The question of how games can hold onto their players – and, ideally, monetise them – is to be the focus of a talk by online games specialist Kixeye, it's been revealed.

Senior director of consumer insights at the the San Francisco-based company Seran Chen will take to the stage at the LA event this November to reveal how game design can "engage new users to increase retention and monetisation."

Getting sticky

"Amazing graphics and a great storyline won’t suffice if users don’t make it past the first few minutes of the game," details the rest of the talk blurb.

Organisers claim Chen's talk is part of a wider drive at GDC Next – bound for Los Angeles on 5-7 November – to help developers "grasp new users and retain their loyalty".

"The inaugural Game Developers Conference Next will offer sessions from gaming industry experts presenting their ideas and best practices in developing apps that will get noticed, keep users happy and result in customer retention," the firm added.

Also on the books is a talk by Laralyn McWilliams – design director at The Workshop Entertainment – about the value of metrics, monetization and retention, and whether the goal of an app is generate short-term revenue or long-term retention.

You can see the full schedule for GDC Next here.