Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Freemium Game Design
Citation preview
FREEMIUM GAME DESIGN Social Games and Free2play Games
Prepared by:
Fawzi Mesmar
ABOUT ME
A passionate game designer with over 10 years of
experience in the industry, I worked on multiple
platforms (PC, Xbox360, XBLA, GBA, Facebook, iOS
and Android). Projects I worked on includes My Little
pony Friendship is magic, My Littlest Pet shop,
Persona 3 Social and many others.
Currently I’m the Principal game designer of
Gameloft NZ
FUNDAMENTALS OF F2P
DESIGN Basic components of Free to play games
GAME LOOP Successful free 2 play design employs infinite loops of gameplay
MLP GAME LOOP
- The game’s main focus is the collection of ponies, so the loop has to be designed around that
- Ponies have to be the deciding factor around giving the player the available resources to get more ponies and so on
Assign
to shop
Collect
Reward
Get
Pony
wait
FARMVILLE GAME
LOOP
- The trend setter of modern freemium game design
- The infinite loop provides monetization opportunities on each step which makes it successful.
Plant
crop
Sell
crop
Plow
land
wait
CONTROLLED SESSIONS Limiting users from burning through your content
ENERGY SYSTEM
- Definition: giving a limited number of resources that refill slowly over time.
- Great for creating scheduled user behaviour not so good for users with easy access.
WAITING TIMES
- An absolute time that you need to wait for a certain element in which you progress.
- Has complete control on average playing sessions for players
- Strong monetization
SUBSCRIPTION BASED
- A prepaid amount for a certain time of gameplay.
- Unsuccessful in most cases except for rare few game genres.
PROGRESSION GATING Intentional grinding segments to hinder player progress
SAMPLE PROGRESSION CHART
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69
Series1
PAY WALLS
- Once the player is familiar with gameplay introduce grind mechanics
- Those mechanics become progressively harder to achieve
- Pay walls should be masked to be a natural part of the game to avoid frustration
HOOK PHASE
- Insure that the player is introduced correctly the game’s mechanics
- Have a taste of premium gameplay
- Rapid progression
- Strong tutorial
SOCIAL GATING
- Some games value user acquisition just as much as monetization
- Can be a double edged sword, but great way to viralize the game
- Has to be timed correctly
SOCIAL DESIGN Games that go viral are more likely to succeed
SOCIAL COMPONENTS
- Freemium games are also known as social games for a reason
- Gifts
- Visiting
- Help your friend
VIRAL FEATURES
- The use of social networks is essentials for free to play games to succeed
- Game Centre
- Steam
ASYNCHRONOUS
SOCIAL DESIGN
- Creating multiplayer experiences without having 2 players online at the same time
- Study social interactions
- Data transfer
- AI supported
REAL TIME SOCIAL
DESIGN
- Two players playing with or against each other at the same time
- Directly affect both players games in real time
- Demands more of the players
- Harder to pull off
RETENTION Getting the users to play the game, then wanting to come back for more
DECAY COMPONENTS
- Creating game mechanics that cause the user to come back to the game
- Elements can go broken or wasted if the player doesn’t check in regularly
WAITING TIMES
- Among perfect example of features that would cause the player to constantly check on their game
DAILY REWARDS
- Similar to coffee cards the object of those features is to create gaming habits as well as retention
MONETIZATION The concept of making money in a free to play game
HARD/PREMIUM
CURRENCY
- The player’s concept of what they’re spending is usually masked by having another currency layer
- The player identifies that whatever is purchased with that currency is valuable, including time
PREMIUM ITEMS
- Items that you can’t have in any other way than direct purchase. Usually used to complete a collection or for bragging rights.
CONSUMABLE
STRATEGY
- Items that are sold to aid in your game but for one time use only
- Power ups
- Revives
- Extra lives
SHORTCUTS
- Help the player skip the otherwise boring parts of the game
- Those boring parts are intentionally placed as well
VANITY ITEMS
- Its very important to capitalize on the players desire of self expression
- Those items do not serve gameplay purposes but they look cool, and delivers a certain message to other players.
ANALYTICS The game of numbers beyond the game itself
DESIGN ON DEMAND
By Data Mining, the designer now has instant access to what features are working and what aren’t; the ability to fix them on the spot and test different markets
Soft Launch
► UPDATING A GAME THAT’S ALREADY RELEASED
WHAT TO TRACK
You need to keep track of user purchases of all items, how often any of
those features are used, and A-B test the UI to find out what’s really
working
► USE THE GAME LOOP TO IDENTIFY THE GAMES MAIN
FEATURES AND TRACK THOSE FIRST
DAU, MAU AND PAU
The initial download number of your game is a good indication of how
successful the title is, however there are other metrics to measure how
much REVENUE its likely to produce
► NOT EVERYONE THAT DOWNLOAD THE GAME COUNT
CONVERSION AND RETENTION RATES
Having a massively successful game that’s not getting income means that
you won’t be able to sustain it for long. You need to know why you’re
losing users if you were and how to convert to paying users if you can.
► ITS IMPORTANT TO FIND WAYS TO TURN DAU INTO PAU
LIVE OPS Maintaining freemium games after release
IMPACT OF UPDATES
ON GAME ANALYTICS
- Updates are important to return interest of users to the game
- More content
- New features
- Bug Fixes
TIME LIMITED EVENTS
AND ITEMS
- Running server side events great help interaction with the game and the audience
- Great source of income
- Massively successful
