On the monetary value of an incremental
(Edit: The author primarily plays incremental games via a web browser, and is not well-acquainted with the more casual mobile incremental game community if there is one. Because of this, please note that the "innovations in the genre" referred to in this post come mostly from web-based incrementals, and the "morally dubious practices" mostly refer to the monetization strategies used by mobile games.)
Historically, incremental games have primarily been free to play. They're released either as mobile apps or on websites, with the mobile applications making money via advertisements and in-app purchases while the web games are made by hobbyists with little to no financial incentives. Because of this, much of the innovations in the incremental genre can trace their roots to free games. (and open source, though that may be simply because GitHub made free hosting more accessible. That's a topic for another day, though.)
However, I've seen a trend in recent times where incremental game enthusiasts are more willing to play and recommend paid incremental games. Examples of these paid recommendations are Increlution, Magic Research, (the) Gnorp Apologue, and Sixty Four. On one hand, it's nice that incremental gamedevs are able to make money without resorting to morally dubious practices. On the other hand, it kind of begs the question as to what these games do to warrant their price tags given the amount of quality incremental games that can be played for free. These highly recommended paid incremental games definitely have a unique component that makes players buy them whether it be story, graphic design (sorely missing in a lot of incrementals), or simply a nice blend of mechanics. But if that's what a game needs to deserve money, then surely many of the free quality incremental games responsible for innovations in the genre deserve some support as well (if they're willing to take it)?
(Idk where to put this but there's also the consideration that incremental games may have harmful effects on a person's mental health on a level more pronounced than most other genres. Make of that what you will.)
Okay, my thoughts are getting scrambled. I will leave you with a few questions (which are mostly the same question):
- What exactly determines how much you'd be willing to pay for an incremental? Are there any paid incremental games you would've purchased if it had a lower (non-zero) price tag?
- Similarly, are there any free incrementals you'd be willing to pay money to play? And how much would you be willing to pay in order to play them?
- What are your opinions on supporting the developers of free incremental games? (Or just free games in general)
Forgive me if this post is unclear or repeating itself. I spent an hour writing this and I don't want to spend any more time on it.