作者：Pepe Agell

如果你是打算实现免费游戏盈利性的独立手机游戏开发者，你可能已经在处理大量琐事了。所以你要确保自己的IAP策略不会过于复杂。如果你从小处入手，并且将IAP策略视为一种招徕新用户的手段，那么你的胜算就会更大。

这里有几个有利于最大化你的时间和开发资源，并能够让你在免费市场中占据一席之地的具体方法。

专注于将免费玩家转化成付费玩家

在处理免费游戏发布之后的任务时，你要关注三个主要参数：游戏的流量（平均每日用户数量，或称DAU），每付费用户平均收益（ARPPU），免费用户转化为付费用户的比例。

要增加最后一种关键参数的一个有效方法就是提供富有吸引力的IAP。但首先，我要先声明：如果你的目标是转化新玩家，而非增加原有铁杆玩家的粘性时，这些IAP就不能仅仅具有视觉上的吸引力。

为什么？提供常规的IAP，比如要求玩家付费消除广告，或者提供与重大事件或节假日相关的主题，并不足以推动新用户的转化率。对于尚未拥有铁杆用户群的独立游戏来说，最好免费提供这些内容——除非你想让付费墙挡住这些精美绝伦的内容。

提供价格选择范围

在定价方面也要有策略。提供一系列价格选择——提供较平价的道具（例如1美元左右）是个明智选择，但要记住还是有人愿意为更高价的道具买单，所以也要植入更昂贵的IAP选项（售价可能高达99美元）。

如果你提供了多个IAP选项，设置一系列售价选项也许有利于玩家挑选出最具吸引力的价格点。也可以考虑在你的IAP设置中使用“诱饵”道具，也就是鼓励玩家去购买那些价值更高道具的商品。在某些情况下，这种诱饵道具所提供的价值会低于一个售价相当，但性价比更高的道具，而玩家当然会选择性价比更高的选项。除此之外，还可以提供售价更高的道具，鼓励玩家去购买价格更合理的商品。

decoy-pricing(from gamasutra)

当你出售虚拟货币IAP时，可以在他们购买数量较多时增加“奖励”为玩家创造一种超值感。例如，1美元购买100枚钱币，2美元就可以购买250枚钱币，3美元就能购买450枚钱币，以此类推。这样就有可能刺激用户花更多钱购买钱币。

为IAP提供升级

要将你的IAP视为玩家要买来加强游戏玩法的道具。如果你专注于升级并执行得当，就可以看到双重的好处：作为开发者你将更好地了解自己的游戏玩法，并且能够优化主要的游戏循环（例如，为玩家创造更有趣和更有深度的体验）。

例如，Frogmind推出的《Badland》在这方面的经验值得借鉴。该团队在Google Play平台发布之前已经推出的付费iOS游戏时，采用了免费模式以迎合Android市场情况。他们免费提供了40个关卡，但玩家可以购买和赢取其中的升级道具。这些升级道具有助于玩家理解游戏的物理机制，而这又有利于玩家更好地预测之后的游戏玩法，从而提升自己的技巧。

不要仅推出付费升级内容

仅提供付费升级内容可能适用于中核或硬核游戏玩家，但休闲玩家并不会为之所动。已经对游戏入迷，并且处于较高技能水平的铁杆玩家可能会为付费内容掏钱，但新玩家却不会。为此，游戏应该让玩家能够赢取升级内容，让他们通过玩游戏的技能得到奖励，而不是鼓励他们“付费获胜”。

《Candy Crush Saga》就是这方面的典型：你可以通过出售自己所赢得的虚拟货币，获得额外的操作机会，也可以花钱达到同样的目的。这可以让玩家觉得自己如果在之前的回合中表现良好，就可以在之后的回合中获得更好的结果。

可以考虑购买应用商店SDK

小型工作室与其在重新设计游戏内置商店上浪费时间，不如专注于提升游戏循环。市场上已经有一些实用的应用商店后端工具，比如Soomla这款可以简单地添加到现成游戏代码中的商店SDK。它支持开发者轻松而快速更改道具和定价，这样你就可以将节省下的时间和精力运用于其他地方。

创造可以强化元游戏的升级内容

如果你的游戏是中核产品，其中的升级道具就要同元游戏绑定，而不仅仅适用于核心游戏循环。元游戏可以隐性嵌入于游戏循环中，但你要一直考虑如何让玩家在游戏中留连忘返，而不仅仅是不停地赢取或消耗升级道具。

为此，你必须深入了解目标用户的心理。想想令人无法抗拒的IAP有何特点，玩家所购买的内容对他们有何益处。如果你可以解答这些问题，就更有利于找到为游戏及其粉丝提供出色IAP的机会。

保持简单性

免费模式的关键就在于发布，学习和迭代。不要试图一次性创造出面面俱到的IAP系统。要知道同时追踪过多变量只会占据你大量时间和资源。要从小处入手，添加简单的IAP系统。例如，最开始可以只添加5种升级道具，之后再看看其表现情况。然后再逐步增加反馈良好的内容。

极具吸引力的IAP内容可以让玩家获得更多乐趣和好玩的游戏体验。围绕升级内容创造主要的IAP战略可以让你的玩家更加融入游戏，从而更愿意为之付费。（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

In-App Purchases for Indie Mobile Games: How to Build a Smart Freemium Strategy

by Pepe Agell

This post originally appeared on Playbook, Chartboost’s blog dedicated to the business of mobile gaming.

