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Comment by mailarchis | Hacker News Reader

Note - I have no experience in building or monetizing mobile games. Still sharing an idea for problem 2

1. Somewhat similar to Wii, after every X minutes of game play, display a popup with a one minute timer asking users to take a break. to play non stop ask them to buy a premium version.

2. Ask users to pay for higher levels of game maybe ?

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I have definitely thought of going the 'interstitial' ad route (show one ad only at the end of every N rounds). But the reason the game is so addictive, is at the end of a round, the scores are shown for all players playing (hence the need for a Cloud connection) and then the next round starts without any user interaction. This is key.

There are no higher game levels. Each round is different.

Can't do a premium version, since there are ongoing server costs. I want those covered by advertising. I don't want to have to fund the servers from now till forever with potentially no future income.

"Can't do a premium version, since there are ongoing server costs."

Care to elaborate why the costs exclude premium version? Why couldn't the paying users cover the costs, while the free play is basically your promotion tool (like Dropbox).

Because the premium version is a one-time income, but the costs are monthly & forever.

Ideally, Android needs a micro-payment system (tied to their service provider billing or something).

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