One of my main inspirations and favourite metroidvanias is Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight costs around 15$ and when Im honest, my game is by far not that good and polished.
So I knew that my game had to be cheaper.
Reason 2: I know my Audience :)
I posted a lot on Tiktok and I wanted to target younger players. Ofcouse, I really want to earn money to make a living of Indiegames one day, but on the other side I want that everyone can experience Makis Adventure. So I wanted to be under 10$ :)
I spent 2 years developing my first #indiegame and 4 months after release It still did not hit my financial goal (Its still a huge success for me personally)
My game is a 2D-Platformer, which is a pretty oversaturated genre on Steam. The competition was HUGE and the chance to have success with a game of that genre is super small!
Reason 2: Time Management
Im a solo dev, so I had to handle everything on my own. I spent way more time developing the game and marketing started way too late. Also the conversion rate was absolutely terrible for me, so thats a thing I need to keep in mind!