Table of Contents

Author

Chapter 1 ◾ The Pyramid

Chapter 2 ◾ The Base Layer

Chapter 3 ◾ The Retention Layer

Chapter 4 ◾ The Core Loop and the Gearbox

Chapter 5 ◾ The Session and the On-Ramp

Chapter 6 ◾ The Session: Playtime, the Off-Ramp and Return Hook

Chapter 7 ◾ The Superfan Layer

Chapter 8 ◾ What Will People Pay For?

Chapter 9 ◾ Production-Centric versus Design-Centric

Chapter 10 ◾ How to Develop a Service Game

Chapter 11 ◾ How to Prototype and When to Pivot

Chapter 12 ◾ Production

Chapter 13 ◾ Managing Creativity

Chapter 14 ◾ Marketing Your Launch

Chapter 15 ◾ Metrics

Chapter 16 ◾ Ethics

Chapter 17 ◾ The Pyramid of Game Design Afterword 279

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

GLOSSARY

ENDNOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SOFTOGRAPHY

INDEX

About the Author

Nicholas Lovell has been working with game companies making service games since 2008. He has worked on large franchises such as Angry Birds, consulted on taking PC games like EVE Online free, helped take existing intellectual properties into a F2P service model (Stronghold Kingdoms) and helped small startups with their online MMOs (e.g. Lazarus). Along the way, clients have included a vast array of companies ranging from the largest (Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Rovio) to tiny startups like Spilt Milk Studios and nDreams and companies throughout Europe, the US and Canada.


Nicholas is the author of The Curve (Portfolio Penguin), a book about how to make money in the digital age and The F2P Toolbox (Gamesbrief). He has been writing about F2P game design since 2008 at www.gamesbrief.com.


Prior to 2008, Nicholas was CFO of Internet startup Shopsmart, CEO of PC gaming community GameShadow and, for a decade, an investment banker.


Nicholas lives in London.