Freemium Game Design
Hi guys,
I wanted to share some knowledge with the community hoping it might help some of you out there. I am writing this quickly before work and I will try to add to it every time I get a chance. Here is part one.
Freemium Game Design and Fun Part 1
Fun is at the core of any successful Freemium game now more than ever. As the market has become flooded with clones of all sorts we see more and more often that the ones who are most focused on fun for the gamer are the ones that emerge on top. But fun is not enough. The appstore is filled with amazing games that decided to go “Freemium” but committed the Game Killing Sin of not considering their monetization as part of their core game loop.
A basic Farming game has the following core game loop:
Plant >>Wait || Skip >> Harvest
With this you can clearly see that monetization is worked into the core game loop. Monetization works on frustration and fun, as we learn from “The Theory of Fun” is derived from learning at the correct pace (The perfect balance of Fun and Frustration) so from this point it leads us to the understanding that the correct balance of frustration leads to either Retention of players (Fun) or Monetization of players (Frustration).
The problem here is that if you are too aggressive in your monetization you will lose your retention but if you are too focused on retention you will not monetize at all. Note that this mechanic is just as true for a fighting game, shooter game or strategy game as for a farming game. In a fighting game you would have Battle >> Lose (Pay to Retry) || Win (Get Loot) >> Customize Character.
Beyond this core loop you also have GPI (Global Progression Indicators) that are fed by participating in the core game loop. These are mainly the beloved Level that is fed by the XP system and IGC (In Game Currency) which you can think of in real life terms as Wealth (IGC) and Influence (Level). It is important that all actions in the game always have an effect on the GPI, either directly or indirectly. If you neglect the GPI in a mechanic you risk moving to a linear system where your game progression is driven in a linear path with no options, which will bring about Boredom and drop of retention with no monetization value.
I wanted to share some knowledge with the community hoping it might help some of you out there. I am writing this quickly before work and I will try to add to it every time I get a chance. Here is part one.
Freemium Game Design and Fun Part 1
Fun is at the core of any successful Freemium game now more than ever. As the market has become flooded with clones of all sorts we see more and more often that the ones who are most focused on fun for the gamer are the ones that emerge on top. But fun is not enough. The appstore is filled with amazing games that decided to go “Freemium” but committed the Game Killing Sin of not considering their monetization as part of their core game loop.
A basic Farming game has the following core game loop:
Plant >>Wait || Skip >> Harvest
With this you can clearly see that monetization is worked into the core game loop. Monetization works on frustration and fun, as we learn from “The Theory of Fun” is derived from learning at the correct pace (The perfect balance of Fun and Frustration) so from this point it leads us to the understanding that the correct balance of frustration leads to either Retention of players (Fun) or Monetization of players (Frustration).
The problem here is that if you are too aggressive in your monetization you will lose your retention but if you are too focused on retention you will not monetize at all. Note that this mechanic is just as true for a fighting game, shooter game or strategy game as for a farming game. In a fighting game you would have Battle >> Lose (Pay to Retry) || Win (Get Loot) >> Customize Character.
Beyond this core loop you also have GPI (Global Progression Indicators) that are fed by participating in the core game loop. These are mainly the beloved Level that is fed by the XP system and IGC (In Game Currency) which you can think of in real life terms as Wealth (IGC) and Influence (Level). It is important that all actions in the game always have an effect on the GPI, either directly or indirectly. If you neglect the GPI in a mechanic you risk moving to a linear system where your game progression is driven in a linear path with no options, which will bring about Boredom and drop of retention with no monetization value.
CoreLoop.jpg
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CoreLoopWithGPI.jpg
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Comments
So I look forward to some insights into the freemium model. Intrinsically I'm really not sure how to approach that model without intrinsically feeling icky about it myself, but I'm sure that's more a personal thing than a practical, real thing.
Looking forward to learning more about good freemium!!!
So I feel like it might be a bit quick to assume this is "good" freemium ;) This isn't how LoL works, for instance.
