Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
If the game cannot make money directly through IAP, still it can produce indirect in-
come for you through viral activities. Exploit the potential of your game to create viral
loops by allowing to easily post scores on Facebook, Twitter, and other social net-
works. Let your free users do the marketing for you!
Since it is known that some users will never pay to download a game, no matter what
its cost, a viable option is to make two versions of the game: one for free and one
paid. The paid version of the game could offer extra (meaningful!) contents, such as
extra game levels, customizable characters, customizable UI, or you can have a free
version of the game with in-game Ads and a paid version without banners.
If you decide to have IAP in your game, consider that they require a lot of balancing,
analysis and corrections to costs over time to produce income. Such results cannot
be achieved if you don't have a clear understanding of the criteria why a given item
is available at a given cost at a given time. Metrics are important for understand-
ing your audience. Several services provide data mining and game analytics about
mobile players; use them or you will miss the revenue opportunities your game may
offer.
Finally, be prepared to spend money to acquire users. Less than five percent of
Freemium players pay for game contents and the average cost to acquire users is
around 1.50 dollars per user. It means that you need thousands of free users to have
dozens of paying players, and the more they get, the more it will cost to acquire
them.
