Hello there unity community. I am currently developing a simple and casual game. Something in the style of angry birds and cut the rope. A game that is based on levels and a 3 star rating per level. The gameplay itself I have already gotten something fun and quite addicting.
My Issue now is the the monetization’s design. If any one with experience in this could give me a good tip. What would be the best way for me to monetize? Would it be a sistem like the one of the famous “crossy road” where the player has points and by watching ads he can get more points wich then gives him a random character. Or would a different approach like for example, when the player looses and the score screen appears a little banner add appears on the bottom of the screen. What would you say would be the best way both for me as the developer, and the player him/herself ?
Some more details about the game : the player has to basically shoot “lightballs” into a specific target with a little puzzle in every level. Which means that I could perheaps shape the player into diferent forms other than a ball and thus recreating the previously mentioned crossy road’s tecnique.
I haven’t made any games (published) yet but I am happy to give feedback on what I’ve seen & liked/disliked. I also don’t know what pittance the ad companies pay per ad.
Ads that stop the gameplay (inbetween levels) or are on the screen near the controls so are accidentally touched are a big turn off. I’ve uninstalled games because of that.
Games that stop you playing for hours while your lives regenerate unless you buy more are bad. Again I’ve uninstalled the worst. That said, the ones that force a short break, like 20-30 minutes are ok as I use the time to do something else then jump back in.
I’ve played some games where you can choose to watch ads to earn items. Sometimes just gold to then spend, sometimes gems that can be used for less common items. This could be tweaked to something like: watch an ad, earn a token. Spend tokens at any time for gold or save 5 tokens & redeem for a gem. That kind of balance sometimes forces me to keep playing so I get the opportunity to watch 1 more ad so I can get the gem I need, but sometimes I cave & trade early for gold for that short term gain.
If the levels can be completed with all the different character options then collectors won’t mind working towards getting them. If each character also introduces different options to complete each level then that opens up additional playability & could also lead to extra achievements (like complete a level with 3 characters, 5 characters etc) so achievement hunters may keep playing. Either option feeds into the other so longevity might be achieved as well. Randomising the characters is best as that way people keep playing until they get the one/s they want instead of being able to get it straight away.
If players can also purchase gold/gems/tokens randomise the use. I’ve spent on world of tanks to get a tank I wanted & then stopped playing shortly afterwards as it got boring & I wasn't going to spend more. I've also spent on marvel match 3 & the cards are randomised so I got some I wanted, some I never knew I wanted & then had to buy extra character slots to put them in as I couldn’t bring myself to trade the cards in. Hearthstone works in a similar way & has the same effect on my wife’s gameplay. Many people have said that it helps balance the need for $ & the pay to win issue.
Giving players an advantage (super character) if they use cash will give negative feedback along the lines of its a pay to win game. I, & many others, have stopped playing games because of that.
Hope this gives something you can use. If I think of anything else or you want me to clarify I’m happy to reply again.
Thanks for the feedback. You just helped me take one more item of the list.
Until now, I’m not really certain about what to do, but I’m starting to get the hang of what NOT to do. Definetly Stopping the gameplay is not on my list anymore. At first I thought about a simple sistem where the player needed coins in order to progress to the future levels by buying theire openings with coins, and if they didn’t had enought, they could simply watch an add and have that level open for them. But since I have heard both from you, and from my game design teacher not to stop a player from playing, perheaps that isn’t such a good idea after all.
Currently I’m aiming for that watch & reward sistem. But I keep having this one issue. What would my players want to have the most inside my game? You gave me a pretty good idea of using different characters but not just that. Having achievements that requires the player to finish the levels with different characters. My Girlfriend told me that a big plus to this character changing mechanism would be to actually change something more than just the player. Since my game is somewhat futuristic with all theese lights, I’m aiming the soundtrack to be also futuristic, and with that, I’d say dubstep with something that quite resembles 8 bit sound effects. By changing that per character I could be creating a bonus motivation for players to actually want all the characters. But my issue still remains. What would mobile casual gamers want to collect in my game? And furthermore, how can I create characters that are appealing to players?
