Monetization Philosophy

CONTRABAND is free to play through all four endings. The optional paid content is four expanded epilogues ($4.99 each) and occasional cosmetics. This post explains why, and what alternatives I considered.

The options I considered

Before committing to the free + epilogue model, I seriously considered:

• Flat price ($10-15 up front). Simplest. Also the biggest barrier — most browser game players will not pay anything to try a game.
• Pay-what-you-want. Worked for Braid at launch, generally underperforms today. Players default to $0 unless explicitly guided.
• Patreon / subscription. Requires ongoing content releases. My game is a finite narrative experience, not a service.
• Microtransactions (cosmetics, lootboxes). Reliable revenue but undermines the game's tone. Lootboxes in a game about timeline ethics would be tonally catastrophic.
• Ad-supported. Terrible UX for a narrative game. Immersion-breaking.

None felt right. The free + paid epilogue model was my fourth or fifth pass at this question.

Why free base game

Browser games compete in an attention market. A prospective player clicks your link, plays for 30 seconds, and decides whether to invest more time. If there's a payment wall in those 30 seconds, they leave. Always. I watched this happen in playtests with demo-locked prototypes. The conversion from free-to-paid is low but positive; the conversion from locked-to-paid is zero.

Making the base game fully free (all four endings reachable) removes the attention barrier. Players experience the complete narrative and form a relationship with the world. If they want more, the paid epilogues are there. If they don't, they've still received a complete game for free.

This is not the most profitable model. It's the model I believe aligns with how I want players to feel about the game. Profit second, relationship first.

Why epilogues specifically

The four paid epilogues extend each ending with 2-3 hours of additional content. Structurally, they are perfect for a paid expansion because:

• They are strictly additive. The base ending is complete without them. Buying an epilogue doesn't unlock something that should have been free.
• They follow narrative closure. By the time the base game ends, players know whether they want more time with the world. This makes the purchase decision rational rather than FOMO-driven.
• They are production-expensive but conceptually simple. Adding content to an existing world is cheaper than starting new. The production economics support low per-epilogue pricing.
• They fit a finite narrative. Unlike subscription models that require continuous content, epilogues are a one-time purchase for defined content.

Each epilogue has its own narrative focus: the Sacred Timeline epilogue follows the pilot's post-closure life; the Multiverse epilogue explores life with full multiplicity awareness; Another Life continues the stolen life; Burn explores complete erasure. They deepen the base endings rather than changing them.

Cosmetics

The game sells a small number of cosmetic items — ship hull paint variants, ASCII portrait color overrides, UI theme options. Each is $2.99. These exist because some players want to pay even when they don't need to, and cosmetics give them a way to do so without affecting gameplay.

I explicitly avoided selling anything that affects gameplay. No stat boosts, no faster progression, no exclusive crew members. Purely aesthetic. Purchasing a cosmetic makes your ship look different; it never makes you better at the game. This matters because gameplay purchases create a two-tier experience — paid players win, free players struggle. Cosmetic purchases create a different experience without a hierarchy.

The bundle

The four-epilogue bundle is $12.99 versus $19.96 for individual purchases. This is a 35% discount. The bundle exists because players who enjoy the base game enough to buy one epilogue often want all four. Bundling at a discount makes that easier to commit to.

I considered pricing the bundle at the individual-price-sum, making it a convenience purchase rather than a discount. Testing showed that a discounted bundle significantly increases total revenue — players who would have bought 1-2 epilogues buy all 4 if the bundle is cheaper than just buying 3 separately. The discount pays for itself.

What I won't do

The following are explicitly off the table for CONTRABAND:

• Loot boxes or gacha mechanics. Ever. Not even cosmetic ones.
• Limited-time content. No FOMO-driven purchases. Everything available today is available tomorrow.
• Currency conversion. No "in-game gems" that abstract real money. Prices are shown in USD directly.
• Ads. No advertising of any kind, not even interstitials during transitions.
• Sale of gameplay advantages. Nothing that buys faster progression or power.

Honest numbers

This model earns less per player than aggressive monetization would. My average revenue per paying user is approximately $8-12 (bundle + one cosmetic). A comparable mobile game with gacha could earn $50-500 per paying user.

But my conversion rate is significantly higher. Roughly 4% of players who finish the base game purchase at least one epilogue, vs the 1% industry average for F2P games. Players who pay feel good about paying. That means more lifetime engagement, more recommendations to friends, and more sustained revenue from a smaller player base.

The model is smaller but healthier. That's the trade I chose.