This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 47: Microtransactions and Source Stone
After the New Year, employees gradually returned to the studio.
It’s worth mentioning that Tianba Studio now has a total of nine people, including Chen Ba.
In addition to the mobile game planner and the boy who can eat a lot recruited from the fan group, the studio also recruited two university graduates who intended to develop their careers in Jiangning after the Spring Festival.
"Nine people are enough."
Chen Ba thought about it. Even those world-renowned top game studios only have dozens to hundreds of people.
Yet even so, they can develop AAA games that earn admiration and respect in two to three years.
So, it’s about quality, not quantity!
As the studio’s number of people approaches ten, they can’t just hire haphazardly. Because at this step, it’s not the quantity that’s important for Chen Ba, but the quality and ability.
Recruit a few hundred people all at once?
That sounds nice and can greatly alleviate the staffing pressure of the studio. But even with a simple thought, one knows that a development team of hundreds, the basic salaries alone are enough to overwhelm a game company.
And can a group of hundreds of mediocre people really be better than a team composed of a few tens of elites?
Probably not!
Although Tianba Studio only has nine people, it can actually be regarded as a team of over 30.
Because adding Chen Ba himself and the Iron Fool System, in terms of work efficiency and comprehensive development capability, is definitely stronger than 20 regular game developers.
The credit goes mainly to the system.
As for Chen Ba... just one sentence can describe his role: Together with the Double Horses, they can shake the entire economy of Asia!
"Are you crazy? You actually want to do in-app purchases in a buyout game?"
"I’m not crazy! Without some extra income, then what do you suggest for the server maintenance costs?"
Lu Jing and Yang Dong started quarreling at the adjacent workstation, and it seemed to be due to the charging model?
Chen Ba got interested, stood up, walked over, and joined the discussion: "What are you arguing about? Is it about online mode’s in-app purchase?"
"Dong said that the online mode should sell things unrelated to game balance, like skins, which I think is inappropriate."
Seeing Chen Ba, Lu Jing couldn’t help but complain: "Wouldn’t this turn into a second charge for a buyout game?"
"That’s reasonable." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
Chen Ba nodded.
In a buyout game, doing a store in-app purchase like this is indeed perverse, meaning players have to pay twice to experience the complete game content.
Usually, it’s free + in-app purchase, where the game body is free to play, but there will be a store providing various in-app purchase unlockable content.
Very few buyout games have this method.
"If you find the term for in-app purchases unappealing, then call it DLC!" Yang Dong shook his head and explained, "In any case, servers have maintenance costs, if we don’t open up new revenue sources, the server will have to shut down soon."
Developing an online mode, especially for a multiplayer game like Star Emperor, server-side issues can’t be avoided.
It’s not just about leasing or setting up a server.
Daily operation and maintenance of the server also have costs, without income support for this piece, if daily activity is extremely high, who can bear it?
"What you say also makes sense."
After listening to Dong’s explanation, Chen Ba hesitated for a while too.
Indeed he overlooked one point, which is the "daily activity" of online mode players.
A low daily activity means less demand on server-side, and the studio can afford this maintenance cost. But if daily activity is high, reaching hundreds of thousands?
"Create an in-app purchase plan first, but no need to rush to add it in, wait until the game testing phase to decide based on the situation."
After careful consideration, Chen Ba finally came up with a solution.
Draw up the in-app purchase plan for the game first, but do not rush to introduce it into the game body, decide during early access and testing phase based on estimated player daily activity.
If the game response is good and the online mode has many players, you can implement an in-app purchase plan to sell some skins for survival.
If the game response is average and players’ enthusiasm is not high, and daily activity in online mode cannot meet the standard, then don’t do the in-app purchase plan.
"By the way, probe what players think then, and ask them what they think about it?"
Chen Ba isn’t the kind of person to be blinded by money. If players generally detest or reject this charging model, he won’t go against them.
Actually doing DLC is better.
Although the results are the same, all to push out game skins, the acceptance level of DLC is certainly far better than that of a game store.
"Ask the players?"
Lu almost laughed out loud, couldn’t help but complain: "No need to ask, probably no one would agree with this plan, right?"
"You’re right, but if they don’t let me sell skins, I might have to sell new characters." Chen Ba chuckled.
Not allowing to sell in-app skins, huh?
Then new characters are likely to be made into DLC for sale, unlocking them would cost money.
"Either launch fancy skins, or spend money to unlock new characters. It’s a multiple-choice question, and we will respect the players’ wishes."
New game characters belong to additional content.
Assuming Star Emperor is priced at 40 units, then this 40 only includes the initial six characters. New characters released later are additional contents, need to purchase DLC to unlock.
This is actually the best method.
Not only can solve server maintenance cost issues, but also no one can blame Tianba Studio for double charging.
But unless necessary, Chen Ba doesn’t want to use the "character charge" tactic.
Because a fighting game’s most important experience is character selection, if new characters require extra payment, and also have especially strong mechanics, it will surely provoke great dissatisfaction among players.
"Then it’s settled."
Yang Dong nodded and summarized: "The game body is a buyout, but we prepare a few character skins in advance, put them into the deluxe version for sale."
"If the deluxe version sales are not low, far surpassing the so-called basic version, then we’ll continue down the character skin path..."
The in-app purchase plan is also simple.
In-game matches can earn Source Stone, with 100 units of Source Stone, you can go to Stone Workshop to cut Divine Source, what you get from the Divine Source depends on your luck, which is the so-called lottery.
Besides earning Source Stone through matches, Tianba Studio would also provide the purchase of "Source Stone," equivalent to the shark card in Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode.
Chen Ba won’t force players to spend.
In Star Emperor’s online mode, even without spending, playing two matches a day can earn enough Source Stone to try your luck at the Stone Workshop.
In other words, spending only allows players to draw their desired skin more quickly.
Without spending, in due time, you can still draw it.
Besides, lottery is quite about luck, a big spender might spend thousands on Source Stone to get the skin, yet a lucky player might hit it in one go.
