Big Fish: monetization should be based on emotions

The game will not help to become successful 2-3 weeks of testing, virtual currency and rare pushy, you need to do the opposite, says Chris Williams from Big Fish.

According to his report “5 main mistakes in F2P games and how to avoid them” at White Nights 2013, the key to the successful life of the project is the earliest possible launch.

Suppose, on average, the development of the game lasts seven months, then the beta time comes (approximately one month), after the official release and with it updates on a regular basis (1-2 per month).

A beautiful scheme? 

No, Chris says. 

The game should be launched in the beta stage as soon as possible. There is a working build on the fifth month – launch it. And then bombard with updates. Three months is a good time to prepare a project for an official release, but you should not relax after it. 1-2 updates per month is too little. 

Chris also warned against targeting users who log into the game 2-3 times a day. Be prepared for the fact that active players will come in much more often. Up to 30 times a day. 

According to Chris, another widespread mistake among designers is the holy confidence that the presence of virtual currency and virtual things that can be bought with them is enough for cash success in the market.

That’s not so. In order for a player to want to pay, he, firstly, needs to explain why he needs this or that chip, and secondly, to make an emotional attachment to this or that virtual thing. 

In other words, it is not enough for a player to understand the practical price of a thing, he should want to buy it, because it is just beautiful, because it has become available to him at such a low price by chance right now, because others do not have it. 

The fact that it will save him time or allow him to reduce conditional costs – he will be the last to worry about. 

Chris also said a very important thing about pushy. We have already written about this, but we think now is the time to repeat it.

So, pushs can be frequent – this is normal, but only if they carry a certain meaning. Just writing “we missed you” can lead to the fact that the user will simply erase your game. But if you throw the message “the army is ready for battle” (as it is done in Jungle Heat, when the barracks release the last fighter), the user will immediately return to the game. Or if you report that the power has been restored. This is also a good incentive.   

P.S. Full versions of the reports (video) we’ll start posting in a week.