Rewards, Economy and Monetisation Pt1

Now the next course of action is to keep the player invested in the game, most multiplayer games need to present an incentive. A list of tasks to understand why the player is doing what they are doing, because let's be honest even when I'm playing a game I want to know why I'm doing what I'm doing, I would like to earn something for just playing the game even if it has no actual value. A sense of achievement you could say….

Regardless, considering that how would I implement it, well I took some inspiration from current games, why not create a Battle/Season Pass, which works into the idea of how would we monetise the game….. Let's consider that most games with a successful monetisation normally avoid Pay-to-win and solely focus on cosmetic items because let's face it, people want to beat other people and look good doing so. Researching this, I found that Fall Guys had a good and successful model where everything that is earned is cosmetic and as a player I'm not forced to pay, but I can if I want to.

Season Pass Progression

Just like Fall guys there are two type of progression systems, you are monitored in ranking by the Crowns you earn and then you earn Fame in the game which is progressing earned in the Season Pass, now unlike most games the Players Level is determined by the Season Pass, but the Player Ranking is determined by the amount of Crowns you have.

So for this game we shall do something similar, you have to level up with the season pass and each level you will earn something, but to earn better items through the Season Pass, the player will have to pay for the Premium version

The Crowns in this game won't be compressed to Shards like in Fall Guys, it will simply become Medals, as we have a Star Trooper theme going on so it makes sense also thematically. Similarly though we will make it a meter to measure those wins but 1 win gives you 1 medal but the meter will increase, over time, so the maximum amount of wins will then give you the reward

Rewards

Now in order to get the progression correct the player not only needs to Level Up’ but they also need to earn something for that achievement, so what can our players earn?

Considering we are taking inspiration from Fall Guys let's also considering how they deliver their rewards and the economy they have employed.

The types of rewards I designed offers a good amount of monetisation opportunities, presenting in-game currency, a premium in-game currency, Season Pass Level Points, Medals, Banners, Cosmetic Items to show to other players and finally Emotes that play an animation when the player presses the button to do so. Fairly simple.

Thankfully, Fall Guys economy is built in the game as a something that happens outside the gameplay, so it doesn't push the idea of real-world economy entirely, but has some type of economy. Players earn in-game currency each time they enter the rewards screen, and the amount earned is calculated by the types of positions the player was in after each round

Either in 1st Place, Top 20%, or Top 50%, but the amount earned still is quite mysterious but this is how some of the parameters are determined. In this game we will do something similar but it will be determined by which puzzle they manage to complete and which ones they don’t.

• 1st Puzzle only - Very small amount

• 1st and 2nd Puzzle only - More than previous one

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd Puzzle only - A more substantial amount of points

• All the Puzzle completed - A Good amount of points

Whilst playing as the Aliens the point accumulation concept is reversed.

Now when I talk about points in this way, for our game they relate to the Season Pass points as well as the in-game currency (Galactic Credits) where they are in intrinsic to each other, so those Season Pass points also equate to the same number of Galactic Credits the player will receive, however, the Galactic Credits can be spent on cosmetic items and the number can be lowered, the Season Pass Level can never be lowered and only resets back to zero beginning of a new season.

Next Steps

For this particular part, it’s important to determine how much the player will earn with actual numbers for each time they complete these tasks, ultimately this will take some research but something that can be done without too much hassle. Additionally, I need to create another incentive for the player to keep coming back to the game but also need to fully flesh out how the Season Pass will work with how the rewards will be measured as well.