Following a conference already heavy on freemium, Will Luton, creative director of UK developer Mobile Pie gave a case study of its iPhone game MyStar

In this you manage a music star from hero to zero, using avatar customisation tools, jamming and creating records with your friends. The game has also location-based elements.

Luton said, there were five design goals: retention - short and long term goals to keep players coming back; mass appeal - appeal to many ages and tastes; obtainment - avatar status symbols and customisation; social - meet your friends and make new ones; and keep it fresh - use user feedback to update.

Play more

MyStar uses a standard FarmVille compulsion loop using return time as a trigger to get players to practise instruments to gain rewards. Of course, you can buy in-app purchases to speed up tasks.

However Mobile Pie wanted to add something extra, which were the location features. Based on academic research entitled Mobile Games With Everyday Life (2006), the game uses location via its in-game posters mechanic. This uses the Facebook Location API to fix your physical location, and enables you to post posters for your star there, opting-in friends and gaining rewards in the process.

"This creates its own compulsion loop, with location driving gamers' back the game," Luton said.

Extending monetisation, there also an opt-in feature using operator Everything Everywhere's new APIs to generate email, SMS or voice calls from the game character - again to drive players back to the game. Because of the costs involved in this, the service is subscription-based, which also gives you bonus items and virtual goods. Alternatively, you can opt-into a free service that only uses email.

Call the operator

Leading on from the developer's perspective, Neil Holroyd, head of gaming and application services, Everything Everywhere (the T-Mobile/Orange joint venture in the UK), spoke on why it was funding and publishing the game.

"We're the #1 operator in mobile gaming and we're evolved our service, technology and experience. We've already developed one iPhone as a test, MyStar is the second," he explained.

"We had some APIs we wanted developers to use which MyStar uses for the opt-in service, as well as fostering new revenue streams, and integrating the gaming experience into the iPhone."

Holroyd also pointed out that partnering with a company such as Everything Everywhere has strong commercial benefits for developers.

"We've got a large install base and a lot of information about them," he said

In this regard, there will be a targeted SMS marketing campaign in February to around 50,000 people as the currently soft launched game gets its first consumer push.

This will be followed by a campaign in Everything Everywhere retail locations from April and a larger campaign MMS/SMS for 250,000 Orange customers in the summer.