My first thoughts on the matter is that Freemium is not a Genre, it is a business model, you can either sell your game directly, ask for a subscription or work through micro transactions. The reason that Freemium is beating the others are first, Low barrier to entry and secondly because it is a sustainable business model (you don't just get a little money from each person who installs your game, you get on going income for maintaining your game). The game I am working on right now has been running for 3years and is still raking in more money than most, and contrary to the idea that Evil Freemium games make money, this game has always focused on adding value to the player experience and making sure that there is always a free way to obtain progression. It is just that some players prefer to pay rather than work for it.
Freemium games can border on ethically questionable boundaries by using "Emotional Blackmail" but indy developers need to get over this whole idea that Freemium is bad, the depends on how you do it.
I look at it this way, in the 80s there was a boom of great game developers coming up and we still today remember some of those names, John Carmack, John Romero, Peter Molyneux, Raph Koster, Sid Meyers and more. The problem is since their days it has become nearly impossible to become one of the Greats of AAA Game development, but Freemium and social games not only give you this opportunity to become a Great, but the art of virality has made it possible to become a massive success without the need for a publisher who is just going to exploit you to make money anyway.
In the end, as an indy you should be finding new ways to make this model of game work for you and for your players. My final thoughts on "Freemium games are evil" "Those who care don't matter and those who matter don't care."
@Bladesway I do agree with @dislekcia in that monetising through putting barriers in the players' way isn't "good freemium". I dig Triple Town's freemium model, it's more like a try-before-you-buy. And LOL's model is buying more content - not buying a way through artificial obstacles. The one is a reward vs removing a barrier.
The way that indies may think freemium is borderline "emotional blackmail" is because most freemium games use the same loop which does induce emotional blackmail. The games I cited above uses rewards as opposed to barriers to encourage buy-in, and I guess that's an important part of the distinction.
If there are theories of "traditional freemium" that could assist in developing "good freemium", it'd be valuable :)
But simply saying that indies must just *get over* their stigma about freemium won't really convince anyone - it needs to be shown and proven!
Do you know who's responsible for Puzzle & Dragons, for instance? I don't.
Small scale, clever, addictive, fun and profitable games is what small game teams can make. Everyone can and has an opinion on this topic, but I would like to give some people who are open to it the chance to learn and be exposed to an alternative approach so they can hopefully run with it.
What exactly is a Global Progression Indicator? Can you give some examples? I'm not sure how this system and the fact that you need to keep feeding back into it will determine if the game is linear or not? Can you explain this further?
Basically I'm n00b at this and I don't know if I understand your framework fully, can you elaborate a bit more?
Secondly, I'm not convinced that copycat methodologies are a good fit for local tech businesses that intend to scale globally. If they were, all the local Groupon clones would be doing a hell of a lot better. In fact, very few of the local clones of successful international business models in the tech entrepreneurship space do well and most end up stumbling along before shutting down amidst all sorts of stupid shouting and politics. The actual drivers of success in the local tech scene appear to be unique approaches to problems and innovation in terms of market discovery, without those two factors, local businesses don't scale internationally. Both of those are applicable to the games industry and almost always result in indie teams building games they love for markets that might otherwise be under-served.
There's also strong evidence that local tech industry-building hinges much more on specific instances of individual success than it does on investment or copycat business models. So the argument there is that international investment and businesses coming to SA doesn't actually drive much value locally, compared to the odd breakout indie game. We've certainly seen much better (and smarter) media attention trend around local non-freemium game projects recently, but no similar trend of coverage of freemium games like Blue Leaf's MoonBase... Note that MoonBase seems to be doing reasonably well for them, if not a runaway success, so I'm not knocking it in the slightest - I'm just pointing out that if freemium were the way to "respectability" as an industry locally, we'd expect to see the opposite press emphasis. And I'm not disagreeing with the idea that people should learn as much as possible. I just learn by engaging and asking questions (I seriously don't know the designer behind Puzzle & Dragons and am genuinely curious). Part of learning for me is asking how useful a particular concept is and putting that in the context of what I'm trying to achieve. I'm simply not convinced that traditional fun-tax freemium is a great place to be competing against the big (and very scary) companies that already have that sewn down.