If you’re an indie mobile game developer looking to monetize a free-to-play game, you’re already managing a beast of a task. So you need to make sure that your in-app purchase (IAP) strategy isn’t overly complex. If you start small and think of your IAPs as a way to engage new users, you’ll be well on your way to success.

With that in mind, here are six specific ways to best maximize your time and development resources while still competing in the free-to-play market.

Focus on converting free players to paying players

When managing a free-to-play game post-launch, you want to keep an eye on three main metrics: the amount of traffic your game sees (daily average users, or DAU), the average revenue per paying user (or ARPPU) and the percentage of conversion of free users to paying users.

One effective way to increase this last key metric is to offer compelling IAPs. But, first, I’d like to make a key distinction: When your goal is converting new players — as opposed to increasing engagement among existing core players — those IAPs can’t be merely aesthetic incentives.

Why? Offering typical IAPs, such as asking your users to pay to remove ads or offering themes around holiday or current events, won’t give new users a strong enough incentive to convert. For indie games that don’t already have a dedicated user base, it’s better to offer that stuff up for free — after all, it’s potentially engaging content that you don’t want to hide behind a paywall.

Offer a range of prices and don’t shy away from decoys

It’s also important to think strategically about your pricing. Offer a range of prices — it’s smart to offer less expensive items ($1 or so), but remember that someone will always pay a higher price, so take advantage of that potential revenue by including more expensive IAPs (up to $99), as well.

If you’re offering more than one IAP, a range of prices may help players pick the most appealing price point. Consider using “decoy” items in your IAP offerings, as well. A decoy item is asymmetrically dominated and encourages payers to purchase items of higher value. In some cases, a decoy will appear to offer lower value than a similarly priced high value item, and players looking for a better deal will choose the higher value option. Alternatively, offering a decoy item that seems extremely over priced would encourage players to buy a more reasonable alternative.

And when you’re selling currency as an IAP, give players an additional sense of value by adding “bonuses” when they purchase bigger amounts. For instance, if $1 buys 100 coins, $2 can be worth 250 coins, $3 can be 450 coins, etc. so your users are incentivized to spend more.

Offer upgrades or power-ups for your in-app purchases

Instead, think about your IAPs as items that players will want to buy to enhance their gameplay. If you focus on power-ups and upgrades, and do it right, the benefits will be twofold: You’ll gain a better understanding of your gameplay as a developer and will make the main game loop better (i.e. more interesting and deeper for your players).

Badland by Frogmind, for example, took a smart approach to this. When the team released its previously-premium iOS game on Google Play, they decided to make it free-to-play to match the current market on Android. They offered 40 levels for free, with power-ups that can be purchased or earned. These power-ups help players learn how the game’s physics work, which in turn helps players become better at predicting those physics in future play sessions.

Avoid having only premium upgrades

Having only premium upgrades can work with mid- or hard-core gamers, but casual players don’t convert the same way. While players who are already engaged in your game at higher levels of skill may spend on purely premium upgrades, new players won’t. For that reason, players should be able to earn upgrades and pay for them. They need to feel as if they’re able to earn rewards through skill in the game — and that you’re not encouraging them to “pay to win.”

Candy Crush is a great example: You get five extra moves by trading in virtual coins that you’ve earned, but you can also spend money to get the same thing. This makes players feel as if doing well in previous sessions will get them better results in future sessions.

Consider purchasing an in-app store SDK

Instead of wasting time re-inventing an in-game store, small studios should focus on improving the game loop itself. There are several back-end tools to help you get your in-app store rolling, such as Soomla, a store SDK that’s simple to add to your existing game code. It lets you easily change items and pricing on the fly, so you can direct your time and energy elsewhere.

Create upgrades that enhance the meta-game

If your game is mid-core, your power-ups should also be tied to the meta-game, not just the core game loop. The meta-game can be an invisible part of the core loop but you should always be thinking about how to keep players not only earning or consuming but staying engaged with the game on a higher level.

To do this, you need to get into the psychology of your target audience. What makes an in-app purchase irresistible? What does the purchase help your players do? If you can figure that out, you’re closer to deciding the best IAP to offer for your particular game and fanbase.

Keep it simple

Everything in free-to-play is about launching, learning and iterating. Don’t try to build a comprehensive IAP system right out the door. Tracking too many variables will take up too much of your time and resources. Start small and add a simple in-app purchasing system. Add in five power-ups or so, for example, then see how they perform. Expand on the incentives that work the best, and go from there.

Ideally, what you’re offering with compelling IAPs is a way for players to have more fun and interesting experiences. Building your main IAP strategy around power-ups or upgrades gives your players more of what they already love while encouraging their engagement, making them more likely to purchase.（source：gamasutra）