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Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still

Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still IAP. Also you can probably add just about any modern (i.e. non-Hasbro) board game conversion to this list. Almost all of them charge a fee up front and won't have anything more than some DLC for their expansions. Like Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Through the Ages, etc. I'm actually working on a mobile game in my spare time right now, and while I normally like to charge money for them I thought I'd try the IAP route this time, but I wasn't planning on making it anywhere near as obnoxious as most IAP games. Ads you can pay a few bucks to remove, then a couple of consumables that are optional and you can earn during a game anyway if you're lucky, but can buy more if you want (it's a push your luck game, so luck is part of the design), that's about it. I'm not looking to make all of the money in the world like these big companies are, just hopefully enough to make some side income and maybe eventually switch to making games full time. I tried playing a Jeopardy game recently, and it just bombards you with screens of crap constantly. Here's a screen where you can pay to add an item for a round! Use your items to help you answer a question slightly easier! Oh you won! Let's update your win streak! (or Oh no! you lost, you're about to go to 0 on your win streak, but if you pay, you can keep it up, and you'll get a reward if you keep it going enough!), then here's some special event that earns you some random nonsense for getting a question right! here's a level up screen! here's a screen that pesters you about something else (I don't know, I lost track after awhile). Just on and on, and in your face. I can't believe people will spend money for these stupid win streaks and whatnot. So yeah, I'm hoping mine doesn't come across as obnoxious (obviously it wouldn't qualify for the No-Bullshit list, though). And if it doesn't do well, at least it helped me get back in the swing of making mobile games again (it's been like 6 years). Good luck with your website, it looks nice! If you can add a few extra filters to it, you might have better discoverability than the Apple App Store, which has been too "Winner-Take-All because we refuse to highlight more than a handful of games or give proper filtering options" for forever.

StavrosK 7y ago
> Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still IAP. That's why I called it "No-Bullshit Games" instead of "No-IAP games" :P > Ads you can pay a few bucks to remove That's fine by me. > then a couple of consumables that are optional and you can earn during a game anyway if you're lucky, but can buy more if you want (it's a push your luck game, so luck is part of the design) That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. That said, it doesn't sound nearly as annoying as some of the crap I've installed. > yeah, I'm hoping mine doesn't come across as obnoxious (obviously it wouldn't qualify for the No-Bullshit list, though). Oh, I didn't read this far before starting the reply :P I hope so too, and yeah, it probably wouldn't qualify. Good luck with the game, I hope it goes well!
- dangoor 7y ago
  >> then a couple of consumables that are optional and you can earn during a game anyway if you're lucky, but can buy more if you want (it's a push your luck game, so luck is part of the design) > That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. That said, it doesn't sound nearly as annoying as some of the crap I've installed. I realize that there is an editorial aspect to this, and I think that's a valuable thing. As with any editorial choice, there will always be these interesting questions at the boundary between acceptable and not. Where do you fall on Fortnite? Fortnite makes raftloads of money, but doesn't require any purchases to win or give advantages in play to purchasers. They make their money primarily from cosmetic add-ons. People who play a lot for free can still claim new skins and such. I would argue that Fortnite is actually No BS, but I can also see how it's borderline because you could spend virtually unlimited amounts of money in it. But is that the dividing line?
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    You're exactly right that there's an editorial line, so this list reflects my personal beliefs and classification on BS/noBS. I think cosmetics are fine, since you can fully enjoy the game without them, and if a game ONLY has cosmetics, it can go on the list (there's even a dropdown item for that in the submission form).
    - dangoor 7y ago
      Cool. FWIW, that sounds like a good line between BS/No BS to me!
- cableshaft 7y ago
  > That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. It probably won't be too much of a FOMO thing really. The game is mainly just a "see how far you get" game, kind of like a Flappy Bird or Temple Run type game, but choice based, not dexterity based. If you choose poorly you can lose pretty quickly, but then you can just start the game over again if you want. But if you're like "wow, this is the furthest I've been, let's go for it this time!" or whatever, and you burned through the items that you earned during the course of the game, well you could just see if you get lucky and get farther, or you can spend money to get a bundle of items help ensure you survive a bit longer. But the game is designed that if you keep making the right choices you can continue indefinitely (in practice, though, you will almost certainly pick wrong enough times at some point... I've simulated it, and with 100,000+ simulations, it doesn't get further than a certain point, and it's super rare to get that high). Personally it's not something I ever spend money on in these things, but I'm pretty anti-IAP for my own personal use and have rarely spent money on IAP in general, but I enjoy playing the game just to see how far I can get just with the items I earn during the game, so I'm hoping even some players that are anti-IAP will enjoy the game anyway. Because ultimately I'm trying to make a fun game, just add some way to make some money while not charging up front for it.
nottorp 7y ago
> Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still IAP. DLC that adds actual content is fine. They used to be called "expansions" :)

