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Knockout City originally launched as a paid game with microtransactions, but just a few days back, the game shifted over to a free-to-play model. The microtransactions are still there, but now the barrier for entry is much lower.

In an interview with Games Industry, Velan Studios founder Guha Bala talks about what the move to free-to-play is like, and what players can look forward to down the road.

“A community that self selects is going to be a bit different than users that are coming in from a free-to-play standpoint as well.

It’s preparing all the systems to be able to say ‘Let’s understand what happens right afterwards’. The big promise that we’ll make to consumers is that the game will continue to be awesome. We’ll work really hard to provide awesome play environment for folks as well as a rich pipeline of new content that’s coming out, but using that as a basis to really learn how free-to-play users, which will be a bit different, how they engage with the game.

So we designed the game with a core set of mechanics and we saw that evolve through emergent play and how our teams are actually engaging with the game and how they play the game. A lot of the stuff we are doing in features we are doing is in response to that as well.

The number one thing on the free-to-play side is doubling down and a recommitment to an awesome variety of new content. Season Six [started on June 1st] as well and we’re really committed to every season introducing something new that’s probably worth a little aside on Velan Studios. Something new for the audience from a fundamental play standpoint, from a play mechanics standpoint as well. A mission for our studio, why we started in the first place, is to really challenge forms of play and offer something new for players at a very basic game mechanic standpoint.

[Velan Studios founder Guha Bala]

Bala had a lot more to say about Knockout City, including lessons learned in the transition from paid to free-to-play, the journey for Knockout City so far, and much more. You can read the full interview here.

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