Game Design Secrets

Summary

Here are the key points we covered in this chapter:

• Design for short play and socialization. Most people play iOS games a few minutes at a time, so design like they play. Many like to share their fun gaming experiences with friends; make that possible and easy.
• Design for the medium and the market, and create pop music-style hooks. Design for the touchscreen, the accelerometer, and all the other features that make the iOS unique and great; design for catchy gameplay that hooks people who want to share the experience with others.
• Design for unique familiarity; respect your players but guide them. Create new spins to well-known genres and gameplay features; make it easy for your players to discover all the cool things about your game.
• Design for fun (and growth) through analytics. Ask yourself what kind of gameplay behavior you’d expect to see if players were enjoying your game, and then use analytics to determine if your beta testers are doing so.
• Monetize freemium games. Offer regular special discounts, especially in bulk and on the weekend, make some free goods better than for-pay virtual goods, try selling virtual currency instead of virtual goods, and make your virtual goods make sense to the game.
• Consider developing games smaller than 50MB for impulse downloads. iOS users can download a 50MG game pretty much anywhere they have 3G/4G connection.
• Go after new and existing players with carefully targeted ads. Test different kinds of ads to find the market that not only ...