Chill Monster
Newbie
Not sure if this is the correct forum to post this to but there seems to be a lot of devs here that may be interested, mods feel free to move if there's a more relevant forum / sub.
So here's my two cents on monetization of your games, which is aimed at what I class as "indie" developers, 1 or 2 people with zero budget for marketing. Essentially people that love making games and would like to be able to buy some decent food once in a while
Priced Game
I've been here and done this 3 years ago, my shooter game went on Google Play and the App Store for $0.99 and I thought that worst case scenario I'd get about 1000 downloads on each platform. Over two years I had about 100 on iOS and 60 on Android, TWO years!
I'm not saying that it's impossible to charge for your game but as an unknown dev with no paid marketing, you're going to have to come up with something extremely original + you'll still need a lot of luck. For a complete stranger to part with their cash based on a few screenshots and possibly a video is a HUGE ask, especially when there's a massive amount of high quality free stuff available.
My advice: Make your games FREE, at least until you're on the radar.
Adverts
I also have a game with banner ads, which has about 1200 downloads and is making pennies per month. Personally, I would only ever use banner ads as I feel that interstitial ads ruin the experience, if I see an interstitial within 30 seconds of playing a game, I'll usually delete the app.
My advice: Put banner ad code in your game (I use AdMob) but don't activate it until you've got some download momentum, 500-1000 at least. If you really want to use interstitials, keep them to a minimum.
IAPs
I've never done this as it generally compromises the game design & flow. Adding in-game currency and locking items or levels usually degrades the gameplay experience, which will reduce the chances of your game going viral.
My advice: Unless you've designed your game to take advantage of IAPs from the ground up, don't bother trying to crowbar them in. The only IAP I would ever add would be one to remove adverts, this kind of acts like a priced game, without the leap of faith required to buy a priced game.
Hope this was relatively interesting, feel free to share your successes (or failures) about making money from games.
Thanks,
Ronny
So here's my two cents on monetization of your games, which is aimed at what I class as "indie" developers, 1 or 2 people with zero budget for marketing. Essentially people that love making games and would like to be able to buy some decent food once in a while

Priced Game
I've been here and done this 3 years ago, my shooter game went on Google Play and the App Store for $0.99 and I thought that worst case scenario I'd get about 1000 downloads on each platform. Over two years I had about 100 on iOS and 60 on Android, TWO years!
I'm not saying that it's impossible to charge for your game but as an unknown dev with no paid marketing, you're going to have to come up with something extremely original + you'll still need a lot of luck. For a complete stranger to part with their cash based on a few screenshots and possibly a video is a HUGE ask, especially when there's a massive amount of high quality free stuff available.
My advice: Make your games FREE, at least until you're on the radar.
Adverts
I also have a game with banner ads, which has about 1200 downloads and is making pennies per month. Personally, I would only ever use banner ads as I feel that interstitial ads ruin the experience, if I see an interstitial within 30 seconds of playing a game, I'll usually delete the app.
My advice: Put banner ad code in your game (I use AdMob) but don't activate it until you've got some download momentum, 500-1000 at least. If you really want to use interstitials, keep them to a minimum.
IAPs
I've never done this as it generally compromises the game design & flow. Adding in-game currency and locking items or levels usually degrades the gameplay experience, which will reduce the chances of your game going viral.
My advice: Unless you've designed your game to take advantage of IAPs from the ground up, don't bother trying to crowbar them in. The only IAP I would ever add would be one to remove adverts, this kind of acts like a priced game, without the leap of faith required to buy a priced game.
Hope this was relatively interesting, feel free to share your successes (or failures) about making money from games.
Thanks,
Ronny