Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero Value
Are you actually able to use some of it for free, or do you need to pay for any/all of its features?
Buzz, I'm just going to do my best to answer questions here as I'm unclear on the line myself, please go ahead and edit/delete anything I write that you think is over the line.
My current approach with inapp purchase is to give away the basic holdem calculator, and charge for the other games and more advanced features. I'm treating it kind of like an evaluation version, hoping if user is comfortable with how the Holdem calculator works hopefully they'll be more likely to buy the other games. There is also a simple eval mode built in, so you can try every calculator once for free.
Important Note: If you bought the full Galts Motor version 1, all new features should activate automatically and at no charge when you update. But make sure you have it on your phone when you install. If you install version 2 without having version 1 on your device, it has no way to know you were a previous customer and it will run as Free with InApp version.
I'm viewing the market as two general segments. Part time Mix players, ie. poker players who occasionally play mix or a game from the mix and are curious about relative hand values in the games, but don't usually put much time into getting better at poker. My other segment is even smaller (tiny?), "Pros", players who play mix or games from the mix regularly at reasonable stakes and are willing to put time into improving their game play.
There is also a third segment, Holdem only players. I'm assuming lots of users will just download the free version for holdem calculator, use it, and ignore the other features. But they are likely never care to pay for anything, and if they wanted more advanced h=Holdem features they would be better off with PokerCruncher anyways, so I’m ignoring them.
So for part time players, I’ve priced basic version of the Badugi and Deuce calculators at $7 each. They don't support hand ranges or random hands, but do support 2-6 players, 1-3 draws, and dead cards. I'm assuming they wouldn't use or know how to make use of more advanced features.
For the "pro" players, I have a "pro" or "all features" version. All features and game calculators are activated. This includes advanced features such as hand ranges, random hands, hand histograms to view how playable hands are and the calculation history list. Right now pricing this at $29, assuming its reasonable for anyone who plays mix regularly and seriously. Of course I dropped $2,500 last night playing mostly 20-40 so maybe my perspective is screwed up about value and pricing
I'd love feedback if anyone has it on pricing, the inapp purchases, etc. I've probably spent at least 600 hours working on Galts Motor. Version 1 has sold 32 copies since February for total revenues of $397. Including Flop only and Deuce only versions total units were 46 and revenues $450.
Any way you slice it, the most unprofitable app I've ever written by an order of magnitude.
That doesn't bother me, as it's really a labor of love, but the more revenues it generates the more I can justify spending time enhancing it, which I would really like to do. I did consider making it free given how tiny revenues have been, but decided if it can make even a couple hundred bucks a month it would make it far easier to justify spending more time on it (and easier for my wife to tolerate me spending time on it
. There just isn't anything out there for doing good equity calculations in mix games, if there were I would never have started on Galts.