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Ananta‘s developers are hoping that players will become emotionally invested enough in the game’s characters to want to part with their cash.
The upcoming free-to-play open-world action game introduces stories as the story progresses, and when we went hands-on with the game at Gamescom last week, the story missions were its strongest point. Helping two cute little anime characters to stealthily flee a mansion was engaging, I did care about their welfare, and I wanted to help them to stay safe–but is that enough to want to part with my money?
In Ananta, there’s an emphasis on allowing players to spend time with the game’s characters and become familiar with their lives and personalities. According to the developers, that relationship is intentional, and serves to ensure that players want to spend money on cosmetics for the characters they have grown attached to.
“In Ananta, it is free-to-play, and then you will obtain the characters as the story unfolds,” Rain, the game’s global publishing lead explained to GameSpot. “We think that we have enough time to develop each unique character for our players.”
The idea is that acquiring the character isn’t enough. Naked Rain, Ananta’s developer, wants players to form a relationship with them through their in-game interactions.
“When you have interactions with the characters as well, or you live in their lives, you have established a closer bond with the character, and then you will feel you would like to buy him or her something,” they clarified.
They likened the experience to being at Gamescom–if you’re having a good time and enjoying the convention, you want to buy something. “You also bond with it, so it’s natural for you to buy something for your characters in the game.”
It’s a familiar strategy for free-to-play games, where character cosmetics can provide a significant revenue source without directly affecting gameplay. Ananta seems to be taking the approach a step further by making the emotional connection between player and character part of the decision-making process.
Instead of just presenting their characters and immediately offering an expensive wardrobe, Naked Rain wants players to spend time with them first, establish that connection, and then decide if they want to dress them up or buy them something.
Whether that connection will be strong enough to overcome the ever-growing resistance to cosmetic microtransactions remains to be seen. With Ananta’s development team explicitly designing its characters around the idea that players will become attached to them, it sounds like the game’s cast will be doing some heavy lifting.
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[[{“value”:”Ananta’s developers are hoping that players will become emotionally invested enough in the game’s characters to want to part with their cash.
The upcoming free-to-play open-world action game introduces stories as the story progresses, and when we went hands-on with the game at Gamescom last week, the story missions were its strongest point. Helping two cute little anime characters to stealthily flee a mansion was engaging, I did care about their welfare, and I wanted to help them to stay safe–but is that enough to want to part with my money?
In Ananta, there’s an emphasis on allowing players to spend time with the game’s characters and become familiar with their lives and personalities. According to the developers, that relationship is intentional, and serves to ensure that players want to spend money on cosmetics for the characters they have grown attached to.
Ananta hopes you’ll bond with its characters enough to part with your money.
“In Ananta, it is free-to-play, and then you will obtain the characters as the story unfolds,” Rain, the game’s global publishing lead explained to GameSpot. “We think that we have enough time to develop each unique character for our players.”
The idea is that acquiring the character isn’t enough. Naked Rain, Ananta’s developer, wants players to form a relationship with them through their in-game interactions.
“When you have interactions with the characters as well, or you live in their lives, you have established a closer bond with the character, and then you will feel you would like to buy him or her something,” they clarified.
They likened the experience to being at Gamescom–if you’re having a good time and enjoying the convention, you want to buy something. “You also bond with it, so it’s natural for you to buy something for your characters in the game.”
It’s a familiar strategy for free-to-play games, where character cosmetics can provide a significant revenue source without directly affecting gameplay. Ananta seems to be taking the approach a step further by making the emotional connection between player and character part of the decision-making process.
There are many characters to meet, and buy gifts for.
Instead of just presenting their characters and immediately offering an expensive wardrobe, Naked Rain wants players to spend time with them first, establish that connection, and then decide if they want to dress them up or buy them something.
Whether that connection will be strong enough to overcome the ever-growing resistance to cosmetic microtransactions remains to be seen. With Ananta’s development team explicitly designing its characters around the idea that players will become attached to them, it sounds like the game’s cast will be doing some heavy lifting.”}]] Read More GameSpot – All Content
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