Maintaining Player Immersion

In-game ads are, of course, a necessity of business rather than design, but they can still be implemented with a level of artistry, to maintain your creative vision. 

Player Immersion is one of the most important concepts in game design, and it’s one that traditional mobile ad formats completely shatter for the most part. Immersion is the way that your game convinces the player they’re part of the world you’ve created, and keeps them engaged through consistent, believable visual design, and multi-sensory stimulation. Video ads that completely interrupt your game, and banner ads that skew your game’s visual style, are natural enemies of immersion.

This is where AdInMo comes in. InGamePlay brand ads have an advantage over other ad formats, as they can be built directly into the main world of your game so as to not interrupt the tone and flow of your game and create a sub-optimal experience for players. In this sense, InGamePlay ads allow you the best of both worlds: new monetization and a strong, consistent player experience. 

Here are three key tips for keeping the player immersed in your game, which in turn will help grow your valid impressions.

Consider the Game World

This is one of the most important points to keep in mind when placing your immersive ads: what kind of world does your game take place in? And where would it make sense for ads to appear in that world? Take urban settings like cities for example; posters and billboards are common sights in real-world cities, so adding them to your game to host InGamePlay ads will make sense to the player, and not take them out of the experience. Other settings may be less obvious and can require more creative solutions; ads on the sides of barrels in a pirate-themed game, on the sides of cars in a racing game, etc. Think about your game and what would fit naturally into it ad-wise before beginning your integration.

Use Background Layers

In many games, the background layers are used for world-building detail, but don’t serve any important gameplay function. These kinds of spaces are ideal for InGamePlay ads; you can place them there without obscuring the play spaceor getting in the way of the action. For example, many games take place in an urban setting, with rows of tall buildings in the background. You can easily add billboards to the side of these buildings (illustrated further in the next tip) which can host ads. These ads will make sense in the game world, and more importantly will have no impact on the core game, leaving the player free to carry on as normal in the foreground. Take a look at the background sections in your game and see where you can fit in some ads.

Add new Game Objects

Some games have settings that don’t lend themselves naturally to ads, or have visual styles that could make ads too visually obtrusive for the player. 

In situations like this, you can create locations for ads yourself by adding new objects to the game. For example, in games with open water you can add a small boat, with an ad on the sails. This allows for interesting creative solutions, such as small planes trailing ad banners in games with open sky sections, or small boats with ads on the sails in games set in or near water. These additions don’t need to be massive, either; simply adding a crate or two to a standard street scene will give you a strong new location for InGamePlay ads, without much effort on your part.

AdInMo is a powerful monetization platform. It’s integrated nature allows you to apply a designer’s touch to your placements, placing them in a way that feels natural and doesn’t diminish the experience for your players. Play around with AdInMo and see where and how it would work best in your game, and your reward will be a great game, and great monetisation.

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