作者：Yaniv Nizan

你有一个很棒的手机游戏理念，也听说过含有IAP（应用内置付费）的F2P（免费）游戏是一个不错的盈利渠道，但却不知如何开始。这并非你一个人独有的情况。设计一个良好的游戏内置商店与设计游戏核心内容极为不同，许多游戏开发者都摸不着其中的门道。

在我们开始讨论“如何”做之前，先讲讲“为何”要做。添加IAP商店的目标是什么呢？添加商店的正确原因应该是吸引用户。当然，拥有虚拟经济的商店的游戏确实更赚钱，但这也是因为它们能够吸引用户。如果你关注于吸金，你就会把用户吓跑，最终得不偿失。而如果执行得当，游戏中的虚拟经济世界就会提升用户的进步感和成就感，并创造长期有趣的游戏体验。所以要找准方向！

以下是我对于设计一个富有吸引力，能够让用户频频关顾的游戏商店的相关建议：

1.将商店置于用户容易找到的地方，令其成为游戏循环中的一个自然环节

2.创造用户每天都要在游戏中使用的道具

3.让商店体验充满趣味

4.使用“等待机制”

5.平衡虚拟商品性能及售价

cars(from gamesauce.org)

如果你在游戏中植入了这些元素，你就会极大增加游戏的成功机率。添加上述一些元素就不错了，但如果你希望游戏获得三颗星就要将其全部派上用场。以下是针对上述各个建议的详细解释：

将商店入口置于用户容易发现之处

将用户自然进入商店作为游戏流程的一个环节这一点非常重要。让我们看看实现这一点的一些方法。如果你的游戏含有关卡，那你应该比较容易在完成关卡的屏幕中添加进入商店的按钮。如果你的游戏是“幸存者模式”或“跑酷”类型的呢？那也没问题。这些游戏回合都较为短暂，通常都有一个回合结束的画面，你可以在此放置商店按钮。如果你设计的是其他类型的游戏呢？如果你执行的是第4点建议，你可能会将游戏划分成好几个回合，并对此加以利用。或者，你也可以将商店按钮添加到可提醒用户关注其成就的屏幕上。你还可以使用虚拟商品要求用户激活和使用商店界面，从而挑选活跃角色/坐骑/武器。这可以鼓励用户经常光顾商店。

添加玩家时常用到的道具

现在玩家在屏幕上每个地方都能进入商店，但用户为何会进入商店？让我们想象一下真实世界的情况。我们最常进入的商店通常出售我们每天都使用和消耗的物品。让我们创造一些类似这种用途的商品，并让玩家便于使用游戏币购买。应该让玩家能够在第1-3关卡或游戏开始的数分钟内就收集到足够的钱币。道具本身应该经常具有消耗性，并且要让用户更易于收集更多钱币。如果你在这一点上做好了，就可以创造出一个让玩家几乎每回玩游戏都会进入商店的消费循环。

以下是制作一款有效的经常使用道具的方法：

*让道具填充游戏商店（就好像猴子需要香蕉，汽车需要汽油……）

*为其定价，以便用户能够在玩游戏数分钟内赚到足够的钱来购买

*创造使用有趣的道具，让游戏更有吸引力

*赋予道具能量，以便玩家更易于赢取钱币

设计富有吸引力的商店

你还应该为用户创造一个在商店中花钱的理由。想想让商店充满吸引力和趣味的法子——扩大商品种类，增加神秘感，保持新鲜感。在商品多样性方面，我们以《CSR Racing》为例，该游戏中的商店拥有200多万种出售道具。你还可以通过使用一些小伎俩，在特定时间才推出某些限时道具来增加神秘感。这有助于持续吸引用户，保持他们对商店所提供商品的好奇心。最后一点是通过增加道具来保持商店新鲜感，解琐道具，推出节日和限量版道具。

