Whether you call it the FTUE, initial experience or onboarding, the first experience a player has with your game is a crucial part of your retention, particularly in a F2P game. If the game is paid, players...

I dislike words that confuse instead of clarify. Alpha and beta tests are two such words. In the days of boxed product development, or the release of online games on PC, the terms had clear meanings Alpha...

When creating items for players to purchase, developers sometimes refer to vanity items. These are typically cosmetic changes to the player’s character or personal space in the game that have no impact on gameplay. Team Fortress 2’s...

I hate the term whales. It is a word drawn from the gambling industry to describe their high rollers, the heavy spenders who gamble huge sums of money and often lose them. I hate the word whales...

Raph Koster, lead designer on Ultima Online and author of A Theory of Fun, has written a great post on Gamasutra setting out the key ways in which a service game can seek to keep its players...