Pinch – an innovative puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Using the multi-touch controls of the iPhone, players will take control of the Norbs; tiny nanobots with the sole purpose of conquering the mazes and puzzles which make up their world. The
Norbs can change in size and colour by separating apart and merging with one another. The player achieves this by ‘pinching’ the screen – a crucial maneuver that the game derives its namesake from. Players will be familiar with performing this action in other iPhone applications, such as Google Maps and Safari.

The game will feature 40 levels on release, categorised into Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty sections (with Tutorials to begin with). These will be complimented with regular updates, new levels and other DLC options.

Pinch is scheduled to be released on 30th April 2010. The planned release price is 99c.

Just thought we’d let anyone who reads this blog know exactly what we’re sending out in press releases. We’ll be talking about our experiences with press contact and marketing in due course.

The SFX will be produced by Tapio Liukkonen of Kaamossound. Click the picture above to check out Tapio’s website.

The music will be produced by Vincent Webb. Click here to check out Vince’s impressive portfolio.

We’re really looking forward to working with two great artists, and what they can bring to the project.

We’ve spent several months watching the market while we develop. We even conjured up a market research file, and a document which looked at several cases of low-budget independent developers, their games, and their sales (some of which I’ve already posted here). As part of the conclusion of that document we stated the following:

• A low price bracket (between 99c – $2.99) would be wisest for our first few titles, until we become better known, and have a better idea of what to expect from the market;
• Starting with a bottom-line price of 99c may be effective in garnering as many purchases as possible during the ‘opening rush’, followed by increasing the price, and then lowering it if/when sales dip – this would increase overall popularity stats for the game, including number of reviews;

We still think this is a good general plan. There is the idea that pricing your app too low can have a negative impact on sales, as consumers equate quality with price. We agree with this, to an extent… some users will see a low price app and assume it’s rubbish. But, if you overprice your app you’re treading on thin ice as a new developer. We’ve seen several games produce terrible sales due to overpricing. It’s all well and good producing the most innovative, addictive little game ever, but if nobody buys it because it’s $3.99 and they’ve never heard of it or you, you may find yourself drowning in obscurity.

There are some notoriously popular apps made by small teams that have been priced at 99c since day one and sold millions – Pocket God, for example. Equally, there are plenty that went down the pan, so-to-speak. But it seems to us that it’s more of a risk to overprice, than underprice. So, we’ll be pricing Pinch at 99c for the first little while, and maybe increase it if it gets popular. If you make a name with the first game, you can price the sequel at $5 a pop.

That’s what we think anyway.

PS – We’ll be posting the full Market Research document at some point. Hopefully it’ll come in useful for someone!

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