Abu Dhabi designer aims to combat 'predatory' in-game purchases

Elio Polizzi says designers usually rely on a small percentage of people to spend big in games

Elio Polizzi left his lucrative job in banking to work for a games developer and became one himself. He has now launched his first game, 'Rocky Towers'. Victor Besa / The National

A Frenchman who gave up a career in banking to become a games designer wants to transform “predatory” free-to-play practices in the industry.

Abu Dhabi-based Elio Polizzi, who used to work as a games designer for Ubisoft, the developer behind Assassin’s Creed, said too many of the games which are free to play take advantage of players.

He said they typically rely on a small percentage of people to spend a lot of money on in-app purchases — which often does not buy them anything at all.

He claimed his first game, which has just been launched and is available on App Store and Google Play, takes a different approach.

Rocky Towers, a little like Jenga for the screen, is entirely free to play and can be accessed without paying anything at all — much like many others out there.

But in contrast to some, players can choose whether they want to watch adverts to earn bonuses.

There are in-app purchases available, but players are limited in how much they spend each week to no more than $32.

“There’s a problem with the free games you play that you get on your phone and the PC,” he said.

“A lot of them are too predatory. They really push you on spending hundreds of dollars, and often without a reward.

“You could spend $500 and maybe you get nothing in the game.”

He said video game designers usually relied on a small percentage of people to spend big in games.

“They plan on having 2 per cent of the players spending money and from them, 0.4 per cent spending all the money,” said Mr Polizzi, who has lived in Abu Dhabi for almost a decade.

“We are trying to reverse that to have more people buying in the game but paying less. In our game you can purchase gems,” he said.

“However, all the purchases you have in Rocky Towers are finite. Once you buy them they are gone. You cannot spend any more money this week. You need to wait.”

The approach is more ethical than encouraging players, who are often children, from making repeated purchases with no benefit.

Mr Polizzi became a games designer almost by accident, after turning down a permanent contract and potentially lucrative role in banking and insurance.

“I thought this was not really for me. A friend said why don’t you come to Ireland?

“I didn’t even want to work in gaming, when I left for Ireland. But when I looked at the job offers the second week that I arrived, I saw an offer in game operations. That’s where I started before I moved to development a bit later. I thought I could do all that.”

He worked for a couple of developers before joining Ubisoft, where he served until late 2020, when he decided to design his own game. He started his company, Meelfoy Games, in March last year in Abu Dhabi, which is home to a growing gaming ecosystem.

“We took references from a few games and we managed to do something that is unique with a tower you need to defend which has different colours of bricks,” said Mr Polizzi, who is from France.

“And it is very simple to play. There are only four buttons at the bottom. But there is a lot of strategy that is happening every time you press these buttons.”

He plans to release his second game, based on a dog’s den, in the autumn.