Monetizing an adventure game

[jaydax]

Well I finally finished the first draft of the adventure story I've been working on. The question is, how to monetize it. I've explored several options:

• I could produce it as an interactive ebook but that would limit it to using the AZW3 or EPUB3 formats since it saves data  and uses textboxes and JavaScript to check answers.
  
  
• I could produce it as an Android app and sell that.
  
• I could produce an ebook with links to multiple pages. However some passages require text boxes to answer riddles and giving the answer as a list of options would make the riddles too easy.

What I've decided upon for now, is to produce the story as an HTML application which will open in a browser and make that available free (it's at jaydax.co.uk/corr/ .)


As to monetizing it, I'm now producing a book of hints and cheats to go with it. That will be a conventional ebook selling for $0.99. Let's hope lots of people enjoy the game and get stuck.

Try the game out. I'll give you a couple of clues to start you off.

1. Don't enter the castle unless you have found a lamp, a coin and a bundle of branches
2. Don't move if it's dark.

[chelsfield]

Got lost in the forest and couldn't get out! Fell out of a tree, but did find a gold coin. Not very good at these games...

[jaydax]

The best route is NW, NE, S, get the lamp, N, SW, S, get twigs, W, get coin, N, up, down - and you are ready to enter the castle. Save because you will die often. There are 50 ways to die - well 49 really, but one way is worse than death.

[chelsfield]

'50 ways to die' - sounds like a good name for the game!

[jaydax]

Good idea - I may use it as a subtitle.

[galatea]

Haha, reminds me of my old Atari. I had this book with thousands of lines of code you had to overtype. Then, after inserting all that code you got an adventure game just like this one. It was all text and no graphics. You had to choose your direction by choosing N, W, E, S. And you always had to note down on a paper what steps you had taken. Otherwise you got lost. Or killed.

I forgot to take notes on this one :-D So I got lost. I did find the lamp, the branches and the coin though...

Loved what happened if you rubbed the lamp and climbed a tree.

[jaydax]

That lamp is tricky. It needs recharging. You can do that at the fountain of youth but that can also destroy it completely. There's a second lamp more like the one you were thinking about. It's broken though and has a bullet hole through it. The fountain of youth will repair it BUT having a functioning genie lamp is not quite the advantage you expect because the genie is an ex-lawyer. He will grant your wishes but not the way you are thinking of.