StavrosK 7y ago

> Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still IAP. That's why I called it "No-Bullshit Games" instead of "No-IAP games" :P > Ads you can pay a few bucks to remove That's fine by me. > then a couple of consumables that are optional and you can earn during a game anyway if you're lucky, but can buy more if you want (it's a push your luck game, so luck is part of the design) That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. That said, it doesn't sound nearly as annoying as some of the crap I've installed. > yeah, I'm hoping mine doesn't come across as obnoxious (obviously it wouldn't qualify for the No-Bullshit list, though). Oh, I didn't read this far before starting the reply :P I hope so too, and yeah, it probably wouldn't qualify. Good luck with the game, I hope it goes well!

dangoor 7y ago
>> then a couple of consumables that are optional and you can earn during a game anyway if you're lucky, but can buy more if you want (it's a push your luck game, so luck is part of the design) > That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. That said, it doesn't sound nearly as annoying as some of the crap I've installed. I realize that there is an editorial aspect to this, and I think that's a valuable thing. As with any editorial choice, there will always be these interesting questions at the boundary between acceptable and not. Where do you fall on Fortnite? Fortnite makes raftloads of money, but doesn't require any purchases to win or give advantages in play to purchasers. They make their money primarily from cosmetic add-ons. People who play a lot for free can still claim new skins and such. I would argue that Fortnite is actually No BS, but I can also see how it's borderline because you could spend virtually unlimited amounts of money in it. But is that the dividing line?
- StavrosK 7y ago
  You're exactly right that there's an editorial line, so this list reflects my personal beliefs and classification on BS/noBS. I think cosmetics are fine, since you can fully enjoy the game without them, and if a game ONLY has cosmetics, it can go on the list (there's even a dropdown item for that in the submission form).
  - dangoor 7y ago
    Cool. FWIW, that sounds like a good line between BS/No BS to me!
cableshaft 7y ago
> That's where I kind of start to consider the game "bullshit", I want to play and enjoy myself, not have constant FOMO of what could be if only I'd spent some more money. It probably won't be too much of a FOMO thing really. The game is mainly just a "see how far you get" game, kind of like a Flappy Bird or Temple Run type game, but choice based, not dexterity based. If you choose poorly you can lose pretty quickly, but then you can just start the game over again if you want. But if you're like "wow, this is the furthest I've been, let's go for it this time!" or whatever, and you burned through the items that you earned during the course of the game, well you could just see if you get lucky and get farther, or you can spend money to get a bundle of items help ensure you survive a bit longer. But the game is designed that if you keep making the right choices you can continue indefinitely (in practice, though, you will almost certainly pick wrong enough times at some point... I've simulated it, and with 100,000+ simulations, it doesn't get further than a certain point, and it's super rare to get that high). Personally it's not something I ever spend money on in these things, but I'm pretty anti-IAP for my own personal use and have rarely spent money on IAP in general, but I enjoy playing the game just to see how far I can get just with the items I earn during the game, so I'm hoping even some players that are anti-IAP will enjoy the game anyway. Because ultimately I'm trying to make a fun game, just add some way to make some money while not charging up front for it.

nottorp 7y ago

> Clever idea. I'm curious why you decided to allow games with DLC though. That's technically an In-App Purchase. I get it's not a Consumable IAP, but it's still IAP. DLC that adds actual content is fine. They used to be called "expansions" :)