添加“等待”机制

如果你真的想设计好商店，就必须限制用户不断玩游戏的能力，并添加一些短暂的间歇。这是一个有点棘手的技巧，所以你必须小心行事，确保不惹恼用户。最佳方法是通过试验不同关卡的限制，测量其对用户的影响，直到找到最佳平衡点为止。如果你选择探索这个方向，你就要设计一种能够在玩法中自然消耗，并自动随时间发展而增长的资源。例如《Candy Crush Saga》中的“生命”以及其他游戏中的能量和能源。当用户耗尽资源时，就可以在三种方法中做出选择：购买更多，不玩游戏或者暂后再返回游戏。如果你遵从以下建议，也许就能够让想打发时间的用户继续呆在游戏中并访问商店。

candy crush saga(from denofgeek.com)

平衡售价、性能和游戏难度

想象一下这种情景——用户支付一美元并购买了些东西，现在游戏对他来说就变得太容易了，他马上就失去了兴趣。这对于用户来说是种糟糕的体验，也是一种糟糕的生意。用户通常是冲动消费，但如果没有看到其中价值，第二天就会清醒过秋，并且再也不会掏钱了。这里的矛盾在于，冲动消费通常会让事情变得简单，但最终用户还是希望游戏仍然具有挑战性。那么你该怎么做呢？

这里有一些破解方法，但在我们讨论之前，重要的还是认识到平衡需要大量的调整，这意味着你需要重复衡量和调整，直到达标为止。你需要整合一个分析工具，或使用植入分析工具的商店平台。

以下就是相关建议：

*方法1：增加难度。如果游戏难度曲线波度够大，道具的影响就很有限，玩家就会跳过一些关卡，但马上就会遇到更大的挑战。

*方法2：增加随机性。加入运气元素来帮助玩家克服挑战会限制虚拟商品的能力。《龙与地下城》、橄榄球和足球就是一些含有一定运气元素，令较弱的对手也有机会获胜的典型代表。这正是它们如此风靡的原因之一。

*方法3：消耗资源的道具。如果你遵从本文的第二个建议，就说明你已经有了一些玩家经常消耗的资源。如果你在游戏中设计了其他经常消耗资源的虚拟商品，就会限制用户频繁使用这些道具。例如，机关枪的威力远超过手枪，并且在任何战役中无往不胜，但却很耗损子弹。如果你只有5颗子弹，机关枪也就沦为无用之物了。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Building an In-Game Store for the First Time? Here are the 4 Keys to Success

By Yaniv Nizan

iap in-app purchase in-game store virtual currency mobile iphone android ios

So you have a great concept for a mobile game and you’ve heard that free 2 play games with in-app purchase is the way to go but you are not sure where to start. Guess what? You are not alone. Designing a good in-game store is very different than designing the core of the game and many game developers are unsure about how to do it right.

Before we start the discussion about ‘the how’ let’s start with ‘the why’. What is the goal of adding an In-App Purchase Store? The right reason for adding a store is to engage users. Sure, games with virtual economies and stores make more money but that’s because the users become more engaged. If you focus on squeezing revenue, you will scare users away and ultimately earn less. When done right, an engaging economic world around the game will improve the users’ sense of progress and accomplishement and will make the game experience interesting for a longer period. Focus on that!

Let me take you through some of the keys to designing an engaging store that users will visit frequently and for long periods of time:

Put the store where users can find it and make it a natural part of the game loop

Create items that players use in your game every day

Make the store experience an interesting one

Use “Waiting Mechanics”

Balance Virtual Goods’ Capabilites and Prices

If you implement these elements in your game you are significantly increasing your chances to succeed. Adding a few of these is good but if you want 3 stars try to get them all. Here is more specific advice about each one of these.

