Forum ‹ Monetization ‹ Need help monetizing my game HexWars.

[Vania]

Check it out here:
http://www.officeriot.net/hexwars

Currently you can buy coins and unlock units with those coins.
You also level up and unlock some units for free.


I think this is not working cause I havent made a cent.
I bet my players dont even know there's a shop... I have to make it visible for them.

So I'm considering giving coins to the players instead of unlocking the units directly.
This way players have to go to the shop to use their free coins, and in the process they might buy some coins...

[Oliver]

I'm not the most knowledgeable about your game, but i've seen Chris play it a few times, so i'll offer up some advice regardless... feel free to disregard:

Conversion Rates: Conversion rates from freebie player to paying player are usually fairly low: You need a good amount of players before you can say anything significant about whether or not it works. When i tried it just now, there weren't really any players.

Stickiness and other metrices: Find a way to keep track of how long people play, when they get bored etc.. Remember that almost nobody pays on their first visit. It's the people who keep coming back for more that are likely to think it's a good idea to spend some money on your game.

Visual distinction usually sells Allmost all micropayments based games have avatars of sorts, why do you think that is? It's because people want to appear different and cool to other players. Something as simple as a goldstar around usernames or colored vehicles might be an idea.

Build a fanbase, ask them You need some amount of players that are really passionate about your game, and play it over and over again. Once you've got them, you can ask them what they want, and build it for them.

Visibility I looked, and i could not find the place where i could buy stuff in your game. It needs to be exposed to the players before they'll use it. Take a hint from Zynga games: Their shops are an integral part of their gameplay. Their "things you can build" is the same thing as "things you can buy"... it's just that some items are free and some are not; they're mixed in together so players are constantly exposed to the better, paid options.

Eh, that's all i have. As i said; not an expert, feel free to disregard.

- Oliver

[Oliver]

Also.... The game looks fregging amazing! I'm pretty sure you can find an audience and a way to monetize this thing really well.

[cjcenizal]

Oliver has some really good points. Have you heard of the "funnel" concept of evolving users from first-time users to paying-customers? The idea is a visualization of your user base as a funnel. At the top, where users come in for the first time, it's very wide and you have a large number of users. As the user base evolves from first-time players to repeat-players to paying players, the userbase narrows -- fewer people are likely to repeatedly play than are likely to check the game out once, and fewer people are likely to pay than are to play it repeatedly.

You want to maximize the number of people flowing from one stage to the next. So this means go back to the very first step -- the top of the funnel. Are people converting from first-time players to repeat players? If yes, then continue to see why they are not paying. If not, then you already know your problem isn't necessarily in monetization. It's in retention. In other words, you need a user base of repeat players to monetize, first.

Hope this helps!

[Vania]

Well, I think the main problem with my game is that it's not casual enough, so the funnel gets narrow very quickly because people dont get past the tutorial.

For the people that stay retention is decent I think, right now I have 2000+ people of Level1 (played for 10 minutes), and 546 people of Level5 (160 minutes) .

To encourage people to stay I have leveling, with prizes at every level. What I'm thinking about doing is: instead of giving people the prizes directly I'll give them coupons, which they have to redeem at the Shop, that way I make it more visible.