Once a bastion of video game geeks and avoided by the mainstream, Role-Playing Games (RPGs) have become a mainstay of gaming and a part of almost every genre. The development of a character that represents the player and a story that builds-- both in the world and in the character's exploits-- is successful when it compels a player to come back for more. If you want to develop an addictive, fun, and immersive app that gives you a loyal player base, here are a few features to toss around with mobile phone app developers:

Character Development And Player Investment

When gamers think of RPGs, a few common elements come to mind. Story-driven gameplay, stats (strength, agility, intelligence), and equipment. Many of these elements come together to create a greater experience, but think about what makes a player come back for more.

Whether you're playing the latest mobile RPGs or bigger Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) RPGs such as Rift: The Planes of Telara or World of Warcraft, the players return to make themselves stronger, richer, more potent, and more effective in the game world. 

When a player fights or completes tasks in the game, they gain experience. Their experience leads to leveling up, which leads to new abilities and more potency in a statistic. Warriors in World of Warcraft, for example, hit harder when they have more strength and can take more hits to protect their friends with more stamina. 

These statistics are sometimes automatically added when a character levels up. Games such as The Elder Scrolls Online allow players to increase the stats manually for a specific playstyle. Both games add even more power when your character gets equipment (known as gear in some social circles). Games such as Ultima Online or Shroud of the Avatar from the prolific creator Richard Garriott will even have you searching the world to buy or find specific abilities to become potent and unique.

Converting Power Desire To Sales

Some games are innovative with these systems. Others borrow from existing systems to have a known, successful framework while telling a unique story. If you're just starting out with a game, it's best to choose a traditional system and build your own story on top of it.

From there, it's time to figure out how these games will pay you. The game needs to have a certain amount of difficulty to stop players from becoming as powerful as possible in the game, then wandering off because they have everything they want. It can't be too hard, or many players will simply wander off.

Along with gauging the difficulty, you can explore the world of cash shop gaming. There are many approaches to an in-game cash shop, ranging from items that give various advantages to shops that give only cosmetic gifts.

You could sell basic health potions and other small items obtainable in game as a cash shop item. Some games even sell power in the form of catch up gear, allowing players to buy a certain bracket of power to skip parts of the leveling and equipment-finding process.

These choices all attract different types of gamers but can be a big turnoff for some gamers. Discuss the different options with a team of mobile phone app developers to figure out what would best fit your idea.