Different sounds are good, but could be difficult as the sound effects can add or detract from a game a lot, so instead of perfecting it for one level you would be trying to perfect it for each level & differentiate for each character at the same time.
As to collections, look to the main drivers. Some players want to get every achievement available, others want to get every character available, in your case some players may want to get every sound system available, some want to collect every coin in a level
You say that your puzzles use light, does the colour of the light have any impact? Could solving a puzzle with one colour open the next level but finishing it with a different colour not only opens the next level but opens a hidden level? (Sort of like the amiibo thing of different characters unlocking different hidden features).
Stopping progress if you don’t achieve 3 stars in each puzzle in a level would be bad, but maybe letting the player progress with 80% might work & then include a bonus token or level if they get 95% or 100% so perhaps they watch ads to earn hint tokens that they use on the levels they had difficulty with.
All of these will require testing so you can watch the effect on your players. Some may be able to be tweaked after go live. I played one game that had no ads & you earnt gold in game which you could use to buy puzzle packs made up of the free daily puzzles they released. They also sold other packs only available for about $2+ each. Hints could be purchased using the in game gold earnt. They then put ads in which popped up every couple of puzzles, a week after that they must’ve had feedback as they released an update that changed it to a pop up asking if you wanted to watch ads to earn bonus gold, then they updated later to let you turn those messages off in settings. Once they changed to the pop up I found I watched more ads even though I didn’t need the free gold as they gave me the option to watch or not watch. When they first put the ads in & they were mandatory I was really annoyed & didn’t play anywhere near as often, now I play daily & watch the ads as I want them to get that tiny bit of income to help them keep going as they seem to actually care about their players & getting that balance right.
The problem I see with sound is that, I am by no means a sound artist. My knowleague is quite minimum, which means that a the very best I would have to hire an artist for that. For which I do not have much money for.
The lights do not have much more impact other than teaching the player what is what. For instance, I’m using green for anything that is good for the player. For example, the “finish line” has a green light, whereas the Red light means that the player will loose if he hits that certain object. What you say’d could perheaps open up room for a few new achievments.
Regarding that “Ads for Tips” sistem. That sounds quite interesting. My only concearn would be : What if players don’t really want nor really care about the tips? That may drastically reduce how much income I recieve. Perheaps if I joined that together with the concept of having collectable coins ( which can only be collected one ) with the idea of having tips which can be seen after watching an advertisment. Joining that with different characters who would be bought by the coins sistem. About the characters, it is quite likely that players would want to collect if not all, at least a few, giving me a minimum income. The tips sistem would back that up raising that a bit further.
I am currently designing my game as a Chapters with levels sistem. Exactly like in the games I mentioned earlier. I was thinking about adding 1 or 2 In-App-Purchasable chapters with a lot of different a new levels. Perheaps even adding new mechanics. From a quick google search, I found out that in app purchases are basically the highest income the companies usually have.
I think if you can find a layered approach it would be best so that players have the option of what bits they want & are willing to watch ads or pay for without penalising players that don’t want to spend or watch too many ads (i think most would be willing to suffer a few ads). That lets people just play, target the bits they want, or go for everything. I also think that a broader base of income might be more effective than having one major income stream & hoping enough people do it. Lots of little income soon adds up.
If you still want to go ahead, then a non invasive model like crossy road is a good idea.
The system gives you a random new character each day. So a dedicated casual player good unlock everything without spending a cent. Players that do this are likely to be great evangelists, so don’t begrudge them a free game experience.
The system also includes optional ads. By making the ads optional players actually figure they are doing something nice when they click to watch an ad, rather then the game is forcing them to. Nothing brings an uninstall as fast as forced ads.
The system lets you try new characters before you buy them. This system of advertising the IAPs before forcing players to buy them is great. It adds more to the experience of a casual player, at the same time providing another route for players to buy new characters.
