When creating a free-to-play game you have two choices. Either you target a very large audience trying to structure the entire player journey to make sense for many months, or you play a game that lets you get to know other people right away and let them build their campfires.
In this second case, an inherently multiplayer game, it is possible to target a niche and build a successful service. Even if it is difficult to compete with the realities that handle more complex services where contents and levels are released every two weeks. You will probably not being a top grossing. Still your service can sustain a meaningful business and last years.
Whatever is your target, ask yourself some questions and make decisions:
- Gameplay: What is the backbone of your service? How does it guide the rest of the game’s features?
- Economy: How much is a game minute worth in currency?
- UX: how do you accompany the player throughout the whole experience?
- Level design: how do you estimate and measure the relationship between fail rate and drop off when designing levels?
- Narrative design: in what moments of experience do deliver your story?