With CSR Racing riding high in the US top grossing charts, UK developer NaturalMotion is in the industry's spotlight.

So continuing its seemingly constant presence in conferences, product director Struan Robertson spoke at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival on the subject of 'What NaturalMotion did next?'

"Free-to-play games are getting more sophisticated and the quality bar is getting higher," Robertson said.

That's the reason NaturalMotion focuses so much on differentiating itself from the competition.

He revealed the company's three core tenets are console quality (3D graphics, audio); short, addictive play; and games that are polished.

Loopy loop

Of course, how these are experienced is different depending on the title; MyHorse appeals to a different audience to CSR Racing.

Yet Robertson argued that while the company's core tenets are the same in both cases, the way they are implemented was different.

In CSR Racing, the core loop is about entering/winning a race, getting cash, upgrading your car and entering another race.

"You need to understand your game loop in order to understand how the entire play session works and where to put your monetisation," Robertson.

Running on empty

His example of this was the crucial point in CSR Racing at which you run out of petrol. "You can either put the game down or get more petrol," he said.

It's been a controversial issue, but Robertson argued further that this plays into a deeper discussion of where you place the carrots and sticks which are required to encourage and restrict player behaviour.

In addition, running out of petrol provided an important narrative cohesion.

"Until we put the gas into the game, people didn't understand why we were limiting their game sessions," he said.