采用免费模式的手机游戏确实具有强大的发展潜力，法国工作室Godzilab所推出的《StarDunk》在线游戏也再次印证了这一说法。该游戏原先是付费版本，销售情况并不乐观，但变身为免费版本后，目前下载量已经突破170万次。

日前，Godzilab总裁Thomas Lachartre在采访中，向pocketgamer记者介绍了这款免费模式游戏的创收过程。下文为访谈内容：

StarDunk

为什么把《StarDunk》设置成免费版本？

为了让更多玩家都来体验这款游戏。《StarDunk》是一款可以容纳一百人以上的多人模式游戏，它还是付费版本的时候，同一时间仅有10到20名用户在玩游戏，变为免费版本后，大多时候都有300到500名玩家，游戏高峰期时居然达到2000人。

游戏改成免费版本后，让你们最意外的结果是什么？

我们原来都很担心游戏变成免费版本后，它在iTunes的分享率会急速下降。但出人意料的是，它顶住了风险，几乎没有受到影响。

这款游戏的分享率仍然很高，堪比原来还是付费版本时的情形，对一款免费游戏来说，能做到这一点真的很不可思议。

StarDunk

你们如何通过用户创造营收？

我们在这一点上犯了一些错误。

我们原先决定从游戏比赛入手创造营收，限制免费版本的游戏比赛活动，同时提供另一个没有比赛限制的高端付费版本。但免费版本的玩家都在抱怨游戏体验太少，所以这种策略失效了。

我们又尝试了另一种操作，就是每天都为游戏提供一些额外的比赛活动，但效果仍然不甚理想。后来我们又决定取决比赛限制，同时增加了更多植入广告，可是用户反应仍然不妙，因为这种做法非常影响游戏体验。

最后，我们干脆推出一个升级版本，减少了广告数量，在游戏中增加了新的虚拟货币StarPoints。

你可以通过玩游戏赢积分，或者花钱购买虚拟货币，更快速地开启更多游戏功能。这种理念得到了很多玩家的拥护，我们的游戏营收开始高涨，同时也增加了游戏本身的黏性。

Plus+平台在产品促销和IAP等服务上，对你们的游戏有何帮助？

我们只采用了Plus+社交游戏平台的成就管理和积分排行榜功能，没有用到交叉促销服务，这种功能多数时候是用于Ngmoco公司自己的游戏促销活动。

你们将为《StarDunk》增加哪些游戏支持功能？

我们已经有不少新主意了，比如说根据用户需求订制篮球、设置新游戏模式，当然还有添加新主题和新篮球等。

你们会考虑在其他手机平台投放《StarDunk》这款游戏吗？

我们的业务重心是iPhone平台。如果《StarDunk》真的要移植的话，应该会先考虑Android平台，因为免费模式的游戏在那里比较有发展空间。

iblast moki

你们今后会只开发免费游戏吗？或者说，你认为付费游戏还会有市场吗？

这真是一个好问题，我们现在也正纠结不知如何回答。但目前为止，我们仍然不打算只开发免费模式的游戏。

像Gameloft和EA这类公司仍然在推出无广告的付费游戏版本，所以付费游戏还会很有市场。

另外，我们的下一款游戏《iBlast Moki 2》也不会采用免费模式，它还会是一款付费游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Godzilab’s Thomas Lachartre on how going freemium boosted StarDunk to 1.7 million downloads

More proof of the power of going freemium comes from French studio Godzilab.

It’s switched its StarDunk online game to free, which after a slow start as a paid game, has seen the total number of downloads go over 1.7 million.

Of course, getting money out of freemium players is another task entirely; something explained by Godzilab’s president Thomas Lachartre.

Pocket Gamer: Why did you decide to go freemium?

Thomas Lachartre: Mostly to have the game played by more players. StarDunk is a game which takes its whole dimension when more than a hundred of players are competing.

Before going freemium, only 10-20 people would be playing at any given time. Now that we’ve switched, it’s mostly around 300-500 and there are peaks around 2,000.

What was the thing that most surprised you when you switched from paid to freemium?

We were afraid the iTunes ratings would go to down a lot when switching to free, especially with the remaining iOS 3.1 users and the ‘rate on delete’ feature. But, surprisingly, it’s held up quite well.

The game’s rating is still really high and comparable to the rating when the game was paid, which is quite surprising for a free game.

How are you monetising your audience?

This is where we made a few mistakes.

First we decided to monetise the contests by limiting them and offering a premium version of the game with no contest limitations. Players complained about not being able to play as much as they wanted though, so it wasn’t a good choice.

We tried to change this by enabling extra contests every day but it still wasn’t ideal. Then we decided to remove the contest limitation and add more adverts. This wasn’t well received either as it affected the gameplay experience too much.

So we’ve just released an update in which we reduce the number of ads and add a new virtual currency to the game, StarPoints.

You can earn these by playing or by buying them if you want to get all the unlockables quicker. It seems a lot of players like this new concept. The revenue is higher and this will probably improve the game’s addictiveness too.

How helpful was using the Plus+ network in terms of promotion and IAP?

We are only using Plus+ as the social platform with achievements and leaderboards. We are not using the cross promotion service. Ngmoco mostly uses it to promote its own games.

What plans do you have to continue to support Stardunk?

We have some more ideas in the pipeline, especially being able to customise your balls, new game modes, and, of course, new themes and balls.

Will you be releasing StarDunk on other mobile platforms?

We are mostly focused on iPhone. If we do a port for StarDunk that would probably be for Android where the freemium model has a good chance of working.

Will all your games be freemium from now on, or do you think there’s still a place for paid games?

That’s a good question which we are still trying to answer, but for now we don’t think we will develop only freemium games.

You can still see companies such as Gameloft and EA releasing full paid games with no ads, so there’s still a market for paid games.

Also, we can’t think of a great freemium model for our next game, iBlast Moki 2, so it will probably be a paid app.（source:pocketgamer）