Even though freemium games are on top of the grossing lists there’s still room for good old paid versions. And launching a free/lite version to give players possibility to test drive the game before purchasing is pretty much always a good idea. In this blog post I’ll go through the free version designs screen by screen and hopefully help you to improve the conversion of your free app.

1. The Welcome Screen

There are three things you want player to do when they open up the application. Firstly you naturally want them to start playing that’s why you wont a big bulging play button up front. Then you also want them to buy the full version and here’s when the “GET FULL VERSION” button comes alive. Finally you can use the large user base of the free app to cross promote them into your other apps or even merchandises. 

Free version of Hambo has cross promotion, up-selling and IAP buttons in the welcome screen

2. Level Selector Screen

There are mainly a couple of ways you can do the level selector screen in free versions. One way is to give one or two episodes and lock the following episodes. By clicking on the locked episode player will be taken directly to the AppStore to make the full version purchase. This is the most commonly approach where players just burn through the free content and once they’re done with it they either uninstall the app or purchase the full version

The other approach is to insert the full version as one of the level packs, give on or too level packs as free ones and keep unlocking new packs as you develop more content. In this approach you’ll hold on to the user base for longer amount of time, as you’ll be adding content to the free version. Holding on to the user base for longer while gives you more time to convert them into the paid app as well as use the user base to cross promote your other apps.

3. Pause Screen

Players pause their game play a lot and that’s why you should make sure that whenever they see the pause screen they should also be subjected to conversion messages.

Hambo goes for IAP in the pause screen. One of the reason is that they most likely

didn't want to make different pause scree than in the paid version

4. Level Completed Screen

Player has just completed level and feels great. It’s the perfect time to promote the full version! I personally leave cross promotion out of this screen just to emphasize the “GET FULL VERSION” button.

Once you complete a level in Where's My Water you get

prompted to get the full version as well as shown few ads (bottom bar)

5. Level Failed Screen

Unlike with the level completed screen players don’t feel to great about them selves once they fail the level. I’d use level failed screen for IAPs (yes, you should sell virtual goods in the free version too) and stay away from promoting the full version in this screen.

Players most likely not in the mood for a version full of this emotion

6. Popups

Popups are the easiest steps because you can (and should) always measure, which popups have the best impact (CTR) and after which levels you should have them shown.

When it comes to popup designs there are two basic versions. Most often used are the full screen images with a “GET FULL VERSION” button and misplaced (top or bottom left) close popup button. Then there are timed popups, which force player to watch at the popup for some short amount of time. I like both and you should really measure which ones work for your title.

Simple full screen popup with a misplaced

close button top left.

Once the free version is out its time for tracking and analyses. You want to ensure that the free version is easy enough for players to pass all the levels with only moderate amount of restarts because only few people will opt out to buy a full version if they feel stupid playing even with the few free version levels.

Second thing you may think about is the launch date of the free version in comparison to the paid version. Sometimes, if you have good marketing and PR, it doesn’t really make sense to launch free and paid simultaneously as the free version tends to cannibalize the paid one. So launching first paid and following it with the free once the downloads start going down is a sound option.

Hope these tips help you out and please do let me know if you feel there’s something else to be taken into account with the free versions.