Uh, it's pretty obvious in the game which in-app purchases can be unlocked. But you're right, there shouldn't be any cost to the game at all. God forbid someone make money off of their hard work. 
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Strategic Puzzle Game 'Polymer' Available for Free for a Limited Time
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The point is, as a customer of games, why should I have to go out of my way to determine if a game in-app purchases are detrimental to the game play instead of just assuming that they are. As a consumer I'm drawing a line in the sand and trying to make it clear to developers that this method of nickeling and diming people is NOT acceptable. If they aren't making money from it, maybe they will stop doing it.
The only in-game app purchases should be for full / partial unlocks. But they should be worded as such :
Full Game Unlock : $9.99
Levels 10 to 20 Unlock : $1.99
Levels 20 to 30 Unlock : $1.99
Clean and accurate Descriptions.
If it reads,
200 coins : $1.99
1000 coins : $4.99
5000 coins : $9.99
I know that in game you're going to be screwed if you don't buy the coins. Sure there are some games where you can buy coins (or other in-game things) to speed up some things, and some games are fair. Temple Run is a fair game, you can play it a reasonable amount of time and get enough gems / coins to complete the game. MOST other games you cannot.
Thus when it says, "Bomb Pack" or something else like that, a consumer has NO way of knowing how detrimental it is to the game.
On top of this, stop calling the games FREE! They aren't free, they are trial ware. Means you get to try the game, and if you like it, you have to buy something to complete it.
Again, it isn't about doing research to find out what the in-app purchases are about, that is very easy to do. But MOST end consumers don't do this, so calling a game "FREE" and then forcing them to buy things to continue or unlock things, or something else, is NOT FREE. And as a consumer, I hate this model, so much so that I want developers to know that I will NOT support it in any way shape or form. Thus I'm trying to make that clear.
FREE -- You can download it and play without having to spend a penny on it.
PAID -- You pay so much for the game, and can complete it normally without having to pay anything more.
TRIAL -- You download the free version, and then have to pay to unlock the full version.
DEMO -- Similar to the full version but locked out features / levels. Buying the full version to get the whole game.
IN-APP Supported -- Game costs nothing to download but requires in-app purchases to complete / advance / etc...
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Uh, it's pretty obvious in the game which in-app purchases can be unlocked. But you're right, there shouldn't be any cost to the game at all. God forbid someone make money off of their hard work.
Never said that. I said be honest about it. Don't call it free and then make people pay once they start playing. Either make a demo version, or call it TRIALWARE or make it clear that it's in-app supported. DON'T call it FREE. Especially don't say, "FREE for a limited time!"
It's not Trialware. It's free. There is no part of the game that is held back from non-paying customers (other than a few color packs, big deal). I played it and got all the unlockables. I didn't pay a dime. Do you know what something is called when you can play it and not pay for it? That's called "free."
This isn't some random game you stumbled upon in the App Store. This game is featured in a MacRumors article pointing to their sister site TouchArcade offering a highly rated app for FREE for a limited time.
This is Polymer if you get it right now.
This is Polymer if you wait until the limited time is over.
tA forum moderator LordGek says:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2241264&postcount=32
I personally tried it for a while and Polymer is definitely "grind or pay" in a certain way (maybe call it a smart/soft grind). But grinding is kind of fun in this game (and you can see it as "learning" if you want). It's REALLY hard to tell if it's freemium or not. And devs don't care to make it much clearer (although they have to know more about their IAPs because they put a huge effort in programming them). And this is bad.
So I would say that MacRumors user CylonGlitch isn't completely wrong here. Nevertheless the game is brilliant. But I can absolutely understand people saying "boycott unclear IAPs". It's my opinion as well but I make a rare exception on Polymer because the game is really good and nobody should miss the experience.
So keep it that way: Play Polymer as long as you like it (I did that for much more than one hour and I didn't pay for extras). If you hit a paywall or greedy/unfair devs/publishers (mostly their marketing departement): Don't buy anything (post-boycott)! Delete the game. Don't worry. Continue with the next good and really "free free" iOS game (I have a list in my blog).
Switch off In-App Purchases system wide in "Settings > General > Restrictions" (if you give your iOS device to children p.e.).
In short: I recommend Polymer but with heavy reservations.
Have a look at Big Bad Sudoku book.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/big-bad-sudoku-book/id364907966?mt=8
"Free" for a limited time right now. The dev shows how it's done right. In the main app description you can read:
Exemplary standard!
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I'm not one to pass up a paid game becoming free for a short time; let alone complain about it. If you don't like the game without the in-app purchases, then remove it from your device. No loss, and obviously no gain (unless we're talking about storage space ). It really is that simple.
It was free, it is entertaining (although a bit challenging), and chances are you complainers aren't going to accomplish a damn thing.
Cheers!
~Steve
). It really is that simple.It was free, it is entertaining (although a bit challenging), and chances are you complainers aren't going to accomplish a damn thing.
Cheers!
~Steve
I downloaded it and it was fun. I only played for about an hour, give or take, but it was worth the free download and the small amount of time I put in it.
I've also downloaded it. I like abstract puzzles like this.
I've managed to unlock everything but the 3-sided piece and the Big Ten Pack (which is not important), and I haven't spent a dime in-app or even played it that much, so I don't see any real "freemium" problems here. I unlocked the 4-sided piece just by playing One Polymer mode one time-- well, I got unusually lucky and generated a polymer worth over 600,000 points, but still...
I've managed to unlock everything but the 3-sided piece and the Big Ten Pack (which is not important), and I haven't spent a dime in-app or even played it that much, so I don't see any real "freemium" problems here. I unlocked the 4-sided piece just by playing One Polymer mode one time-- well, I got unusually lucky and generated a polymer worth over 600,000 points, but still...