Free-to-Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away

2. Gameplay: Keeping Players Coming Back

With the success of F2P, gameplay—the design and subsequent feel of a game—has shifted into the spotlight more than ever as the need to keep players playing increases. Without good gameplay, your game is dull and unsatisfying; with it, it is a happiness-inducing god of the people, generating smiles, fans and money.

Although this chapter is not an exhaustive description of game design, it does, using pop psychology and design methodology, describe how to create games for long-term player retention. It identifies the elements that create a sense of fun and keep humans interacting with a game in the very short term through to the very long term. Those elements include:

• Minute-to-minute. The infinitely repeatable ...