Free-to-play games are a popular and profitable business model in the game industry, but they also face many challenges and criticisms. How can you design a free-to-play game that is engaging, fair, and sustainable? In this article, we will explore some of the most effective game mechanics for free-to-play games, and how they can enhance the player experience and retention.
The core loop is the basic cycle of actions and rewards that the player repeats throughout the game. It should be simple, satisfying, and addictive, and provide enough variety and challenge to keep the player hooked. For example, in Candy Crush Saga, the core loop is to match candies, clear levels, and earn stars and boosters. The core loop should also be aligned with the game's theme and genre, and appeal to the target audience.
Most designers go at F2P backwards. They focus on a core game experience and then start ripping pieces out of it once it's time to figure out monetization. Seize your own fate designers! Design a game with spending money as part of the fun. It should feel as fun to spend money in your game as going down to the local gameshop and browsing new cards or minis is. You shouldn't make players sad UNTIL they spend money, figure out how to make players LOOK FORWARD to spending money. Not because they have to, but because they want to. Because it's FUN to. This is the essential art of F2P game design. You're not just designing a game, you're also designing a hobby: Like designing a friendly local gamestore players play and hang out in.
Free-to-play games use diverse mechanics for player engagement and revenue. In-app purchases offer cosmetic items and boosts. Gacha systems provide randomized rewards, and energy systems limit gameplay with refills available for purchase. Daily rewards, challenges, and social features foster regular engagement. Progression systems, time-limited events, and ad-based rewards enhance the gaming experience. Referral programs, leaderboards, and achievements contribute to player interaction. Balancing these elements is crucial for sustained success, with updates and community engagement playing vital roles.
The core loop can be any combination of play types. By knowing who you want to play your game (and what they aim to gain) you can begin experimenting with the right ones. Let's say you choose COLLECT and TRAIN (level up) make sure that you make the player do that for a reason, such as to COMPETE or COLLABORATE or X better. This adds a playable purpose to why your audience should bother to begin with
I think core loop isn’t necessarily what makes a free game successful but any game. I mean it is the heart of your game it’s what makes it fun. The core loop of the game is what the player is going to be doing, so free or not, if it’s not a fun loop then it’s not going to do so well! Now specifically in reference to free games, games that build their loop around monetization, through time gating, limiting content, etc… while arguably effectively I personally despise as a practice, but thats my personal opinion!
An effective core loop for free-to-play games typically revolves around creating a highly engaging and repetitive cycle that entices users to engage regularly (often daily) without imposing barriers. These loops frequently leverage a level of player agency and or social engagement like PvP that provide the core loop with a high level of variability. So that the core loop often feels fresh and different each type through.
The progression system is the way the game tracks and rewards the player's advancement and achievements. It should provide clear goals, feedback, and incentives for the player to continue playing and improve their skills. For example, in Clash of Clans, the progression system is to build and upgrade your base, train and upgrade your troops, and raid and defend against other players. The progression system should also be balanced and scalable, and avoid frustrating or boring the player with excessive grinding or paywalls.
Progression needs to be designed to fit the game and its players. In chess, progression is about skill improvement, and your progression is tracked by elo which lets you find better and better opponents. In RPGs, your character goes through a journey where he faces harder challenges. Progression then becomes about growing your character stronger with levels and gear. In many casual games, progression is visual: unlocking a new city or upgrading your castle. New scenery and visual rewards are motivating for these players. Progression is about goals and motivation, which can vary a lot among different players.
Simple question, why should I play your game? If you don't have an answer to this, then you have to go back to the drawing board. After having answered this question, answer this one for me Okay, I've spent 2 hours in your game. What next? What happens when the player played the game for some time, how do you encourage them to continue playing it? Are there new skins they can buy? Perhaps power ups? Leaderboard systems? These 2 questions should be what you need to ensure a good sense of progression in your game.
A progression system exists for two reasons: 1. Establish clear goals for players. 2. Make gameplay feel satisfying (even if you lose, you are still making progress). Progression systems MUST be simple to understand at a glance. Players must instantly understand the value of rewards, how to get them, and why they should care. If players don't understand why a reward is valuable, or how to get it, the progression system breaks. It fails to accomplish its goal: Motivating players. Most progression systems break for this reason. Designers or Product Managers creat complex progression systems that many players can't understand, or choose to ignore rather than do the homework of learning how they work. Keep progression simple and impactful.
Alongside the Core loop, Progression is usually best weaved into it, Lets take the "Reward" part of the Core loop, and say we have "Gold" in our game, We can buy a new shiny weapon with that gold, Now we have progression? But this itself can be a bit ...... stale. We can add a loop within the progression system, Lets do a bit of a workshop here: So, we have this basic progression system, But its not really fun, might as well add "Progression" to the same list we put "Fetch Quests" in. Lets add a bit of a challenge, We want to change the gold to materials, and allow the user to craft their new shiny weapons, but add modifiers depending on what materials they use! See, now we have the same progression system, but now it is more interactive!
