An expansion of his recent talk at the latest F2P Summit back in September, Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell set out to deliver a total of 26 ways to make money from a game at the Social Gaming and Gambling Summit 2012 in London.

So speedy was his delivery, in fact, that all 26 were never going to make it to this page.

Nonetheless, many reinforced points Lovell has previously looked to hammer home – the most notable, perhaps, the idea that developers need to make sure their games are fun.

Where's the fun?

It sounds like an obvious aim, perhaps, but it's something Lovell believes some of the most successful social studios – namely Zynga – have forgotten to do of late.

"Finding the fun is becoming one of the most important elements of all free-to-play and social games," said Lovell.

"It's very hard to do, whereas programming through analytics is."

Lovell's other signature point is the idea that developers need to make it easy for players to spend in play.

"Make it possible for people who love what you do to spend bucket loads of money on it," he added - although this is a lesson that doesn't just apply to free releases.

Paid games, Lovell stated, are increasingly building in in-app purchases to allow fans to do just that, too, with Infinity Blade a prime example of a paid release that opens itself up to its players in this way.

Killing the virus

More controversially, it's Lovell's belief that true virality – players voluntarily sharing game info with their friends to encourage them to play – is dying a death, largely thanks to Zynga.

"I think people are reluctant to share this kind of info now, because they don't want their friends to hate them," he alleged.

"There are plenty of marketing options still available," he claimed, referring to the previous talk by Facebook's Owen O'Donoghue, "but marketing isn't virality."

The new solution, he suggested, is cross-promotion, with gamers moving from one title to the next voluntarily – a way, if you like, of extending a developer's engagement with one player, rather than relying on them spamming their friends for new blood.