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Nicholas Lovell
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Rob Fahey
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Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games Kindle Edition

by Nicholas Lovell (Author), Rob Fahey (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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Free-to-play is the most exciting thing to happen to the games business for decades. Each week brings new success stories, as creators around the world unleash the potential of free-to-play - building successful, thriving games for mobile, social and even console and PC platforms, all with a single, powerful price tag: free. Yet at the same time, many other creators are struggling to make free-to-play work for them - while some bad uses of free-to-play have even attracted criticism for the entire industry.

Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games cuts through the confusion, presenting 15 clear, direct rules that will allow creators to build commercially successful games. There are no exploitative tricks or get-rich-quick schemes here - this is a practical guide for game designers who want to make money from free-to-play games while respecting their audience and building a devoted fan following. Each rule is explained in depth and illustrated with several examples from real games.

This book is designed as a reference for all game creators - whether you’re a veteran of the industry trying to get up to speed with the free-to-play business model, a newcomer learning the ropes, or even an experienced free-to-play creator seeking to polish your knowledge and challenge your perceptions. It’s also a perfect read for anyone - game creator or not - who wants to understand how the free-to-play model works, and what the future of the games business looks like.

Feedback for Nicholas' presentation of the Design Rules at the Free-to-Play Summit in London:

“15 bullet points of useful information with lots of meat and no fluff. Head and shoulders above the rest.”
Wolfgang Hamann, Koolhaus Games

“Nicholas Lovell’s presentation was outstanding… Particularly useful for me as someone who has just made the change from 5 years in boxed games to the F2P side of the industry.”
Dan Robinson, Eutechnyx

“Stand out talks for me were Nicholas Lovell’s talk on the 15 rules of F2P… Particularly relevant, with lots to take away and apply.”
Nick Adams, Blitz Game Studios
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  1. Print length
    83 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    15 Oct. 2012
  5. File size
    235 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009RT7Q3Y
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ GAMESbrief; 1st edition (15 Oct. 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 235 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 83 pages
  • Customer reviews:

About the authors

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  1. Nicholas Lovell

    Nicholas Lovell

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Nicholas Lovell is a games designer, author and consultant. His books include The Pyramid of Game Design, The Curve and The F2P Toolbox. Since 2008, he has advised more than 50 companies on adapting to service games, with a particular focus on free-to-play. Clients have included Bandai Namco, Bohemia Interactive, CCP, Exient, Firefly Studios, Madfinger, nDreams, Rebellion, Rovio, Square Enix and Supersaurs. Nicholas is currently Design Director at Electric Square in Brighton. He lives in London.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Rob Fahey

    Rob Fahey

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    I'm a journalist and consultant specialising in the videogame industry. I've been writing about the business of games for over 15 years, and I founded one of the leading trade publications in the market, GamesIndustry.biz, over a decade ago. I was editor there for almost five years, and still write weekly editorial columns for the site eleven years later - that's a lot of columns. I've also written about the games business for GAMESbrief, Eurogamer, VG247 and British newspaper The Times, as well as appearing to discuss the industry on BBC TV and radio, CNN, Sky News and others.

    Originally from Ireland, I now live in Tokyo after a decade and a half in London. I've tried to quit World of Warcraft a dozen times but keep crawling back, and was once banned from playing Mario Kart DS by my flatmates after a particularly explosive outburst of blue shell motivated swearing.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
119 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Marco Duarte
5.0 out of 5 stars Your Free-to-play bible
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2013
Verified Purchase
If you are, or thinking of, creating a Free-to-Play game you need to read this book.

You will learn the true meaning of Free-to-Play and what that means to you and your players.
Sometimes you will read one of the rules and think "Ah, of course" then wonder why the companies that create these games don't apply them to their games, adn then fail.

This book is a must, even if you are developing games with other business models.
It's well worth the money and the time you'll invest on reading it.
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simon00
4.0 out of 5 stars £1.74 is a steal
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2012
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You can read this primer in one sitting. Its friendly tone guides you through the key concepts of free to play (f2p) game design with no complicated or over-technical language.

Even if you're not making an f2p game, this book contains information no game designer should be without.

It also works like a checklist so as you're designing your game, you can check you have thought about the topics covered in each informative chapter.

Recommended.
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Ben
5.0 out of 5 stars Expert advice, for pennies
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2012
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Nine hundred and sixty-seven (iPad Kindle) pages of top-drawer, been-there-done-that advice about free to play game development for under two quid. Nicholas is a leading thinker in the field and his rules make total sense; we can expect much development of these ideas as the market matures but he captures a great deal about why and how F2P works today. With a significant increase in detail beyond what he shares for free on gamesbrief.com, this is required reading for anyone with skin in this new game.
One person found this helpful
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George Koulouris
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2018
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Short, to the point and filled with some great ideas.

It deals with the gaming world but some these concepts could be applied to other industries.

Provided great food for thought - I’ll be testing some of the ideas in the edtech space.
One person found this helpful
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stez
4.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2014
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Whether you've made a free to play game or are planning to you need to stop what you are doing and read this book. Essential reading for designers, developers, students and managers!
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Ade
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book at a no think price
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2012
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I devoured this book in one quick sitting, in short this is a very good book. Anyone into game design should pick it up. The rules within are solid and have given me considerable food for thought in.

And as mentioned in title the price is a no brainer (<get the book to see why;))
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E. Moubayed
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect introduction to F2P
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2012
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A very easy read - 2 hours or so, which you want to keep coming back to. If you are a game designer trying to get to grips with F2P, this highlights the key differences with traditional pricing and what you need to consider to be successfull.
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Placeholder
5.0 out of 5 stars simple, comprehensive and useful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2014
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A very good starting point for game developers looking to adapt to the current trend of freemium games. Worded very simply, you leave the book thinking you've understood the principles of how to design the game given this fast growing business model.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Luis C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Sirve bastante.
Reviewed in Mexico on 8 October 2020
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Perfecto para los que quieren conocer el concepto de “free to play” y cómo esto afecta el diseño de un videojuego. Conciso, va al punto, es una lectura rápida, y el precio es justo.
Es una serie de reglas bien expuestas por los autores. Primero uno de ellos da su explicación y el otro la complementa. Sí logra que uno cuestione el paradigma del modelo tradicional de cobrar por un juego por adelantado, el cual no es malo, no, simplemente diferente.
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Thomas Suchecki
4.0 out of 5 stars Useful information
Reviewed in Canada on 19 December 2017
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This is the first book I’ve read in this field so much of the info is new to me, from that standpoint I consider it a good purchase, especially considering the price.
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Thaís Santos da Silva
5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom
Reviewed in Brazil on 11 October 2017
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Leitura simples e rápida, inclusive para quem ainda não entende muito sobre o assunto. Dá uma visão mais estratégica sobre monetização.
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Antonio R.
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful but slightly out of date.
Reviewed in Spain on 4 November 2016
Verified Purchase
F2P evolves so fast, that 2012 is an eternity.

It focus more in the differences between Premium games and F2P than in F2P evolution.
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Oscar A. Campos Gonzalez
5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful!
Reviewed in the United States on 20 February 2014
Verified Purchase
If you are new to F2P games business model or already developing a game for F2P market, this book is a must-read. Easy to read and focus. Having in mind this rules will enhance your game design decisions, while having a very clear inside into this business model known as Free to Play games or F2P.

Even if you may feel it is very hard for you to give your baby product for free, by reeding this book you will find that this business model indeed have sense and can give you wealthy, specially in a hyper competitive and very segmented market as the electronic entertainment industry is this days.
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