Social features are the elements that allow the player to interact with other players, either cooperatively or competitively. They should foster a sense of community, belonging, and fun, and encourage the player to invite, share, and compare with their friends. For example, in Fortnite, the social features are to join a squad, chat and emote with your teammates, and compete with other players in various modes. The social features should also be optional and respectful, and avoid spamming or harassing the player with unwanted invitations or messages.
Community within gaming can be fostered by creating intuitive shared experiences. Multi-player mechanics are a more classic form of this, and squad play. However, real world social activities work wonders in open world environments. In music, we see both engagement and retention KPIs increase when players can listen to the music they like together. This is a simple way to leverage 3rd party IP to move in-game metrics.
All play types can be played socially. ie together with someone or in a group. But some are inherently social: Collaboration, Competition, Communicating, Allying, Giving, Sharing etc. If you want your experience to be truly social it would be best to explore these play types that require other people's participation and begin to consider the incentives and purposes that can drive those for an entire group. But first, it is beneficial to consider how to make everyone feel welcome. This can be achieved by acts of generosity and could be an integral part of the social culture you are building.
Social is the secret sauce for long term engagement and retention. It’s not uncommon to find clans/guilds/clubs (whatever you want to call it) that play together for years. This is why MMOs have such strong lasting power despite periods of lackluster content. The key to successful integration of social features is that it needs to improve the gameplay experience. It feels incredibly rewarding when teamplay helps your squad achieve victory despite individual weaknesses. Or when working together gives everyone better rewards. That feeling of being part of a group, working towards a common goal, will keep players interested in your game for a long time.
Everything is better with friends, be jt a simple leaderboard that shows your friends stats and the top 500 players stats. Or perhaps implement challenges. These should be enough to make any game feel more interesting without having to add more game mechanics
Implementing features that encourage social interaction among players can significantly enhance engagement and retention. For instance, integrating cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes, leaderboards, gifting systems, or community challenges can foster a sense of community and healthy competition among players, leading to increased player involvement and longer play sessions. Additionally, leveraging social media integration or incorporating elements like player-generated content or user-generated levels can further enhance the social aspect of the gaming experience, making it more appealing and shareable among friends and networks.
The monetization strategy is the way the game generates revenue from the player, either directly or indirectly. It should be transparent, ethical, and value-based, and offer the player meaningful choices and benefits for spending money. For example, in Roblox, the monetization strategy is to sell Robux, the in-game currency, which can be used to buy items, access premium games, and create and sell your own games. The monetization strategy should also be diversified and flexible, and avoid alienating or exploiting the player with intrusive ads or predatory practices.
Never design monetization out of fear. Don't be a studio that tries to figure out how to monetize without some player somewhere posting a rant about how greedy you are - that'll happen no matter what. Be a studio that focuses on making spending feel fun, exciting, and satisfying. Players should be looking forward to buying something, not feel pressured into it. How you can make buying something as fun and feel-good as possible? Treat it like any other design problem. Nail this and everything else gets easier. And if you want your players to feel good about spending, you need to answer this: "I'm already having fun for free, so why should I spend money?" Get a great answer, and don't just say "cosmetics"! Cosmetics require mega-hits.
As a sound designer, I would really like to see more monetization strategy in the customization of sounds for your weapons in a shooter type game. Been able to craft the exact sound that you’re looking for so that it’s unique to you and has the style and features that you want. It might be bold and powerful, like a call of duty or battlefield gun or wild and crazy, like the purple dildo of saints row.
Games have lived and died based on the way they monetized their games. Aggressive monetization tactics with gotcha mechanics, random lootboxes and pay-to-win elements can be a great way of making money quick, but in the long run, it ruins the integrity of the game. A lot of games opt for this form of monetization, and then resort to a business model that is based on the creation of barriers and problems, and then adding the option for paying to skip theses inconveniences. A more ethical way of monetization explored for long running games is by selling custom optional skins and cosmetics that do not interfere in gameplay, allowing players to have exclusive looks and supporting the game they love.
My personal favorite monetization strategy is having an in game earn able currency that is used for skins and characters, but selling that currency so players don’t have to try and earn it if they don’t want to. There are a ton of games that do this, League Of Legends, Smite, Fortnight, TF2, etc… and since these are some of the highest grossing games of all time I think the monetization strategy speaks for itself. Now to the reason that I think this is the best strategy, money aside. Players paying to represent themselves in a game is so similar to how we experience day to day life, buying a skin in a game i spend hours a day in becomes just as reasonable as buying a t shirt, both give me a chance to express myself.
I played Farmville and swore I would never spend a dime on the game. After a while, upgrades would take a year of real-time gameplay to earn. So I spent money. The flaw to me was that after I upgraded my farm, it took a lot more of my real-time to play each day to complete all my tasks. So I quit. Since then I have concluded that there are three great ways to get money from players: character look customization, character in-game improvement, and added gameplay. What you specifically do is based on what kind of a game you create.
