作者：Dylan Moran

当你投入时间去创造，分销并推广一款游戏时，你必须考虑如何从中赚到钱。如果你非常努力工作并且希望从游戏开发中赚取生计，那么下文便是你需要掌握的一些最佳游戏盈利选择。

1.付费游戏

这是以固定价格事先将游戏出售给玩家并从中获取利益的最显著选择。你可以基于市场竞争对手，游戏功能以及其它市场营销元素去决定游戏价格。例如一款街机iOS游戏最低售价为0.99美元，但RPG桌面游戏却可卖到20美元。而为了了解自己的游戏适合怎样的定价，你需要进行深入的市场研究并遵循适当的市场标准。

为了确保你能从游戏中赚到足够的钱，你需要投入足够的时间于游戏市场营销中。只有最优秀的游戏能够做到收支相抵或获取收益，虽然它们也需要一点点运气元素。

2.游戏内部购买

比起事先跟玩家收钱，你也可以提供免费游戏下载并以一定的成本提供一些额外功能。这便是我们所熟悉的应用内部购买（IAP）。例如你可以通过向玩家收费而提供给他们额外关卡，让他们能够使用更厉害的武器或带给他们更多燃料能够更长久地游戏。设计一个优秀的IAP也是一个极具挑战性的任务。

这一系统的一大局限便是你可能需要较少的游戏下载才能确保IAP足够有效。并且你也会发现只有少部分玩家会为IAP花钱—-不管你的游戏多受欢迎。所以如果有越多玩家玩你的游戏，那么玩家花钱游戏的几率也会越高。

3.呈现广告

这是被动收益的主要来源，即包含在游戏中呈现第三方市场营销者的广告。许多公司提供了广告门户网站让你能够与一些公司签订呈现广告的协议并让他们能在你的游戏中展示广告，例如gamedev，LeadBolt等等。通过这种渠道所获取的收益通常与你能够为游戏吸引到的玩家数量成正比。这一系统是用户友好型的：既容易执行又能帮你轻松追踪到市场营销者的总收益。

为了能从这种盈利策略中获取最大利益，你的游戏市场营销就必须足够有效且游戏必须足够吸引人。如果你的游戏理念足够强大能够进行病毒性传播，你自然能够轻松从广告中赚取巨大利益。

game adverts(from haosou)

4.提供社交分享道具

如果你的游戏拥有丰富的社交功能，你便更有机会去吸引更广泛的用户。例如那些喜欢你的游戏的用户便会与朋友分享你的游戏。而通过添加社交分享选择，你将能让玩家更轻松做到这点。

但这种做法在今天的游戏中已经非常普遍了，所以该如何做才能将你的游戏和其它游戏区分开来呢？几乎每一款游戏都会在玩家到达一定里程碑时让他们和朋友分享自己的成就的策略。但为了和市场上的众多游戏区分，你可以尝试各种不同的理念，如让玩家与朋友分享自己在游戏中获得的奖励，更多生命，礼物等等。

同样地，你也可以尝试创造朋友群组并让他们能够以团队为单位进行游戏。对于那些非专业玩家或不想参与其中的朋友，你也可以让他们扮演旁观者的角色。他们可以观看游戏的进行并通过猜测哪支团队会赢而获得额外奖励。就像现实世界中的体育竞猜一样。关于奖励，你可以提供额外的生命，更多点数或让他们可以开启一些付费功能或游戏关卡。这么做能够鼓励玩家更多地参与游戏游戏并去购买更复杂的关卡或更厉害的能量与朋友进行竞争。

5.视频广告

如今，视频广告比那些简单的横幅广告更受欢迎。通常它们会在游戏加载时出现在游戏最开始阶段。当然根据不同游戏，它们也可以被放置在游戏中的任何位置。你只需要确保这样的广告不会打扰到玩家游戏便可。同时你需要确保这些广告能从视觉上吸引玩家去点击或至少愿意完整地看完视频。最理想的情况便是在游戏期间到游戏结束前去添加视频广告。

