Any advice on Game Monetisation?

Again, sorry if this is the wrong category!

So I’m fairly new to actually seriously considering monetisation in Games. I recently decided to trial my upcoming project by running a sponsorship on Phone, bidding 500 Robux. (I know it’s a small amount, but I don’t really have the funds to currently run a large advertisement or sponsorship.)
This sponsorship has made roughly 825K+ impressions and has produced a CTR of 0.12%, which from looking at other people’s Ratios, is really, REALLY low.

This has also produced 0 Robux, and I was just wondering if I was doing something incredibly wrong, or if I’m just being really paranoid in the early stages.

So from just under 1,000 visitors, is NO revenue a worrying sign or normal?

If it is a big concern, what steps should I take to improve this?

I really appreciate any suggestions whatsoever!
Game Link in case anyone wanted to see any more information about this game in case it would help with answering.

Thank you!

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For 1k visitors, no revenue is totally normal. I got revenue at 1k members only because the gamepasses were SUPER helpful for beating the game. You should remember that the majority of users who play less-popular games and click on sponsorships are newer, less wealthy players and they are often unable to purchase devproducts or gamepasses.

As to your low CTR percentage, this may be due to your thumbnail. It seems a little bit sloppy and it displays a game style that few players enjoy (I assumed it was horror, please correct me if I’m wrong). I would suggest making a more “artsy” thumbnail (something more unique and eye-catching) that will pique the curiosity of players.

Unfortunately, I cannot test your game right now, however, I will join later tonight and let you know if there are any suggestions I can provide.

I wish you luck with your game development!

2 Likes

Thank you for clearing this up, I was worried there that if I was going to keep investing money in advertisements that I’d be digging myself into a deeper hole.

I will also take into consideration that I should change my game icon; indeed it is a horror game. But I think you are correct, it isn’t very exciting now that I think about it more.

Thank you for the advice!

Edit: Spelling Error

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I would recommend adding more monetization solutions because I’ve made 75R$ with only 200 Visits. If you need help on monetizing your game feel free to shoot me a DevForum DM.

I’m a man of my word, so I tested the game.

Tbh, my first impressions were mixed, but the game got better the more I played - for a non-horror game kind of guy, I enjoyed the round I played.

First Impressions

The very first thing I noticed is that your game requires multiple players to work properly - and you had that. As is uncommon for games with low visit counts, you had a decent amount of players online.

RobloxScreenShot20190706_172508953%20(2)

I also noticed the bleakness of the lobby (and a small bug shown below).

RobloxScreenShot20190706_172604776%20(2)

The credit animation is a bit off, but other than that everything seems to work fine. To be honest with you, the lobby bored me. I waited 3 minutes for the next round to start and had to walk around a marble building with no decor or forms of entertainment.

Skipping ahead, the lobby got even worse. When I finished the round, I was tped back to the lobby, and it destroyed the horror feel. The game went from dark, scary gameplay (accompanied by music) to a light, boring building. The scared feeling was killed.

I would suggest you re-do the lobby entirely. A normal building just doesn’t do it! Maybe add something darker and more horror-like, and add some form of entertainment so that players don’t leave waiting for the next round. Even if it’s just stuff to explore or GUIs with items (kinda like MM2, boring lobby but there’s stuff to do).

Gameplay

Maybe I thought the game was better than it is because I never play such games, but I really had fun! The lighting and camera made it pretty creepy to walk through the hallways not knowing if you were being followed - I found my self twirling in circles out of paranoia.

However, while it was obvious my goal was to not get killed by the bear, I had no idea what and where the “puzzles” were. I would suggest adding a tutorial or GUI instruction box that lets the survivors know what to do. In both rounds I watched (and played), the survivors just ran around until the bear killed them, leading me to three conclusions:

  1. The objective is clear, the how-to isn’t. You won’t be able to retain a player base if the players have no idea what to do.
  2. The bear has the advantage? Question mark because I didn’t play enough rounds to know for sure, but it certainly seemed like the game was much easier for the bear.
  3. You likely won’t receive as much revenue because players can’t understand

SECOND IMPRESSIONS [More Accurate]

I decided to rejoin (because it was fun), and I was wrong about a few things:

  1. I missed the tutorial board. It’s a bit hard to find, and even when you do it’s pretty vague. I’d suggest figuring out an alternative way to give the tutorial.
  2. I figured out how to do the puzzles. I realized that I figured them out pretty quickly, but other players didn’t know what to do.
  3. I played for an hour, and you never lost players! In fact, two players were also there for an hour, so I was wrong about your retention rate. That’s pretty impressive for a game with few visits.
  4. The bear doesn’t have the advantage. GJ on evenly matching the teams!

Suggestions

To avoid being more wordy than I already have been, I will only put in what I haven’t previously mentioned:

  1. Character Override. Playing this game with sound is spooky, playing this game without (visual only) and my happy, colorful character makes the game seem like a nighttime hide and seek. I suggest overriding the characters to a certain avatar (maybe just a dark colored uniform). I strongly suggest doing this because this will let you get so much more monetization chances. You can sell uniforms and hats (kinda like Lab Experiment) with your currency.

  2. On that note of currency, the prices for Bear outfits are outrageous! It took about an hour to make 150 coins and I couldn’t buy a skin until I had 650. I suggest adding many more skins (for survivors, too - that way they won’t get to see there purchase once an hour). This will give you more opportunities to sell your currency and sell limited skins (at holidays or whatever…again, MM2).

  3. Make. More. Gamepasses! Your gamepasses are useful, no suggestions there (except maybe new icons). Add gamepasses like “locate a player” or “double health”. You have to make players want to purchase DevProducts and gamepasses by giving them an incentive to do so.

  4. For heaven’s sake, don’t have floating objects! Each one of your houses and trees aren’t on the ground. On top of this, the circle part of the tree isn’t correctly attached to the trunk. I can send a photo if you need.

Final Notes

What does the cheese thing do!?? I put cheese on it and nothing happened. Btw, I :heart: the Gangsta’s Paradise reference lol

Gameplay Clips

RobloxScreenShot20190706_180648557%20(2)
(Feeding people cheese)

Roblox 2019-07-06 18-06-13 on Vimeo

(Me getting some followers and no, that’s not my real name on the video)

All-in-all, it was a lot of fun and I actually might keep playing it! This game really has potential, and I don’t say that often, so great job! To make sure you keep working hard, I bought a gamepass for ya ;D. I’m short on funds, so I couldn’t buy anything large, sorry!

Hope this helps, and I truly wish your great luck with your game!

6 Likes

Thank You so much for this information!

I really like the sound of your suggestions and I will certainly look into implementing them.
I never realised before how long it took to gain coins, I will certainly increase the rewards per round!
I will also polish the maps as you stated that there are random floating objects.

and Thank you so much for buying a gamepass! I really appreciate that! :smiley:

2 Likes

Necrobump:

HOLY CRAP!! I just saw your game under recommended and thought “hey, that sounds familiar”! 7k concurrent players and 25 million visits, you’re killing it!

Awesome work dude. I still suggest:

good luck!

3 Likes