Chapter 47 In-app Purchase and Source Stone

Chapter 47 In-app Purchase and Source Stone

After the New Year, employees returned to the studio one after another.

It is worth mentioning that there are now a total of nine people in Tianba Studio including Chen Ba.

In addition to the mobile game dog planner and the special boy who can eat, the studio also recruited two college graduates after the Spring Festival who are interested in staying in Jiangning for development.

"Nine people are enough."

Chen Ba thought for a while, even those top game studios that are famous all over the world only have dozens or hundreds of people.

But even so, they can develop an impressive 3A masterpiece in two to three years.

Therefore, there are not too many people, but there are many people!

As the number of people in the studio approaches ten, we can no longer recruit people randomly. Because at this point, quantity is not what Chen Ba should consider, quality and ability are.

Recruiting hundreds of people at once?

This sounds very good and can greatly relieve the staff pressure in the studio. But if you think about it, you will know that for a development team of several hundred people, the basic salary alone is enough to crush a game company.

And can hundreds of mediocre people really form a team of dozens of elites?

I'm afraid not!

Although Tianba Studio only has nine people, it can actually be regarded as a team of more than 30 people.

Because Chen Ba himself coupled with the Tiehanhan system, both in terms of work efficiency and comprehensive development capabilities, he is definitely stronger than 20 ordinary game developers.

Mainly due to the system.

As for Chen Ba... his role can be expressed in just one sentence: together with the two horses, he can shake up the entire Asian economy!

"Are you crazy? You actually want to implement in-app purchases in a buyout game?"

"I'm not crazy! If we don't make some extra income, what about the server operation and maintenance costs?"

Lu Jing and Yang Dong, who were working next door, had an argument. Listening to the conversation, it seemed that it was because of the charging model?

Chen Ba became interested, got up and walked over to join the discussion: "What are you arguing about? Is there in-app purchases in the online mode?"

“Brother Dong said that the online mode should sell some things that have nothing to do with game balance, such as skins. I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

As soon as Lu Jing saw Chen Ba, he couldn't help complaining: "A game with a buyout system, will this become a secondary charge?"

"That makes sense."

Chen Ba nodded.

Buy-out games, this in-mall purchase model is really abnormal, which means players need to pay twice to experience the complete game content.

Generally, it is free + in-app purchase, that is, the game itself is free to play, but the game will have a mall that provides various in-app purchases to unlock content.

Buyout games rarely have this.

"If you think the term in-app purchase sounds bad, then switch to DLC!" Yang Dong shook his head and explained, "In short, the server has operation and maintenance costs. If we don't develop new revenue sources, the server will soon be shut down."

When it comes to online modes, especially multiplayer online modes like "Star Emperor", the server side is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed.

This does not mean that everything will be fine if you rent or build a server.

The daily operation and maintenance of the server also has costs. This cost is not supported by income. If the daily activity is extremely high, who can afford it?

"What you said makes sense."

After hearing Brother Dong's explanation, Chen Ba hesitated for a moment.

Indeed, he overlooked one thing, and that was the "daily activity" of players in the online mode.

The daily activity is not high, and the demand for the server is not high. It is not a problem for the studio to bear this operation and maintenance cost. But what if the daily activity of players is very high, as many as hundreds of thousands?

"Let's make an in-app purchase plan first, but don't rush to add it. We'll wait for the game testing phase and make decisions based on the situation."

After thinking carefully, Chen Ba finally came up with a solution.

Make the in-app purchase plan for the game first, but don’t rush to add it to the game itself. Wait for the early access and testing stages before making a decision based on the estimated daily activity of players.

If the game has a good response and there are many players in the online mode, then you can build an in-app purchase plan to sell skins to make a living.

If the response to the game is average, players are generally not enthusiastic about playing, and the daily activity in the online mode cannot meet the standard, then there will be no in-app purchase plan.

"By the way, let's take a look at the players' opinions when the time comes and ask them what they think about this?"

Chen Ba is not the kind of person who falls in the eyes of money. If players generally hate or reject this charging model, then he will not go against the players.

In fact, it is better to make DLC.

Although the result is the same, both for launching game skins, the acceptance of DLC is definitely countless times stronger than that of the game mall.

"Ask the player?"

Xiao Lu almost didn't laugh out loud, and couldn't help but complain: "It's no need to ask, I'm afraid no one will agree with this plan, right?"

"You're right, but if they don't let me sell skins, I will have to sell new characters." Chen Ba chuckled.

In-app purchase skins are not allowed to be sold, right?

The newly released characters will most likely be sold as DLC, which can only be unlocked by spending money.

"Either produce all kinds of flashy skins, or spend money to unlock new characters. This is a multiple-choice question, and we will respect the players' wishes."

The game's new characters are additional content.

Assuming that "Star Emperor" sells for 40 yuan, the 40 yuan only includes the initial six characters. The subsequent new characters are additional content and need to be purchased as DLC to unlock.

This is actually the best way.

Not only can it solve the problem of server operation and maintenance costs, no one can accuse Tianba Studio of making secondary charges.

But Chen Ba doesn't want to use the "Character Charge" trick unless he has to.

Because one of the most important experiences in fighting games is character selection. If new characters require additional payment and the mechanics are particularly strong, it will definitely cause great dissatisfaction among players.

"Then it's settled."

Yang Dong nodded and concluded: "The main game is a buyout system, but we make several character skins in advance and stuff them into the deluxe version for sale."

"If the sales volume of the deluxe version is not low and far exceeds that of the so-called basic version, then we will take the path of character skins in the future..."

The in-app purchase solution is also simple.

You can get Origin Stones by playing in the game. If you save 100 kilograms of Origin Stones, you can go to the stone workshop to cut the Divine Source. What the Divine Source cuts out depends on luck, which is the so-called lottery.

In addition to obtaining Origin Stones through game play, Tianba Studio will also provide "Origin Stones" for purchase, which are equivalent to shark cards in the online mode of "Give Him Love V".

Chen Ba will not force you to do anything.

In the online mode of the game "Star Emperor", even if you don't top up money, you can save up to 100 kilograms of Origin Stones by playing two games a day, and go to Shifang to gamble on your luck.

In other words, charging money only allows players to get their favorite skins faster.

You don’t need to recharge money, but you will be able to draw it sooner or later if you spend some time.

And things like lottery are more about appearance. The Krypton guy spent tens of thousands of kilograms of skins drawn from the source, and the European emperor might win in one shot.