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What happens in a Gamesbrief masterclass?

By on February 5, 2013
CC image by Leonardo Pallotta

We’re running a Gamesbrief Business Masterclass on the Friday and Sunday before GDC in San Francisco this March.

Nicholas’s masterclasses come highly recommended, but because of work on The Curve there has been less time to run them. This is a rare opportunity to take part.

It is the first masterclass to be run outside of Europe, so for Gamesbrief readers overseas who are going to the Bay Area for the conference, this is the perfect chance to learn from Nicholas directly and deepen your knowledge of free-to-play.

What happens in a masterclass? We’ve got a brief breakdown of the day right here:

Open discussion about free-to-play and paymium

What do you think about free-to-play games? The group will discuss their experiences and preconceived ideas about free-to-play and paymium gaming and unpack what kind of reputation the games have.

Getting to grips with the four different Bartle player types

After explaining the Bartle types – Killers, Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers – Nicholas will show how an understanding of player types helps to make free-to-play games more successful

The importance of Acquiring users, Retaining users and Monetising Users

Current, successful games will be discussed with reference to their acquisition, retention and monetisation, and the techniques and strategies used to optimise points of the sales funnel will be highlighted.

Understanding the demand curve

This is the keystone of the masterclass: how to move from a business model where everyone pays the same amount to one where some people spend nothing, and others spend $100 or more.

Psychological motivations

Why would anyone monetise? In this part of the workshop Nicholas will explain what drives free-to-play success in games on Facebook, smartphones, tablets and in the browser. By understanding this, you will be more effective at creating IAPs that your players value and enjoy, without disturbing the experience for people who play for free.

Now do it yourself!

The masterclass closes with group exercises which involve taking known games (such as Tomb Raider, Frogger, Doom) and turning them into free-to-play games using the knowledge gained in the course of the day.

How to buy tickets

We’re selling the tickets like a crowdfund: to make sure that the events can run, they have to sell at least 15 tickets in a short space of time. There is just one week left to make sure that the Sunday masterclass can go ahead, and just under two weeks to secure the Friday class. To make sure the events go ahead and to get your tickets at a discount early bird rate, click through to the day of your choosing:

Image CC Leonardo Pallotta

About Zoya Street

I’m responsible for all written content on the site. As a freelance journalist and historian, I write widely on how game design and development have changed in the past, how they will change in the future, and how that relates to society and culture as a whole. I’m working on a crowdfunded book about the Dreamcast, in which I treat three of the game-worlds it hosted as historical places. I also write at Pocketgamer.biz and The Borderhouse.