Truth and Price Changes (All Projects)

A few days ago this game was published on Amazon Appstore. Two days later, as I was submitting an update, Amazon arbitrarily decided there was some sort of "Intellectual Property infringement" and then suddenly without warning, without pointing out or explaining the problem, Amazon pulled down Wicked City Defense Squad and perma-banned my Developer Account and black-listed me from selling anything on Amazon in the future... I have no idea what could have set them off like that. I sent int a ticket, of course, but it was both a kick in the nuts and a bit of a wake-up call.

The truth is, this is maybe my 5th or 6th project but it is only the 3rd I've attempted to publish and definitely the 1st where I used template assets that I purchased a 1-seat license to. (Similar to here on Itch where you purchase artwork or music that is for commercial use)

I'm constantly starting things and rarely finishing. I developed Wicked City Defense Squad specifically to practice finishing something. Hence purchasing said license for the template assets. Even still, the majority of those template assets were replaced with my own work that I did myself, pixel by pixel, with my own two hands. Anything else (like the 2 chiptunes or some sfx) was Creative Commons Zero from OpenGameArt.

So long story short, I have no idea... no possible clue as to why Amazon would get so bent out of shape. The only thing... the ONLY thing I can think of is because one armor piece was called Road Warrior? Maybe? But why not just point that out and say "hey, you can't do that"? Why blow me up and explode my Amazon Developer career like that?

Google Play now wants indie devs to provide a minimum of 20 registered testers who can each provide a minimum of 2 hours playtime each within the course of the same 2 weeks. That requirement is waved if you are a big enough company to qualify for a line of business credit with a particular 3rd party.

Amazon can and will try to randomly blow up your life.

I don't dabble in Mac or iOS really.

So with those three marketplaces out the door, Google AdMob is no longer available for a small-time solo indie dev like me. That pretty much means no ads. I don't even want to think about what it means for in-app purchasing (IAP) and whatever else. I'm literally boxed out of the market here and I'm too underfunded and too powerless to do anything about it. If it weren't for places like Steam and Itch, I'd be delegated to the indie dev life equivalent of some obscure geocities webhost.

With that being said, I am shifting my position and pivoting to a different monetization plan. With the amount of time and effort I put into these projects and with how little people play them when they are free anyway, I am going to go the penny arcade type route and just charge small flat fees for my games. Maybe $1 here or $3 there. Forget ads and big storefront marketplaces. If I have to start burning my games onto blank CDs all bootleg style, then that's what I'll do. I'm not about to get boxed out of doing what I love by some suit-dick corporations.

Sorry ahead of time to anyone who can't afford stuff. But the difference here is they're all big companies and I'm just me. If you're just some kid or you're really broke and for some reason you really want to play one of my games just ask me. If you can get ahold of me, I'll probably be just thrilled you want to play my game and send you a key or something.

But this new pricing thing will be true moving forward on all my projects. I'm not even gonna bother with ads and big business anymore. Not trying to get rich. Just trying to eat, keep the lights on, and make sweet games.