I'm also not convinced that freemium doesn't impact game design negatively. Even something as well-regarded as LoL in the freemium arena has design issues due to their monetization strategy: They can't ever stop releasing new champions, for instance. That's going to cause issues with power creep as the game collects more and more champions nobody uses anymore. It's how these systems that you highlighted in your OP interact with the actual mechanics of a game that seem to be where the friction lies.
Plus I feel like releasing multiple stand-alone products is a better way to scale financially than constantly supporting the same product for an audience other people are competing for just as hard.
On releasing new stuff and power-creeping, it's an inevitable result of a piecemeal monetising strategy, and despite the fact that I left Magic precisely because of that, I'm absolutely ok with the same concept (continually releasing new content which will probably eventually result in power creep) in Netrunner, provided that they manage it to the absolute best of their ability and not make me buy random cards, 90% of which are expected to be thrown away.
To me, that differentiation forms the basis of making-people-pay-to-remove-artificial-barriers freemium vs rewarding freemium.
@Bladesway
I don't think freemium needs to be traditional freemium for it to make money. I'm not really interested in the "ethics" of it all - despite the models being called "good" and "bad", I have nothing against people who make and play those games - they like that, more power to them. I don't like that, and I don't need people to be on the same side as me.
So my position is - if there are learnings in what you know that could help develop freemium models that I do like, awesome! :)
Monetisation System's like LOL / Dota / Team Fortress haven't been shown to work well on indie scale (as far as I am aware). I think it's an incredibly interesting space for experimental design. I'd love to see those conventions expounded on and abstracted as well (so we can try apply them or play with those conventions). (And I'd love to know more about theoretical models for freemium).
My position is that knowing what the conventions are, and understanding how they work, is critical in any field.
And I think @Bladesway is very helpfully, and very succinctly, outlining the conventions for us in the standard freemium model and explaining them. I'd like to hear the second part.
And I freakin love abstract models with diagrams! It's like science!
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/04/how-gungho-online-entertainment-created-puzzle-dragons-the-surprise-billion-dollar-mobile-game/ - Meet the guy that was behind Puzzle and dragon, interesting interview as they focused on fun.
Virality in games, very interesting and great for understanding
http://blip.tv/casual-connect-conference-videos/virality-is-dead-stephanie-kaiser-4857816
Interesting that an influential AAA guy is behind Zenga gamified
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1013798/Bears-and-Snakes-The-Wild
Raph Koster in also now Freemium designer for Playdom specifically on the Facebook Marvel: Avengers Alliance game
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1016632/A-Theory-of-Fun-10
I think anyone can learn a lot from these links.
If you want we can talk combat freemium games instead of Farming games, but The mechanics in a Combat game are a lot more complex and in order to fit it in any kind of reasonable discussion I would have to speak very conceptual. I figured farming would be easier to explain and understand, but none the less, I can switch to it if you like?
On Maintaining a game vs building a new game, I am afraid I disagree that it is a better business model, but I think a balance is the ideal business model. If you don't like to maintain it and the game is successful, hire a team to maintain it for you. To keep a company running (Freemium or not) you would need several games releasing every year, if one makes it then you have funding to do another round. on freemium games you will have income for a few months if it is infinity playable. but as you can see in the "Virality is dead?" talk there is a lot of value in keeping a game running and maintaining it if you are making money off it monthly than just releasing and moving on.
I completely understand your frustration though, and I know it well. I would say that it takes an entirely different personality of person to Maintain vs Develop. Developing a new game is a lot more of a rush and adrenalin pumps all the time, but maintaining is also rewarding as you get to see instant effects on the new mechanics you introduce.
Personally I love making new games, but I want to maintain and learn how to maintain, so I do this now to learn and build games in my spare time to stimulate myself creatively. God Bless Unity.
Does this make it more clear for you? If not I can Take more time and try to write a full piece on it with some examples?
In regards to Combat and Farming games, I found Level was extremely important to players when I was building Monster Blade, when we did player focus tests all the players had a strong desire to replay monsters to grind XP and level up to become more powerful. We also used Level to unlock instructional loading screens that introduce new mechanics such as a new move in the combo system, deeper understanding of the elemental system and I increased complexity of the monsters that the player was facing in terms of their attack list.
