Social Game Design

Tim Fields has been in the game industry since 1995 as a producer, project manager, design lead, and business developer. Tim has helped small studios and top publishers like EA and Microsoft run teams that create great games. He has worked on shooters, sports games, racing titles, and RPGs using talent and teams from North America, Asia, Europe, and the UK. Brandon Cotton has over 10 years of game industry experience covering a wide variety of technology, platforms and game types. He is active in the social and online game design community, and currently serves as a founder, design lead, and programmer for Portalarium. He has built games for NCSoft, Ubisoft, and Microsoft, and holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas.

Introduction. A Brief History of Online Game Monetization. Industry Terms. Game Type vs Monetization Strategy. What Can You Do in Design to Help a One-Time Purchase Game? Design Tactics for Advergames. Designing for Episodic Content and Paid Unlocks. Design Tactics for a Purely Subscription Game. How to Design for a Free-to-Play Game with a Subscription Option. How to Design Virtual Goods for Your Game. Currencies. Game Economy. Design Considerations for Combination Systems. Why Free-to-Play Is the Present and Future of Online Gaming. Review/Summary.