Finally there is the characters themselves. These are entirely visual. There is no pay to win (another great way to drive uninstalls). But having them does make the game seem different. Plus having a dragon roast trees and cars is just awesome, even if it has no game effect.
A final thing to consider from crossy road is the low cost of development. Creating the game was cheap. Adding new content is cheap. This means that there is no need to wring every last cent out of the players, making the whole experience better for everyone involved.
I’ve read the article on gamasutra. To be honest, it made it clear for me that until now I have been thinking more about revenue than about player experience. But with one part I quite disagree. the “Do NOT monetize your games yet!” part. Imagine you publish a completely free game. you then get 5 million downloads like the author said. And now you say. Well, I am ready for monetization, so you start developing a second title, and when it comes out, your product get’s only 20k downloads. You would have thrown away your biggest chance of actually getting a lot of money wich you could be using as investment in future projects. I agree with the idea of not overthinking monetization. But I disagree of not using it.
That being said. I will take it less into consideration, but I am going to monetize using the character and tips sistem, wich at least for me, seem to be the best non agressive way. Players recieve non pay to win items and I can perheaps recieve a bit of revenue wich I may use on advertisments for my game or for the development of future ones.
While we are on this topic, I would like to ask. Are pay’d games a good business? For sure a free game with in-app purchases or monetization would definetly have way more downloads. But given that, everyone who buys the game , would be giving profit. What are the big differences between download rates? Do pay’d games actually scare people, or do they not care much as long as the game looks polished ?
One day you will look back at this post and laugh at the idea of getting 5 million downloads on your first game. I would suggest building and releasing your first game as quickly as possible to get over this idea. Nothing brings you down to earth like $1.30 in revenue and a rating of 2.4.
But back on topic there are successes with both free to play and premium models. Each has its own traps and pitfalls, but both can be done successfully.
I never said I would be getting 5 million downloads on my first game. I’m just saying that, in case my product does reach a fairly good ammount of people, I could take that to my advantage. And also, monetization is harder than it looks. If it is not very well implemented then there is no way of actually getting a good player base with a good revenue. Following your line of thinking, the only way to learn is by trial and failure. How would one learn what to do and what not to do without ever experimenting ?
I Also never insunuated that this was my first game. I do have some experience publishing games and recieving feedback for them. The problem is, they were horrible games with horrible polish. After these inicial failures, I am now seeking to make a career out of game development by developing with higher quality.
I did some research on this for a game I’m designing and my final verdict was to go with a ‘get in-game money for watching a non skippable add’ and a micro transaction system where players can buy small/medium/large ‘bags of in-game money’ where large basically unlocks every customizable item in the game.
It also depends on what your audience is. If your game is targeted towards children I think it is a bad idea to implement micro transactions, but advertisements might be fantastic if they are customized towards children. I think a child wouldn’t mind watching an advertisement video about ‘Frozen’ for some in-game money.
Got to be careful with ads targeted at children. You have to keep both the parents and the kids happy. My kids aren’t allowed to install aps or get in ap purchases. And any ap that takes them out of the ap and redirects them somewhere else gets uninstalled.
The point of handing off phones to kids is to keep them entertained and quiet for a time. Not to be closing ap store windows and finding the hidden x to close an ad every three minutes.
I meant that you could have an advertisement windows like in Crossy Road. The advertisement video is shown inside the game so the game is not closed, no outside windows pop up and no redirects that require payment information or anything. You can show the child advertisements directed towards children and the child receives some in-game currency to unlock new characters or outfits as a bonus for watching that ‘movie’. You’d have to make sure that those advertisements are child friendly and focussed on young children though so you don’t get any unpleasant surprises.
I assume that even a child wouldn’t want to watch the same video a dozen times, although my little brother has watched the movie Monsters inc more times than I can count when he was young. I don’t think parents would mind that their child was playing the game or watching the same ‘movie’ over and over, as long as the child is entertained and the app is safe for children. That means no possibility of spending real money and no ‘violent/adult content’.