So, as it seems everyone is more interested in Combat based Freemium I will switch to that. Now Combat Freemium games are very different since they are aimed at a predominantly male audience who are competitive, hoarders or best of all, both. However there are similarities and I will try to point them out as I go.
So let’s get a few technical terms out the way first:
DAU: Daily Active Users
ARPU: Average Revenue per User
ARPPU: Average Revenue per Paying User
ARPU/DAU: Average Revenue per Daily Active User
Retention = DAU
Monetization = ARPU
Ok, now that we have those down, what I want to say is that in Casual Freemium Combat Games (I am not talking about LoL or Team Fortress 2 which are completely different and not casual) we have very high ARPU and low DAU. Where a typical farming game might have around USD1.3 ARPU/DAU a well-designed Freemium Combat Game could easily reach USD2.5 and even USD3.0 ARPU/DAU. This is because combat games carry a higher sense of frustration and this particular style of frustration is well known to the player so they are not scared off by it very easily.
Eg. In Puzzle and Dragon you enter the battle and fight up to 6 battles before you reach the boss, where you get killed. You have two choices, exit the game with no loot, play again and see if you can get through the tough assortment of minions to reach the boss again with more HP and special powers ready so you can try again, or Retry instantly with all HP returned (for money).
Now in the above example you would call this boss, which is rather hard to beat, a Pay Gate. If you have too many pay gates following each other you will lose your players, so it is very important that you space them well.
To manage your DAU vs ARPU it will come down to the idea of balancing Pay Gates. Now earlier I said that this type of frustration is not foreign to the gamer, and the reason I say that is when you are playing a game like Dues Ex you come to Boss fights from time to time which are incredibly hard to defeat and force the player to try over and over and over until he finally defeats the boss. For me personally this has been extremely frustrating and even led to a Rage Quit once or twice.
Now the key here is that just like in a AAA game, you can also push your player to Force Quit the game if you make it too hard, so your pacing should require a lot of work/grind to pass the Pay Gate but never completely stop progression to try and force the player to pay. You need to remember that only about 0.2% of players on a farming game and around 2% of players on a combat game will be willing to pay at all. Remember, DAU X ARPU = Income. So DAU is important.
Basically, Look After your Non-Payers like gold, they are the champions of your game, the real gamers that want to know every inch of it and are willing to spend hours and hours learning it.
So What is important in Freemium Combat Games? (Let’s say this is a competitive hoarder type game)
- Replay-ability
- Something to Collect
- Something to Show off
- A Leaderboard system which makes the highest person on it the biggest target (I will explain this later)
- A good balance with Valleys and Peaks in difficulty
- A Meta Game Loop that runs through a Monetization Point
- A Fun Core Gameplay Loop
Ok, so now I have said a bunch of things that are making some of you go “Huh?” Although I will try to cover it all in future posts, let me start with the most important of all. Good Balancing…
As Game Designers Balancing is one of our main functions and there are many ways to do this. Personally I have worked with Excel Sheets that feed into CSV files or into XML files, but the way you want to feed your balancing it to the game is really up to you and your coding resources.
I will go into the How to set up a balancing sheet thing later, since that is a really really really really intense topic, but let me start with what the read out should look like.
The Player learning curve in your game would be fast at the start and then start to flatten out over time, you can prolong this and try to add more complex mechanics over time in order to keep stimulating the player, but if you do this for too long you will over complicate the game and make the barrier for re-entry really high. Basically if the player hasn’t played in a month he shouldn’t need to redo the tutorial to be able to play the game again at his current level.
http://www.makegamessa.com/utility/thumbnail/FileUpload/55/76c13f5b84a30d6716765a8c26207b.jpg
Now the next part is to create valleys and peaks in your difficulty through the game stats, so you need an understanding of what makes your game Hard or Easy and then manipulate that data for pacing. In Combat that would be the Player Stats with Appropriate Armor Divided by the Monster Total Stats that he would be facing. In farming games it would be the missions and the Quantities that the player needs to supply.
Now once you have these two curves you try to predict the actual difficulty of the game.
So the true Difficulty would be the Stat Difficulty minus the Player Skill.