I’m not familiar with Game Maker… From what I’m seeing on their website, they have an “Ubuntu Export” for an extra $100 on top of the Professional version of their software (http://www.yoyogames.com/news/144). I think you’re guaranteed to get $100 from Linux buyers. But if you’re not convinced it’d be worth it, you could run a little Kickstarter to raise those funds.

I’d be willing to pay $5 for the game. $10, probably. $15, probably not.

I wouldn’t go with a pay what you want model unless you care more about people playing the game than making money. Though you might want to look into it half a year after release. Or if you end up making another game.

I’ve had my eye on this game for awhile now, looking forward to it coming out.

Pay what you want is certainly an intriguing idea, I’d probably gravitate towards paying $5, but it may depend on what the default slider value is ;-)

As an off-the-wall idea, if you just didn’t want to bother with the tax hassle of accounting and declaring the income from selling the game, get in contact with a local charity and have any payments route to them. In the UK, you could decide to give the tax credits to the charity as well, or keep them for yourself as a less-hassle form of income. You’d want to check with an accountant to confirm how that would work though.

More than anything though, just hanging out to have a play with the game!

Lovely game. 10-15AUD would be perfect. Would Buy. Right now.

a) How much time and effort went into this? Also, how much money did it cost you? (e.g. getting the software necessary, or payment you may have made to artists who drew, animated and/or composed music for the game)
b) How many levels are there and approximately how many hours does it take to complete the game?
c) Will additional content be available as free updates or will it also cost additional money through DLC?

Thoughts on answers:

a) You should definitely think about how much this cost you. You should think about a fair charge for that basic cost and how many people would buy it at that price. Steam amazing in that it’s easy to buy games there especially if they cost just a couple of bucks. I think in time a lot of people would buy it, especially if there are occasional special deals (from 10% to 50%, whatever it takes).

b) There’s a two-part consideration process to this. First, AAA titles are generally 60 bucks and they are generally expected to provide a good experience for about 20-30 hours to be considered “worth it”. By this standard, 2-3 bucks for 1 hour seems fair. However, the second part, which will contradict this, is the fact that many people assume just because some game is 2D, cute and colorful, indie, and/or downloadable, it means it’s not worth the full price of AAA games. I don’t agree but this is a general assumption. So consider making it seem very cheap, especially considering people will think that the monetary cost of making this game is much lower than an average AAA title (even though they might not consider the time and effort at all). So, I hate to be harsh but consider 1 dollar for 2-3 hours. A 10 hour game for 5 bucks doesn’t sound so bad, especially if you add some extra content that’ll keep people going, like some kinda sandbox mode, maybe an endless mode that keeps creating some random levels, level creator that allows people to share their own levels, or whatever…

c) If there’s DLC on the way, just try to make the original game as cheap as possible and the DLCs also (like 1 dollar for a 10-to-20-level DLC).

Also, you have the advantage of having the intent to give it away for free anyway. So you can make it even cheaper than it’s worth, or even cheaper than most people would think it’s worth. You won’t be losing anything really if the alternative is giving it away, and if you make it cost very little (like under 5 bucks), chances are more and more people are gonna buy it for themselves and as gifts to their buddies, and recommend it to others.

Sorry for the long post. I’m eagerly waiting to be able to play this game.

Peoples generosity will surprise you as well.

Is it worth _my_ money? Not really, I’m not that interested in purchasing the game myself. If it was free, I’d probably give it a try and quit after trying it out shortly.

The point is, for what it is, it very much seems like you could charge money for it. What it is just doesn’t happen to be to my tastes. A game of similar quality with content I’d be more interested in, I’d pay money for (I’d be willing to pay as much as 15-25 euro, but I’m nuts anyways).