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Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:54 pm
by matt
I know at least one person was waiting for the DRM free version of Retro/Grade to go on sale. Now it has:
https://www.humblebundle.com/store

I know it was just on sale on the PSN store, but basically if anyone offers me a sale, I go for it. I think we sold $34 worth of Retro/Grades last week on Steam, so it seems like crazy discounts on different sites are the only way to try and squeeze any money left out of the title.

Anyway, I just figured I'd let you know! :)

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 11:44 pm
by gagaplex
Done and bought.
It didn't even have to be anywhere near that big a discount for me to grab the DRM-free version, though!
75%, that's a lot! :)

How do sales work, by the way? Do the sites approach the developer and ask them whether they can do a discount? Or do the developers say, hey, how about we do a discount this week? It sounds like you initiated it yourself? Because of the low Steam sales? On the other hand, you said "someone offers me a sale"? So is it the store? Could both sides initiate it if either of them wanted to?

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:43 am
by matt
You can initiate a sale, but if there is no promotional support behind it, then it isn't THAT effective. I wait for someone to offer me a sale because that means it comes with some promotional support. Steam does the Thanksgiving and Holiday sales, so we discounted our game then although we didn't get any promotional support for that. Even still, I think we probably made close to $2,000 from both, which is better than nothing.

Sony put together a music game sale in celebration of the Grammys and invited us to participate. I haven't seen the numbers for that, but hopefully we made at least a thousand.

We've been talking to Humble Store for a while now about getting on that platform. We finally were able to, and they offered us an introductory sale, which we accepted.

We also get a lot of offers from little bundles, which we haven't accepted yet because we are trying to wait for the right "bundle" opportunity.

For every subsequent sale, you get diminishing returns, so really at this point, we are trying to eke the last bit of money we can from the title. There's no way we can turn it into anything other than a financial disaster. However, I learned a lot, and hopefully Neverending Nightmares will have a much warmer reception when it goes on sale.

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:28 pm
by gagaplex
Ah, I see.
So when will you know how much money came in from this Humble Store sale? I'm just curious how many people decide to pick it up like me now.

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:06 pm
by matt
Well, they have somewhat real time stat tracking. We've had 318 purchases so far. Our sale ends Friday morning at 11 am, so I guess I can let you know how we do once the sale ends.

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:41 pm
by Harry Sunderland
Hey Matt, if you ever get invited to be in the Humble Bundle, that would be freakin' awesome. I mean I already own Retro/Grade, but I would love it if all those kiddies who go crazy for HB would get to rock out with Rick Rocket.

BTW I read recently that Skylar M. went to the same university as me. Go Mean Green!

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:24 pm
by matt
Being in the proper Humble Bundle requires Linux and Mac support, which would be a huge undertaking since we foolishly used DirectX on Retro/Grade, so I don't think that will ever happen. We may be able to be part of a Humble Weekly Sale, which doesn't have those restrictions, but I think they do a lot smaller numbers... :-/ Still, it would be better than nothing.

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:58 am
by Harry Sunderland
Oh, I totally didn't even make that connection, but you are right, that stuff in the humble bundle is always cross platform.

Well hey, maybe in 5 years NN can be in one (though it will have outsold Super Mario Bros and Wii Sports combined by then)

Re: Humble Store DRM free Retro/Grade sale!

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:49 pm
by matt
Honestly, the Humble Bundle is so important to indie games, that is a big reason why we decided to support Windows and Mac and write all of our tech using OpenGL/SDL. As much as I hate OpenGL, I like getting paid for my work, so it seems like a reasonable thing to bend on. :)