Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games

Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games

Free-to-play is the most exciting thing to happen to the games business for decades. Each week brings new success stories, as creators around the world unleash the potential of free-to-play - building successful, thriving games for mobile, social and even console and PC platforms, all with a single, powerful price tag: free. Yet at the same time, many other creators are struggling to make free-to-play work for them - while some bad uses of free-to-play have even attracted criticism for the entire industry.<br /><br />Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games cuts through the confusion, presenting 15 clear, direct rules that will allow creators to build commercially successful games. There are no exploitative tricks or get-rich-quick schemes here - this is a practical guide for game designers who want to make money from free-to-play games while respecting their audience and building a devoted fan following. Each rule is explained in depth and illustrated with several examples from real games.<br /><br />This book is designed as a reference for all game creators - whether you’re a veteran of the industry trying to get up to speed with the free-to-play business model, a newcomer learning the ropes, or even an experienced free-to-play creator seeking to polish your knowledge and challenge your perceptions. It’s also a perfect read for anyone - game creator or not - who wants to understand how the free-to-play model works, and what the future of the games business looks like.<br /><br />Feedback for Nicholas' presentation of the Design Rules at the Free-to-Play Summit in London:<br /><br />“15 bullet points of useful information with lots of meat and no fluff. Head and shoulders above the rest.”<br />Wolfgang Hamann, Koolhaus Games<br /><br />“Nicholas Lovell’s presentation was outstanding… Particularly useful for me as someone who has just made the change from 5 years in boxed games to the F2P side of the industry.”<br />Dan Robinson, Eutechnyx<br /><br />“Stand out talks for me were Nicholas Lovell’s talk on the 15 rules of F2P… Particularly relevant, with lots to take away and apply.”<br />Nick Adams, Blitz Game Studios