) are finished quickly but polished. Others take forever and look like they were done by a trained chimp supervising a bunch of interns (the last Final Fantasy MMO debacle, anyone?). One company releases their games Soon, while most have release dates set by marketing or management (ie: when the development money runs out) and out it goes, ready or not.

Fast, cheap, good.

Pick two.

Some know, and most don't care. Why would they?

They rightfully like these games, and return for more, so in the end it's all that matters.

Like I've said before the market doesn't care that the game was made with RPG Maker at all.To them it's just another game for sale. I find it ridiculous that some people say that RPG Maker games shouldn't sold for more than ten dollars.I wonder if Unity users are the same way. <_<

Any way when pricing your game keep in mind of expenses.