Tower Studios launches its Free For Freaks arcade payment system on iPhone

There are plenty of different business models that developers can use to make money from their games.

We haven't seen anything quite like the Free For Freaks system that Tower Studios' has launched in its Shoot To Kill game though.

Inspired by the Continue system used in arcade games, you start the main Campaign mode with three lives.

Once these are used up you either prepare yourself to restart the game from the beginning or get the option to buy a Continue using in-app purchases (although this doesn't seem to be working in-game at the moment).

The thinking behind the concept is that everyone gets to play as much as they want to, while the most skillful players are rewarded for their expertise as they get to experience more of game without seeing payment options.

Further encouragement for weaker players to spend some money is created as the game's other modes - Survival and Multiplayer - require you to complete certain levels in the game before they are unlocked.

It's planned that Free For Freaks will be used in all of Tower Studios' free games.

"These Continue payments are the only way we get money from the game, so the concept is it plays like a coin-op where we put in the first coin for you," explains Tower Studios' co-founder Jon Hare.

"I am sure some guys will get all the way to the end of Shoot To Kill's Campaign mode without needing to buy extra lives, but hopefully not everybody."

What will be particularly interesting to see is how the App Store's minimum payment of 99c plays in this situation as developers have long complained it's too large and unwieldy a minimum compared to more open micro-transactional systems.

In the case of Shoot To Kill, you get 10 extra lives for 99c, €0.79 or 59p.

You can also read our interview with Jon Hare about the opportunities for original games on the new smartphone platforms here.