At this month's Auckland Game Works Meetup we held a panel on Freemium games.

Guest speakers from Gameloft Auckland and Grinding Gear Games gave us their insight on the field of Freemium game development. The panel included: Thomas Foricher, Game Monetization Manager from Gameloft, Patrick Wagner, Studio Manager from Gameloft, Jonathan Rogers, Technical Director at Grinding Gear Games and Chris Wilson, Managing Director at Grinding Gear Games.

Gameloft's history and experience within the industry allowed Patrick Wagner to give us a great introduction and overview to the seachange in revenue earning brought about by the app store. He then used the whiteboard to clearly present the difference in the revenue curve between Freemium and the traditional model (in part two of the video).

Grinding Gear have gone through a learning curve in the development of their online action RPG Path of Exile and Jonathan and Chris explain some of the key points they've discovered throughout this time.

The video/panel is a good opportunity to get some insight from industry bodies - as are the Game Works Meetups in general. If you're in Auckland, the Auckland Game Works Meetup is held on the first Wednesday (sometimes Tuesday) of every month. You can join up via http://meetup.com/playmaker.

Part two is also available on the PlayMaker YouTube channel: