C-Sharp Programming Beginner Tutorial: Designing the Game with Programming Logic in Mind (Part 4)

Hey everyone! It's good to see everyone back again! Let's consider Game Design from a currency standpoint today.

In-Game Currency example

Are you ready to return to the code? Well, not quite yet... this will be the last of the 4-Part series of C# Tutorial Lessons based around the design and conceptualization of the game itself. Will this be all there is to the design? Heck no, the design is so key to creating an actual game that it's poignant to almost every lesson there is to teach; however, this will be the last of the series devoted specifically to Game Design instead of the hard work of programming the game itself.

I know we are all getting impatient... but I don't want to dig into the learning until after the Winter/Holiday Season is over and everyone is returning to normal life. That way you will be able to focus better on learning to code instead of having to split your attention between family, friends, parties, food, gifts, and general merriment. Be patient and...

Hold Your Horses!

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We've been talking a great deal about the behind-the-scenes architecture of the game from what some call the "Ten-Thousand-Foot View" where you speak about conceptualization and the ideas behind the game.

View from 10K Feet

So here's what we'll be discussing in today's Post and the next Post in order to break up the monotony of actual Code and Logic:

**The Basic Overview
**Game Play
**The Look-and-Feel
**Game Concept
**Game Features
**Game Items
**Game Scoring
**Game Add-Ons
*Game Purchases and Item Purchases
*Game Tactics

** - Covered in Previous Post(s)
*- Covered in this Post

So we will be finishing up our design-based conversation by discussing Game Purchases and Item Purchases and Game Tactics. Entire books can be devoted to each of these items, so obviously this is a very basic overview to introduce you to the thought-process of monetization and game theory/strategy.

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Game Purchases

Subscription Modes

This section is actually just a short snippet to show that the game itself can be monetized through purchases of the game itself. Like any game that is developed to generate a revenue stream, there are some different options for doing this. We could sell the full game with all benefits for a constant price; we could sell the base game for a smaller fee and including in-game purchases and locked content; we could make the game itself free with locked levels and required buy-ins; or we could use a subscription-based model along with in-game purchases. Following is a quick look at the basic Pro's and Con's of these 4 options.

All-in Cost: The biggest benefit of this is that the revenue is all-in so there are far fewer transactions to deal with. The biggest disadvantage would be the lack of repeat business or the need to sell expansion packs. Larger purchases tend to drive away a pretty fair share of potential buyers.

Base wiith In-Game Purchases: The nice thing about this is that the price, as a lesser base product, would be lower and, therefore, more likely to be purchased. This is a widely-used model that includes many special item purchases or locked levels or custom design aspects that cost extra. Using locked content without the potential to earn your way to that content leaves a sour taste in many people's mouths. First the buyer would pay a healthy sum to even play the game, then he/she would have to spend extra to continue playing or enhance the experience.

Free with In-Game Purchases: Many people love this model as players because they don't have to pay anything to play. Unfortunately, most of these types of Gaming Models locks away a great deal of content that cannot be earned through the Game Play and can only be bought with in-game purchases, whether item-based or achievement-based. Often the games of this style require a certain gaming rank/level as well as enough in-game currency funds. It takes so much of the fun away from the game if you can only get to a certain (usually still-low) level before you are forced into the funnel of paying extra.

Subscription-based Model: One of the tougher set-ups, the subscription-based model is becoming popular even as it relates to other things. This options provides users to pay a very small fee monthly in order to play a game or unlock a certain level of content. This is a good option that offers game-play that's affordable while being residual. The problem is that, if a player is in the game and cannot afford the subscription for a number of months they could lose their achievement placing or level of power while they are unable to play.

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Payment Methods

My Combo Model

My Model: Once I'm to the point where I can monetize gaming through my own game platform, I would use a combination of the various models in order to offer a smooth system for the player as well as enhancement options for those that wish to go the next level. What I would do is have a very low Base Purchase of the game, enhancement-based Subscription model on a tiered pricing platform, along with in-game customization options for in-game purchases.

As an example, the Base cost would be $5/Player download and connection and would offer the player the lowest tier to play for no extra cost. Then I would offer 3 subscription levels (low - $.25/month, medium - $.50/month, & high - $1.00/month) that would offer incentives based on the level. Obviously, the lowest level would offer game play a step above the Base Cost offers along with a set number of free customization options and a certain level of inter-personal game-play. The highest Subscription Model would offer the low and medium benefits along with some extra special content. Then, on top of that, I would offer microtransactions for In-Game purchases beyond those that are included in the Base/Subscription Cost.

