In recent months all i seam to see is the big games talking about DLC. But they all seem to be “DOING IT WRONG”.
SO lets go over the rules.
1- No Texture mods – Don’t make people have to pay for a texture mod any moder could easily add to the game. Yeah some crazy person might pay $3 for effectively a texture mod, but to the vast majority of people just go “WTF are you insane?”
2- We Bought the game, so give us the game – Don’t cut features inherit to the game and then sell them as DLC.
3- DLC? Didn’t they call them patches in my day? – Don’t sell patches to problems in your game. Fix them for free as patches. DLC means EXTRA CONTENT, not FIXED CONTENT.
4- Easy access, Easy Install, Easy Reinstall – DLC should be easy to find and purchase, Easy to install, and Easy to Reinstall if you uninstall it.
5- Don’t Break the 4th wall – Don’t advertise the sale of the DLC in game. Have a link on the title screen menu, or have it as a totally out of game experience. Nothing ruins immersion faster than a 16th century merchant asking you for your credit card details.
6- Add value, or make it free – If you DLC is so expensive people could go out and buy an epic Indy Game like torchlight or Plants vs. Zombies for the same price, why shouldn’t they? I mean your adding a few features or maybe an hour extra game-play, while the new game might keep them going for 10 hours +. Price DLC relative to the compertition and what it provides, or better yet make it FREE. Nothing causes sales of the ACTUAL REAL £30 GAME like FREE DLC.
7- Don’t we all ready have the mod for this? – If there is a widely available and FREE mod for a feature you forgot to include in the base game, don’t try and sell it as a core feature of a new DLC. Either buy the Mod off the moder and provide it as a free patch, or don’t include it at all and let people just find the mod.
8- If in doubt don’t add Cliches – Zombies, Arena Mode, Survival. If you can’t come up with a decent unique idea don’t make people buy an idea or mode they can play in 1/2 a billion other games, and probably better. Be unique and make something that’s linked to and plays to the strength of the CORE GAME.