*Oh crap, I just understood what you are saying. Most of the time advertisements are meant to be clicked of course and then you are redirected to purchase or download the advertised product. Hmm yes that creates a problem. As an example I guess you as a game developer could contact toy manufacturers and make an agreement. Since they want their toys advertised and you can show them how effective your app is at marketing their product to their audience.
yeah, & need to ensure that you don’t show gambling ads to kids (even tho the poker machine industry fund some of the biggest poker machine games they aren’t classed as gambling due to a legal loop-hole but us parents know & uninstall the games that advertise those things). I heard an interview with the crossy road guys where they mentioned they made a conscious decision to find an ad package that was ok for kids, even though the random character is shown similar to a poker machine in game.
Edit: It wasn’t crossy road, they said they did a different way to randomise it (like those old gumball machines). It was someone else, possibly jetpack joyride?
Is this your first, second, or third game? If so, I’m going to agree with Sasa Stublic. That link explains it perfectly - any other advice I might offer would be premature.
@Gigiwoo has a point. Seriously, monetizing your game is something you do, when you know what you’re doing, and have a firm grasp on it. If not, don’t monetize - it’s more important that your work is out there, and people seeing it and giving you feedback to improve.
This thread is a little old but I thought I’d respond since you didn’t really get any good answers. Folks saying that you shouldn’t build any monetization into your game because you don’t have a lot of experience are just giving bad advice. Like it or not, to be successful on mobile, you have to think about monetization as part of your design. Trying to tack it on after your mechanics are designed will fail. Methods like “watch a video for virtual currency” are basically the lowest revenue and most disruptive ways to include monetization, and you and your players will be better served if you think about how to integrate monetization into your game mechanics up front.
Also people suggesting you should sell cosmetic items and that “pay to win” is a no-no are misinformed. Pay to win is completely acceptable in a single player game, and cosmetic items lose a ton of value in a single player game (since a lot of the draw of cosmetic items is to show them off). Cosmetic items do still have their place, but they lose value if other players can’t see them, and should be considered a secondary revenue stream.
I don’t want to completely discredit what others are saying - it is also very valid to release free games with no microtransactions just to get practice. But you aren’t getting practice at one of the most important things you need to learn on mobile, which is designing with monetization in mind.
With that said, I’m going to give you my advice on how to monetize a game like you describe. As a side-note, you can learn all of this just by doing some competitive analysis of some top grossing puzzlers similar to the game you are designing.
Time gating. Candy crush and others do this, and it is fairly common. You get some number of lives, and each play costs a life (win or lose), and it takes x minutes (usually 10 or 20) to earn a life. So if you have 4 lives and play 4 times, you have to wait 40-80 minutes for all 4 to recharge. You can pay to refill lives early.
Difficulty gating. Candy crush also does this well. Basically there are certain levels that take many more tries than an average level to beat. These are meant to “pinch” the player and push them to pay. You can monetize this in a few ways:
“Second chance” - the player pays to extend their play by x moves or x time. The nice thing about this (for you, not for the player), is that they may pay you to extend time and still not beat the level.
Paid powerups - when the player fails a level, suggest a pay-only powerup for their next playthrough.
Permanent enhancements - For a larger amount of money, the player can permanently augment themselves so they are better at the game (always get x more seconds per level, x more lives, start with x powerup, etc)
Those are the basics but the top grossing games monetize the hell out of this, just play them and pay attention to what they offer you when you get stuck.
Level packs. This one was already mentioned and is acceptable, but it involves a lot of work on your side for a non-repeatable purchase for a player, which isn’t great (for you, it is for the player).
Gatcha. This is basically a simple gambling mechanic that allows players to pay for a random chance of getting something desirable (any of the items mentioned above, if we’re talking about a level based game like you describe). They can earn the currency to unlock “treasure chests” very very very slowly, or they can pay for the currency. This mechanic has become huge in mobile and is becoming very well integrated into the game mechanics of some titles (mostly collectible card games).
