I have some plans of becoming a game designer (in terms of doing the visual 3D part, and directing the development of the game), not sure if I will actually do it but I like to brainstorm some ideas from time to time for some fun games, for both consoles, PC and maybe mobile, the mobile gaming market is huge and we can't ignore that fact, I've played plenty of different mobile games and I've been thinking of the best methods that could be done in terms of free games.
Most free games that I've noticed uses some of these methods which can be a nuisance at most:
- Video Adverts: The game forces you to watch them after finishing a stage or randomly while playing (the second option is incredibly annoying)
- "Energy Bar": it's a bar that drains after a couple rounds, once it's empty the player is forced to wait a few minutes (sometimes even half an hour) to play again, or pay to fill up the bar (another unnecessary option)
- Remove Ads Option: 95% of the free games have that option that you can pay a small price to remove ads from the game.
- "Gems": a premium type of in-game currency that can allow the player to skip through a lot of grinding, or unlock items that can't be accessed with normal in-game currency (we can call them coins) that you can win by playing the game (depending on how it's implemented it can be a problem)
- Banners: Small ads that appears on the bottom or the top of the screen, sometimes they only show up in the menus, but others appear all the time even while playing, and depending on the size it can be a problem.
- Pay 2 Win: this often happens in games that has an online mode, which makes it incredibly unfair for players who can't pay for in-game currency.
Sometimes I like to imagine some fun and free games that could be released on the mobile market, like a 3D platformer, racing game, puzzles and so on, with a few methods that I think it could be the best to make it fair and fun to play, so here are a few ideas I have in mind:
- Weekly prizes: that is included in a lot of games, basicly it gives you a prize if you open up the game each day on the week, once you complete the entire week you can gain an even bigger prize, that can't happen if you skip a day though.
- Adverts with prizes: There could be an ad button after finishing a level to play that can give you a bonus after every level, there can be coins and other types of prizes, the ads can be skipped after 3 to 5 seconds by clicking an X on the corner though so you're not forced to watch the entire thing until the end, but that can be optional, so you're not forced to play the ad if you don't want to.
- Gems that can also be earned by playing: They're rarer than coins, but you can still earn them by playing the game, allowing you to buy those gem-exclusive only items in store, yes they take longer to unlock compared to items that can be bought with coins, but it won't block the player entirely from having them without paying real money for it, but there still should be an option to allow players to skip the grinding process by giving them the option to pay for coins and gems.
- No "energy bar": Seriously that's just useless.
- "Billboards": Not sure if that one can be possible, but I've been thinking, let's say on a level you see a billboard, if you stand your character infront of it for a few seconds an ad plays on the screen, and by doing that you can win random small prizes, or the billboard starts to move, revealing a hidden path to a secret area of the level, but since this requires the player to stop and stare at it, it's optional, so you can just skip it.
- Balanced Online Mode: Balancing players with similar levels to play together, so it won't be unfair for the newer players.
- Completionist features: Unlock items by earning all the 3 stars in the level, each could have a certain objective to complete, for example earn a star by not killing any enemies, collecting all the coins, accessing all secret levels, avoid jumping and so on (the objectives can change depending on the level, some can ask you to kill all the enemies, while others the complete opposite), and medals depending on how fast you went on the level, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Gold gives you 3 prizes, Silver gives you 2 and Bronze only 1, this can boost up the replayability and the challenge of the game, giving the players the desire to replay that level again to complete it 100%, some exclusive items and levels could be unlocked by reaching a certain ammount of stars.
What do you guys think of this so far? I think some of these ideas could improve free mobile games greatly, without
being an annoying money grab game with a lot of barriers blocking you from progressing further, or a lot of grinding to do, you can suggest your own ideas too.