To show this in another way, let's say that you have a really fun game and a customer list that is 10,000 Players. Now, you're really only going to get a small percentage of the total buying subscriptions because they wish to rise up the Achievement Ladder. Let's say you get 5% that buy in with subscriptions at a split of 50% low, 30% medium, and 20% high level... that would mean you would have $50K in up-front game purchases and you would have 500 total Subscriptions broken down as follows:

Low Subscription: 50% of 500 = 250 @ $.25/month => $62.50/month in subscription costs.

Medium Subscription: 30% of 500 = 150 @ $.50/month => $75.00/month in subscription costs.

High Subscription: 20% of 500 = 100 @ $1.00/month => $100.00/month in subscription costs.

Total Monthly Subscription costs: $237.50/month. I know, this doesn't sound like much, but that's on a very conservative 5% subscribers. That's likely to be upwards to 20% or better if the game is that much fun.

The next section will tie into this as it details the main bulk of the In-Game Purchases.

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In-Game Purchases

Item Purchases

Item Purchases make up the greatest bulk of In-Game Purchases. In terms of the Space Capture The Flag game that we're building upon, In-Game Item Purchases can be anything from engine enhancements to specific metals and weaponry or communication technologies. The cost will vary based on the item itself and its power in the game. As an example, a Level 3 Photon Cannon Upgrade might be $.02 while the Level 4 Photon Cannon Upgrade might be $.04. It all just depends on the power of the item and/or the supply-and-demand.

In-game purchasing can be highly profitable, but it can also prove to be the downfall of your game in general. What I mean is that if you price your In-Game Items very high, less people will be able to buy them and will become quickly frustrated that the game stuff is just too expensive and, likely, not worth the time. Once that happens, these players migrate to another platform that is closer to free. The profitability lies in the sheer number of purchases, so you must weight both sides.

As an example, let's say your game is selling a sword (a virtual sword that is paper-dolled onto your character, not a real sword). It's a pretty cool sword, as many would agree. So you are looking at both sides of the equation for pricing.

Theoretically, a $10 price would sell 20 times while a $.10 price would sell 300 times (both are just arbitrary values and may be completely wrong)... let's also consider that with the $10 you end up losing 10 players from frustration over that cost. You'd be losing a potential of 10 @ $1.00/month for a monthly loss of $10 month-over-month. Outside of that, the 20 @ $10 comes to $200 while the 300 @ $.10 come to $30. It's not an easy thing to define, but just think from a personal standpoint what would make you leave the game in order to price it more fairly than that point of reference.

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RTS Games

Game Tactics

Finally, the concept of Game Tactics comes into play as monetization of a game requires a solid interface, seamless artificial intelligence, and game strategy that provides players with a level of expected challenge vs. success. In other words, if a game is too difficult then people will not want to play (with the exception being some of those games that they claim is impossible to win and people play it just to try to prove it wrong... those games don't last very long). On the other hand, you don't want to create a game that is so easy that it's mastered in an hour and then there's little challenge involved. Either direction can be detrimental to the success or failure of a game if taken to extremes.

The other thing to take into consideration is the type of challenge available. I personally believe that a game should involve a combination of skill types, such as twitch skills or strategy skills. I'm not going to delve too deeply into any given skill sets because there are a number of them, but as it stands for a Space Capture The Flag stylized game, the player should have to be able to maneuver in a dog fight as well as use team strategies in an effort to win in battle and gain the edge against the competition. Twitch skills are those that use muscle memory and repetitive hand-eye-coordination techniques in order to beat the competitor to the final goal, whether a sports goal or defeating an opponent in a fight or something different. Conversely, strategy based skill-sets offer the challenge of out-thinking your opponent as in chess and board games or RTS Video Games like MMORTS games or even team-based RPGs.

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C Sharp

Here are my Previous Posts for the C# Programming Tutorials:

C# Programming Beginner Tutorial: Basic Concepts and Ideas
C# Programming Beginner Tutorial: A First look at actual code using D&D as the Project
C# Programming Beginner Tutorial: Variables & Data Types to Fuel the Gaming Engine!
C# Programming Beginner Tutorial: Designing the Game with Programming Logic in Mind (Part 1)
C# Programming Beginner Tutorial: Designing the Game with Programming Logic in Mind (Part 2)
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@dbzfan4awhile/c-programming-beginner-tutorial-designing-the-game-with-programming-logic-in-mind-part-3

Please search using the csharp-forbeginners tag to look for the next lessons... I will be using this tag as the foundation tag for all subsequent Tutorials for this lesson.

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Thanks for Viewing!