Feedback mechanisms are the elements that provide the player with information and responses to their actions and outcomes. They should be clear, consistent, and rewarding, and motivate the player to keep playing and learn from their mistakes. For example, in Among Us, the feedback mechanisms are to show the player their role, tasks, and voting results, and to play sound effects, animations, and messages that indicate success or failure. The feedback mechanisms should also be adaptive and contextual, and avoid confusing or demotivating the player with irrelevant or excessive feedback.
The most efficient mechanic is the one that is easy to learn. This is where your UX talent gets to shine. Great mechanics are intuitive or at leats supported by a tutorial like system that helps players discover the fun of what your game has to offer.
Free-to-play games thrive on retention systems that boost engagement. I’ll use reward campaigns as an example. Reward campaigns boost retention by providing players with long and short term goals. If the player logs in daily and achieves a short term goal, they get an appropriate reward as they work towards the larger long term goal and so on. The feedback loop in this case is one of both instant and delayed gratification. UI/UX and narrative framing are essential for these campaigns to work. Players must able to visualize their progress easily with as little friction as possible. The campaign should also be contextualized for emotional investment. A player is more likely to return to a game world they connect with and feel rewarded by.
In free-to-play games, effective feedback mechanisms are key to engaging and retaining players. They act like a conversation between the game and the player, offering clear, consistent, and rewarding responses to player actions. These mechanisms should be adaptive, providing contextually relevant information without overwhelming or demoralizing players. Well-designed feedback not only enhances the gaming experience but also encourages learning and continuous play, crucial for the success of any free-to-play game.
Replay value is the extent to which the game retains the player's interest and engagement over time. It should be high, varied, and dynamic, and provide the player with new challenges, opportunities, and surprises. For example, in Minecraft, the replay value is to generate infinite and unique worlds, offer different modes and goals, and support user-generated content and mods. The replay value should also be user-driven and emergent, and avoid limiting or constraining the player with linear or repetitive gameplay.
Note that Solitaire, Checkers, and Tic-Tac-Toe have no gameplay variations, yet people play these more than any other games (including Call of Duty). So keeping players playing does not require change. The compelling thing for video game players is that they are building something. Once a player has an added skill or picked up a magic sword, they are often hooked. And often the change can be upgrading their +3 sword to a +4 sword that players want to try out. Added maps have kept some RTS games going for 20 years. Game developers should always have an idea of what the player can look forward to next after getting each thing.
In Games, developers have to find a way to keep the players excited whenever they play, and a lot of that comes down to how many times the players have to use the same weapons or tools, explore the same environments, or even listen to the same sound queues. Making seasonal changes to these aspects of the game does just that. This is why most online multiplayer games have seasonal updates and annual DLCs. Whether it's an online multiplayer or not, a DLC is an obvious way to have players back on and talking. An overpowered weapon or two gets even the least experienced players excited to jump back in.
I would like to add that having an in-game marketing mechanism is very helpful for free to play games. Ways to share progress, invite friends to play along, etc are often overlooked and very simple to include.
This is a sensitive debate in the sense that over the years, due to how UA worked, f2p games became super personalised and the mechanics tweaked to create a fomo around not spending. Did we maybe forgot that a game still needs to be fun before flooding the users with ways of spending in the game? Isn't it that we, the industry, became super focused on optimizing for revenue growth over heathy fun? I might be wrong that, as a gamer, I am seeing the current and future UA limitations and think we might be going back (not all the way) to focusing on what is an super fun core loop. If it's a good game, players will spend time and money.
No creo que exitan mecanicas "mas" efectivas que otras, puden existir sistemas internos en el juego que poyen a tus mecanicas, pero la mecanica que va a ser mas efectiva es la que tu y tu equipo puedan ejecutar mejor. Hay juegos gratuitos de todos los temas, rol, puzzle, accion, deportes, en cada gnero y en cada mecanica hay jemplos de exitos y fracasos. Mejor decide bien cual es la mecanica que mas le gusta a tu equipo, con la que puedas aportar una experiencia de juego interesante y enganchadora y enfocate en eso.
I would like to add that having an in-game marketing mechanism is very helpful for free to play games. Ways to share progress, invite friends to play along, etc are often overlooked and very simple to include.
The most important thing to ensure in a free-to-play game is that the free players add value. You are paying for supporting their playing so they need to earn their keep. Examples are multiplayer shooters where the free players are fodder for the players that pay. I am not saying that all games should do this since many players will complain that even though they are not paying for the game, the game should not penalize them. Game companies need to make it clear that paying to win is also paying so there is a game to win. Games that make no money get canceled. Designers need to make sure the game is less fun when you don't pay to play. A great example of this is MechWarrior. You don't pay, you get blown up quickly. It's only fun if you pay.