1.缓慢的软发行与数据收集

你也许清楚玩家将如何玩你的游戏，但你需要确保并让玩家去验证你的假设。

较长的软发行是设计过程中一个重要组成部分。

伴随着2个月稳定的新玩家流将帮助你去识别在内部测试中未出现的模式，并让你能够调整经济使玩家可以负担得起付费货币。

这是一个很重要但却经常被忽视的概念—-让你的玩家能够理解并购买付费货币。

在无数的测试中我们得出一个结论，即更慷慨地使用付费货币（游戏邦注：经常在应用购买中出售）的游戏将推动玩家更频繁地购买并消费这些货币。我们可以通过提升玩家开始所使用的货币数量或减少道具成本而创造更加“自由流动的”付费货币游戏。

前者在大多数游戏中更加有效，因为玩家如果觉得自己能够收获更多的话便会乐意投入更多。

2.了解你的玩家应该购买什么

你应该能够清楚地回答“我的玩家在我的游戏中最先购买的会是什么？”这一问题。毕竟，如果你不知道玩家应该购买什么，你又怎么能够期待玩家知道这一答案？

你还应该能够基于软发行期间的真实玩家数据去回答这一问题。

通过分析去证实真正与玩家产生共鸣的第一个道具。在此围绕着使用频率的分析活动非常重要。包含玩家在购买时所处位置的变量将帮助你创造更加明确的行动计划从而更有效地制定道具价格与进行推销。

3.尽早且频繁地展示价值

一旦你清楚玩家该购买什么以及何时进行购买，那就尽早且频繁地在游戏中展示道具的价值。如果道具是“频繁使用”vs“一次利益”道具，那就让玩家可以在游戏早期阶段多次与道具进行互动。玩家需要能够适应对于道具的使用，他们还需要贯穿游戏搞清楚道具对自己进程的帮助。

Candy Crush Saga(from ipadown)

King的《Candy Crush Saga》中的Lollipop Hammer（一种付费IAP道具）便是一种非常典型的例子；在前面10至15个关卡中，你可以多次免费使用Hammer。

你不可避免会到达游戏中的一个点，即如果不花钱，你便不可能继续前进，而你非常清楚购买道具的作用，它能够提供给你在游戏中的绝对利益。

4.让玩家能够轻松地购买并使用付费道具

下一步便是创造一个能够让玩家立即购买并使用道具的IAP。你的商店中最便宜的IAP至少也应该提供给玩家适当的货币去购买道具。

《Clash of Clans》在这方面便做得很好。具有提升50%生产力的高价值道具的worker将消费你500个宝石。

关于商店中的第一个IAP能够提供500个宝石的设定并不是什么巧合。《Clash of Clans》在呈现，推广并销售第一个道具方面做得非常出色。基于这种方式去设置你的游戏商店能够提供一个明确的价值定位并降低玩家因为选择而受挫的可能性。对于玩家来说他们需要在游戏中购买什么，他们能从购买中获得什么，他们需要花费多少，以及如何在需要的时候立即购买等等内容都非常明显。

5.使用数据去优化其它IAP的价值

既然你的游戏货币价值已经设定好了，你便可以使用信息去调整游戏中的其它IAP的价值。

提供一些奖励货币作为动机去创造更大的购买是个好主意。基于一定速率去提升奖励货币的百分比将让玩家能够更轻松地了解商店，定价以及付费货币的价值。该趋势可能为货币创造不错的数值，与此同时奖励货币的百分比将传达货币理应出现的数量。

IAP定价层中的逻辑矛盾将创造某种混乱并让玩家去猜测他们的购买决定。在发行前，你应该着眼于IAP商店并确保它能够呈献给玩家流畅的体验。指导原则应该能够确保内容足够清楚简单，并做到物有所值。

有效设置你的付费货币，时机和定价，清楚地呈现他们的价值，如此你便能够获得更多付费玩家。

留意玩家的游戏并基于同样的原则去传递带有合适价值的道具和游戏体验，如此你将能够按照自己的方式获得更多更加上瘾且愉快的“付费用户”。

想想在一款游戏中有200万名玩家，那么只增加1%的付费玩家并将他们的平均终身购买从30美元提升到50美元将最终创造出额外的40万美元收益。

（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）

5 steps to optimize the first in app purchase

By Guest Author

1 Soft launch slowly and gather data

You may have a good idea of how players will be playing your game, but you need to be sure and let players confirm your hypothesis.

