Panel
Paul Stephanouk - Design Director of Candy Crush. Previously EA, Zynga, Bossfight, Schell Games, Big Huge Games. 20 years experience building and running creative teams.
Kelly Tran - Game Design Professor researching games and players. PhD in learning and tech. Solo Twitch - Group Twitch - Website
Mike Sellers - Professor of Practice at Indiana University. Previously, Lead Designer, Creative Director, and General Manager in AAA game companies, producing MMO, social, and mobile games.
Ian Schreiber - Senior Game Designer Oxide Games, previously Assistant Professor Rochester Institute of Technology.
Brandon Dolinski - Level Designer Eidos Montreal. Previously Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age.
Christopher Ory - Lead Designer Rec Room. Previously PerBlue, Ignited Artists, EA Maxis, The Playforge.
Mohamed Abdel Khalik - Co-Founder Karnak Studios, Creators of The Daily Tut webcomic and Game Director on Tut Trials, an upcoming high action 3D platformer.
Notes
Player is purchasing the chance to get a reward with no direct control over the purchase.
Microtransaction and Gacha are orthogonal concepts.
The struggle occurs when traditional premium games misstep and add smaller purchases.
If the cost to player is functionally zero, having the publisher take advantage of that increases their marginal return.
More microtransactions will occur with the rise Gamepass but not necessarily using Gacha monetization.
Gacha is a mechanism informed by players urge to play that specific mechanism.
There is market appetite for Gacha - Genshin Impact is big game and a strong performant in the market.
Galaxy of Heroes has lots of content, and it requires a big team to gives the player new reasons to play and create shifts in the meta. Lots of effort is spent making sure that the player’s collection investment is validated. Players find their favorite heroes and it's tied to the core loop through having it integrate directly into the progression system.
There's good versions and bad versions of Gacha.
Magic, baseball cards, unwrapping surprise gifts. It can sometimes become compulsive.
Accordingly it can be seen as a problematic mechanic.
Most vocal opponents are sometimes those who purchase the most.
Culturally how society values their money plays a big role.
Parents don't want kids to spend money on Gacha but as an adult it's fine.
Cost benefit analysis to society.
Gacha math is straight forward and not hard.
I buy a pack like I buy a latte - those doing the math end up complaining.
Spending behavior of most vocal players were highest spenders. Theorizing They're feeling guilty so they pretend to stand up for the free to play players and complain about how f2p players are being trampled on. They feel they'll be taken seriously or more sympathy if they're advocating for the underdog and presenting themselves as such.
Smaller studios can get more distance out of their audience and higher bounce on their launch if they have Gacha systems involved. They don't have a huge backlog of assets to account for and they can build that over time. In the future they can add direct sale without risking players buying everything within the first two days of the game.
Gacha sets for different mode or mix items for different modes. Duplicates can be used for other things or transfer it to a currency which can be spent according to different player type preferences.
Design an economy where the time players put in they get back in drip form so overtime they're able to get everything that the paid players get day one so they don't fall too far behind. 4-6 weeks behind is common practice.
Drive forward paying players as the free to play players catch up.
if Gacha is in the form of cards they get more freedom because culturally we've been accepting it since forever.
Anchor the value statement to players.
Regarding designers considering time as currency: yeah, we totally do this when balancing a game, is figuring out the time-for-money equation.
A system where Gacha items 1-100 then direct purchases items 101-200 can be done by having items in a vault that come out overtime and go back in the vault.
in Free To Play, time = money is a fundamental principal.
valuable things with hard currency shouldn't be purchasable with soft currency.
don't cross the streams - very dangerous.
people would feel their time was disrespected if they spend 10 hours and then you sell the item for $1.
Treat f2p like a purchaser - whether they buy with time or money, as a designer we need to respect that. Sometimes a demarcation line between player and customer occurs and it sucks.
Whales need to be ontop of someone and they want to be at the top of 10,000 people and not 10. So you need the free players to confirm the value of the whales purchase. To turn this into a thriving ecosystem free players need to be respected for their time.
Popups disrupt userflow.
Spinwheels suck.