Make your game 99 cents. This is still acceptable for some types of games, but the potential to make a lot of money is much lower. If you implement any of the monetization methods above, just make your app free so you get as many players as you can.
There are a bunch of other ways that current top grossing titles monetize, just play through them and pay attention to what they do when you lose or get stuck and can’t progress.
Also to give you a little bit more general philosophy so you have the tools to design new mechanics that monetize well, this is the thought process behind the mechanics above:
Have many chances for people to pay a little bit. Mechanics like the “second chance” or paying for a one-off powerup, or paying for more lives fit in this category. These mechanics will capture most of the players who will pay.
Have a couple (really good) ways for people to pay a lot. Mechanics where a player can spend an infinite (or near infinite) amount of money fit in this category. Gatcha, and also paying for more lives (if you have hundreds and hundreds of levels) fit in this category. You’ll see at least one mechanic with this design philosophy in top grossing games, because intriguing, well integrated mechanics that fit in this category are huge money-makers. These mechanics will capture the tiny fraction of your players who have deep pockets.
I hope this helps! And don’t hate on or feel bad about creating free to play games, 99% of users of these games never pay a cent and are getting hours and hours of free entertainment.
@smootler , Thank you!
I Finally recieved the answer I was after! You gave me some good tips and a very good correction about one part wich I hadn’t thought about. You are right where you said that pay-to-win is acceptible in singleplayer games and that cosmetics work much better in multiplayer games where you can show them off.
About that Time gating, I thought about that but I as a player this time, I see something that may bother me if I use this method and I’d like your entry on it ,if possible. In my current project, it is taking me around 10 - 20 seconds to pass a level. Of course, I am the developer ( therefore I know the right method to pass ) and they are quite simple and easy, mostly tutorial levels, so I’m expecting that time to at least tripple for a normal player. But even so, is there a chance of this mechanic being just a breaker inside the player experience? I think this is a good mechanic if the player can experience at least 5 minutes into the game, but I fear him not even passing 2. How much should I let my players actually play?
A pretty accurate description of the best practices for Skinner box monetisation. It works well if you get the balance right and have a solid game underneath.
I guess many if us fall into the trap of thinking too much about the players and not enough about the fact that you are trying to run a business.
@Rafael-Barbosa It’s all about your expected session time and proper tuning. The average session time for a game on mobile is usually between 3 and 8 minutes, so you don’t need to provide too much gameplay before asking the user to wait. So just provide more max lives until your sessions are the right length. Also to remedy your tutorial issue, you should probably give away free “life refills” the first few times so their session doesn’t end too quickly, then tune the amount of lives and the rate they refill to your game’s steady state level completion time. This is also good because it teaches users that they have the ability to refill lives, even though they’ll have to pay to do it later.
@Kiwasi I’d argue that games with a level structure where you are rewarded for a win with another level unlock, and any sort of random rewards or chance-based mechanics take advantage of these types of psychological tactics. The only mechanic that blatantly exploits it, in my mind, is gatcha. Which is why gatcha mechanics are now illegal in mobile games in Japan. I don’t agree it should be illegal, but it should be very well integrated with your core mechanics so it is part of the fun of the game as well as how you make money. Time gates, difficulty gates, and level packs are just ways of asking your players to pay (or wait x time) to continue their entertainment. Sure, they might get players in the habit of coming back at set intervals, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Running a business and being player-focused are not mutually exclusive, in fact it is the exact opposite. Players of f2p games open their wallet because they see entertainment value in the product and are willing to pay it. If your players don’t find any value in your game (i.e. it isn’t entertaining) they won’t be willing to spend. So you have to think players first. Contrast this to the AAA model where you have to pay $60 up front for the experience and may never get the equivalent entertainment value if you end up hating the game. I’m not in love with the f2p model by any means, but it has some benefits for the player.