Put the Store Entrance Where Users Are

Getting users to naturally enter the store as part of the game flow is very important. Let’s check a few methods for achieving this. If your game has levels, it should be easy enough for you to add a button to the store from the screen that notifies the user about a successful level completion. Is your game a ‘survival mode’ type game or an ‘endless runner’? No problem. These games have limited sessions that usually end with a summary screen. This will be the right place to put your store button. Designing other types of games? If you implement the 4th tip you would actually break the game into sessions and would be able to use the session end screen. Alternatively, you can add the store button to screens that notify the user about achievements. You can also use virtual goods that require users to activate or equip them and use the store as the interface for picking the active character/vehicle/weapon. This will help you get users to the store more frequently.

Add Items that Players Need Regularly

Ok, so the store is now accessible from every screen in the game but why would a user want to enter it? Let’s think about the real world. The store that we enter the most is the one that sells the product we use and consume every day. Let’s create some goods like that and make them easy to buy with game coins. How easy? The user should be able to collect enough coins in 1-3 levels or a few minutes of game play. The item itself should be regularly consumed and make it easier for the user to collect more coins. If you do this correctly you end up with a consumption loop that brings the users to the store almost every time they play the game.

Here is how to make an effective regular use item:

Make it complement the game store (bananas for a monkey, fuel for a car, …)

Price it so that users can earn enough to buy it within a few minutes of game play

Create an item that is fun to use and makes the game more engaging

Give the item powers that will make earning coins easier

Design an Engaging Store

You should also give the user reasons to spend time in your In-App Purchase store. Think of ways to make the store engaging and interesting for a long time – extend the variety, add some mystery and try to keep it fresh. If you want to look at a good example of store variety – look at CSR racing. That store has over 2 million items you can buy. You can also add mystery by using silhouettes to hide an item until the right time has come. This helps in keeping the user engaged and curious about what the store has to offer. The last bit is to keep your store fresh by adding items, unlocking items and even featuring seasonal items and limited editions.

Add “Waiting Mechanics”

If you want to really play it like the pros, you need to limit the user’s ability to play continuosly and add short breaks. This is a bit tricky so you will need to approach this carefully and make sure not to annoy your users. The best way to do it is by experimenting with different levels of limitations and measuring the impact on users until you reach the sweet spot. If you do choose to explore this direction, you should design a resource that is consumed naturally in gameplay and automatically adds up as time goes by. Candy Crush Saga has ‘lifes’ and in other games you can see fuel or energy. When the user runs out, she can choose to do one of three things: buy more, stop playing and come back later or wait inside the game. If you followed the rest of the advice, the option of staying inside the game and visiting the store should be a likely choice for a user who wants to kill some time.

Balancing Prices, Capabilities and the Game Difficulty

Imagine the following scenario – a user pays a dollar to buy something and now the game becomes too easy and he looses interest. This is a bad experience for the user and it’s also bad for business. Users often pay on impulse but they wake up the next day and if they don’t see the value they are not going to like it. The paradox is that the impulse buy is often to make things easier but at the end of the day the user will want the game to still be challanging. How do you do that?
There are a few ways around it but before we dive into them it’s important to understand that balancing requires a great deal of fine-tunning which means repeatedly measuring and adjusting until the criteria is reached. You will need to integrate an analytics tool or use a store platform that has analytics built in.
So back to the paradox:

Method 1 – Make it steep If the difficulty curve is steep enough and the item’s impact is limited the player might skip ahead a few levels but will soon reach a bigger challange.

Method 2 – Randomize it Giving luck a role in overcoming the challenge will limit any virtual good ability. Dungeons and Dragons, American Football and Soccer are just a few examples of great games where chance plays a role and even an inferior opponent can win at any given day. This is part of what makes them so great.

Method 3 – Items that Consume Resources If you followed the second advice in this article you already have something that the player consumes regularly (let’s call them resources). If you design the other virtual goods in the game to always consume resources you are limiting the users ability to use them to much. A machine gun might get you more fire power than a pistol and will win any batlle UNLESS the user needs to buy the bullets as well. Not much you can do with a machine gun if you only have 5 bullets.（source：gamedev）