A Weekend in Puzzleburg will cost $18 at launch ($20 normal price with a 10% launch discount to reward early players). I would like to emphasize that with A Weekend in Puzzleburg, you're not buying a video game so much as you're buying an entire vacation. One that you can play over and over again whenever you want, getting new experiences each time. All that for under $20.
To arrive at this price, I examined similar games available on Steam both in terms of their price (non-sale price, rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity) and length (completionist play length taken from howlongtobeat.com, rounded to the nearest hour for simplicity), arranged from cheapest to most expensive, and then compared against A Weekend in Puzzleburg. Here are the reference games, along with the same info for A Weekend in Puzzleburg:
- A Short Hike; 5 hours; $8 price
- To the Moon; 5 hours; $10 price
- Stardew Valley; 153 hours; $15 price
- Unpacking; 5 hours; $20 price
- Wayward Strand; 6 hours; $20 price
- TOEM; 6 hours; $20 price
- Life is Strange; 19 hours; $20 price ($40 for Remastered Collection containing the first game and Before the Storm, so $20 each)
- Eastshade; 14 hours; $25 price
- Bugsnax; 14 hours; $25 price
- A Weekend in Puzzleburg; 10 hours (it's 4 hours for a single playthrough, so I'd consider 3 playthroughs for 10 hours as a rough time estimate for a completionist to experience the different books and character builds in the game, and assuming the first playthrough takes longer than subsequent playthroughs); $20 price
In general, similar games available on Steam range from $8-$25, with A Short Hike and To the Moon on the low end ($8 and $10, respectively) and Bugsnax and Eastshade on the high end ($25 each). As such, I feel comfortable setting the price for A Weekend in Puzzleburg at $20, putting the game at the same price as Unpacking, Wayward Strand, TOEM, and Life is Strange. In addition, A Weekend in Puzzleburg supports multiple playthroughs through the use of different character builds and different books to read, whereas these other games are largely one and done experiences.
Will there be regional pricing?
Yes, A Weekend in Puzzleburg will receive regional pricing via Valve's recommended regional prices. In most cases, this results in the price being lower than it would normally be if the price was calculated based off of current exchange rates. I do not pretend to be an expert in buying power for each country across the globe, so I will instead rely on Valve's expertise here.
So there you have it. I hope you pick up A Weekend in Puzzleburg for $17.99 (or whatever you're regionally-adjusted launch discount price is) when the game releases on February 17, 2023. In the meantime, please wishlist and try out the free demo on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1929760/A_Weekend_in_Puzzleburg
Further details can be found on the company's weekly blog post regarding the launch price announcement here: https://sunnydemeanorgames.com/news/articles/how-much-will-a-weekend-in-puzzleburg-cost