F2P: how to prevent new players from leaving?
The analytical company DeltaDNA researched 200 shareware titles and found out that there are several key ways to keep new players in the game.
1. The player must immediately understand what needs to be done
It seems that this is obvious. But many developers neglect detailed and clear tutorials. Frituplay does not forgive such mistakes. It is necessary to make a structured and interesting tutorial that will guide the player through the key points of the gameplay.
An example of a properly organized tutorial is Warframe from Digital Extremes. A cute character accompanies the player in the early stages of gameplay, and the controls and hints are arranged so that it is intuitively clear what to do with them.
Screenshot from Warframe2. A player of any level of training should immediately achieve something
Let the player immediately go through several levels, get a gold star, or a cup, or a gem – that’s enough fantasy game designer. Players love it when they get something right. This means that you need to give users the opportunity to achieve something in the first few minutes of the game.
Brave Frontier from Gumi immediately guides the user through a series of battles that he wins. And gets rewarded for it. In addition, the player sees what he will receive after completing the tutorial. All together smoothly involves the user in the game.
3. Control the difficulty of the game
Players don’t like to lose. Therefore, in the early stages of the game, that is, until the user really knows how to play, the complexity needs to be controlled. And raise it very smoothly. In other words, don’t let the player blow the first few matches.
A good example is CSR Racing from NaturalMotion. During the first training race, the player is explained how to drive. In the second, they pair the user with AI, and if he switches speeds too quickly, the game stops and a hint appears.
4. Get the player interested in the early stages
The decision on whether to stay or leave is made by the player on the first day. And then he chooses whether to pay or not to pay. So if you have come up with something new and unique for your game, do not wait until the user spends a couple of days playing the game – post it right away.
An example of this approach is CSR Classics. The user is immediately shown how to upgrade the car and how it will look after all the upgrades. It’s spectacular and sets an interesting goal for the player.
A source: 
https://deltadna.com
