TUAW's Daily App: The Ultimate Alphabet

@harkonian: a single letter is a full, self-contained gaming experience. Not partial, not crippled (what nonsense) And that's hours of gameplay. It's true! I bought A and C and I'll buy the other letters if i feel like it just like I'd buy another issue of my favourite crossword mag if i feel like it.

Actually, it's almost too bad there can only be 26 episodes.
If the hour limit annoys you just spend 2 bucks to keep playing a game you seem to like.. makes sense no?

@mack

What you are essentially saying then, is that the whole model of "release a cheap or free game and then sell new levels as in-app purchases" is not viable. Any game that does this will eventually result in a total cost of ownership of $45 or more - so long as people like it enough to buy new levels, and enough new levels are made available.

You can argue that $1.75 for a new level in a game is too much, but really, I think that's an unrealistic workd view. How many hours' entertainment do you expect for your dollar? Based on the number of hours I've spent on the letter A so far, $1.75 is most certainly a bargain rate.

Would you object if Angry birds offered up another 26 sections, priced at $2 each? I've finished Angry Birds - I'm not even close to finishing the letter A.

Considering if you get through all of the letters once, you've essentially finished the whole thing, $45 does seem pretty high to me as well.

As a side note, Mike, I'd like your job playing games please. :)

I bought this a week or so ago - it's a great app. Thoroughly absorbing - it's easy to lose hours in there.

I'm really don't agree with your assessment on pricing though:

"it's prohibitively expensive"

It works out at under $2 per letter, and each letter would take many hours to complete. There's no compulsion to buy each letter - if you find you're not getting $2 worth of enjoyment out of each one, you don't have to buy any more. And unless you're an obsessive player with way too much spare time on your hands, the chances are that the full cost of the alphabet would be spread out over very many months.

I've lost count of the number of games for which I've paid $2 that provided far less enjoyment than a single letter of this richly detailed app. The price point seems spot on to me.

Prohibitive? Get a grip.