我们还有许多帮助你从游戏中赚钱的方法。如你可以出售游戏授权或在游戏期间进行品牌推广。而所有的这一切都取决于你的选择。对你来说唯一重要的事便是清楚如何以及为什么你的玩家将为你的游戏掏腰包。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 Best Monetizing Strategies for HTML5 Games

by Dylan Moran

When you have invested time in creating, distributing and promoting a game you must definitely consider earning some money from it. If you have worked hard and it’s your serious endeavour to make a living from game development, just read on to know about the best game monetizing options you have and choose your right approach.

1. Paid games

This is the most obvious choice for monetizing a game by selling it to your users for a fixed, up-front fee. The amount you charge can then depend on the market competition, features of the game and some other small marketing factors. For example, an arcade iOS title is sold for minimum $0.99, but the RPG-style desktop games can cost up to $20. But to know which price quotation is most suitable for your game, you need to do an in-depth market research and follow the market standards.

To make sure you earn a decent amount from your game, you need to invest some quality time in game marketing. Only the best games are able to break even or make profits but they still need luck for that.

2. In-game purchases

Instead of charging an upfront fee from the users to play your game, you can offer a free game download and offer additional features for some cost. This system is commonly known as the in-app purchases (IAPs). For example, you can charge a fee for the player to play the bonus levels, use better weapons, or add more fuel to play further. The designing of a concept for a good in-game purchase system is also a challenging task.

One of the limitations of this system is that you might need some minimum number of game downloads to make IAPs effective. And even after that only a small proportion of players are found to actually pay for IAPs, no matter how popular the game is. So the more users play your game, the higher are your chances for being paid.

3. Display adverts

This is mainly a source of passive income that involves showing adverts of third party marketers within your game play. Many companies offer advertising portals where you can sign up for display advertising and allow them to show adverts in your game, for example: gamedev, LeadBolt and more. The income received through this channel is usually proportional the number of players you are able to attract towards the game. You will get a percentage of the total earnings the marketers get through the players of your game. The complete system is user friendly: easy implementation and clear track of total earnings of the marketers.

In order for you to get the maximum benefits from this monetization strategy, your game marketing should be very strong and the game should also be very addictive, which is quiet challenging in itself. If your game idea is strong enough to go viral, you can easily make a lot of money out of adverts.

4. Offer Social Share items

If your game is rich in social features, you have better chances of attracting a wider audience towards the game. For example: a user who likes your game would definitely like to share it with his friends. And by having social share options, you make it easy for him to do so.

But that is very common in all games these days, so what differentiates your game from other games? Almost every game has a strategy to ask the players to share their game achievements with friends each time they meet a milestone. But to move a step ahead from crowd, you can try different ideas like, letting your players share their game rewards with friends, share their lives with friends, or if not share buy these items as a gift.

Similarly, try something like creating groups of friends and let them play in teams. For those friends who are not experts and not willing participate, can be the spectator. He can rather watch the game and win extra bonus by betting on the teams. Just like the real world sports betting, where spectators bet on some team and win a lottery. As a reward you can offer extra lives, more points or unlock some paid features/game levels. This would encourage the players to get more involved in the game and make purchases of difficult levels or powers to compete with their friends.

5. Video Adverts

Video ads have got more popular than simple banner ads these days. Commonly these are shown at the beginning of a game when it is loading. And further it can be added anywhere within the game as you find appropriate according to your game. Just need to be sure that it does not abruptly hinder the player’s game to annoy him. It should be very subtle, but visible enough to grab their attention to click or at least watch full video. It is ideal to add video adverts between the game sessions or when the game is over.

We have many options of earning money from your game. Like, you might also be interested in selling licenses or doing branding within the game play. It is totally up to your choice which strategy appeals to you more. The only thing that is important to understand is how and why you believe your players would spend money on games for you to make profits.（source：gamasutra）