A long soft launch is an important part of the design process.

Two months with a solid trickle of new players will help you identify patterns that may not have appeared during in-house testing and allow you to tune your economy so that players can afford to spend premium currency freely.

This is a critical and often overlooked concept – getting your players to understand and spend premium currency.

In countless tests we’ve been able to conclude that games that are more generous with premium currency (the currency most often sold as in app purchases) generate players that more often purchase and spend this currency. Creating a more ‘free flowing’ premium currency game can be done by boosting the amount of currency that players start with or by reducing the cost of items across the board.

The former is typically more effective in most games, likely because players spend more if they feel they have more.

2 Know what your players should buy

You should be able to answer the question ‘What should my players buy first in my game?’ very clearly. After all, if you don’t know what players’ should buy, how can you expect players to know?

You should also be able to prove you have answered this question properly with real player data during soft launch.

Use analytics to confirm the first item that really resonates with players. Analytic events surrounding frequency of use are essential here. Added variables that include where a player is in the game when the purchase is made will also help to create a clear action plan to properly price and merchandise the item.

3 Demonstrate value early and often

Once you are confident you know what a player should buy and when, demonstrate the item’s value in the game early and often. If the item is a ‘frequent use’ versus ‘one time benefit’ item, having a player interact with the item several times during the early stages of the game is ideal. Players need to be accustomed to using the item and they should see how it can help them progress through the game.

The Lollipop Hammer (a premium IAP item) in King’s Candy Crush Saga is an excellent example of this practice; in the first ten to fifteen levels you have already used the Hammer multiple times for free.

You inevitably come to a point in the game where progression is nearly impossible without buying one and you clearly know how it works, the benefit it provides in the game.

4 Make it easy for them to buy and use premium items

The next step is to create an IAP that will allow players to purchase and use the item immediately. The lowest price IAP in your store should give at least the right amount of currency to buy the item.

Clash of Clans does this very well. The worker, their high value item that provides a 50% increase in productivity, costs 500 gems.

It is no coincidence that the first IAP in the store gives 500 gems. Clash of Clans does an excellent job of presenting, marketing and selling this first item just as you need it in the game. Setting your game store up this way provides a clear value proposition and decreases the likelihood that players will be paralyzed by choice. It should be very clear to players what they need to buy in the game, the benefit it provides, how much it costs, and how to buy it immediately when needed.

5 Use that data to optimize the value of other IAPs

Now that the value of your game’s currency has been set, you can use that information to adjust the value of the other IAPs in the game.

It is a good idea to offer some bonus currency as an incentive to making a larger purchase. Having the percentage of bonus currency increase at a consistent rate makes it easier for the player to understand the store, pricing and the premium currency’s value. While the tendency might be to create nice round numbers for the currency, the bonus percentage should dictate what the amount of currency granted should be.

Table 1: A standard IAP economy

Note in Table 1, the $9.99 price point grants 240 units of premium currency and a 20 percent premium currency bonus over buying the $4.99 IAP.

If the currency amount given was 250 instead of 240, the bonus currency granted would be 25 percent rather than 20 percent. The result is that the value of the $19.99 IAP wouldn’t be as appealing to players.

Logical inconsistencies in IAP pricing tiers create confusion and make players second-guess their decision to buy. Before launching, take a close look at your IAP store and make sure it’s a smooth experience for the player. The guiding principles should be to keep things clear and simple, and provide good value for money.

Get your premium items, the timing and pricing of them right, clearly demonstrate their value, and you’ll get a lot more paying players.

Keep watching their play and working within the same principles to deliver the right items and game experience for the right value, and you’ll be well on your way to many more engaged and happy ‘paying customers’.

Consider that in a game with 2 million players, increasing paying players by only 1 percent and increasing their average lifetime purchases from $30 to $50 would result in an additional $400,000 in revenue.(source:pocketgamer)