Social & Mobile Game Primer

Focused Game DesignFor a Mature Market

Birth of Social Games: Reach – Spam Spam Spam Retention – Endless Cheap Content Revenue – Energy, Blocking Mechanics

“Casual” and “Midcore” is now a thing The term “Gamer” doesn’t really apply anymore. 200+ App submissions daily - more gaming options than ever Bad or Treadmill Games won’t cut it

Social and Casual Revolution

Players

Easy to learn but challenging

Progression and new abilities Play with or against friends

Popular and relevant games

Will pay for a ‘good’ game

Players vs Developer Needs

Developers

Fun Factor

Investment

Engagement

Virality

Monetization

Most primary retention strategy. Is it “fun once, fun always?”Prototype! Fail faster and follow the fun!

Examples: Timing / Action Mechanics Blissful Productivity, or “Fun Pain” Emergence – Games As Toys Slot Machines - Random Loot

Fun Factor(Short Term Experience)

“World of Warcraft players play on average 22 hours / week (a part time job), often after a full days work. They’re willing to work hard, perhaps harder than in real life, because of their blissful productivity in the game world.” – Jane McGonical, SuperBetter Labs

Mechanics creating long term value. The “core loop.” Hint: Simply adding more of the same won’t work long term.

Examples: Progression Dynamics - Player Levels and Statistics Opportunity Space - Expansions Collections – Puzzle Pieces Appointment Dynamics and Interval Reward Schedules Nested Contingencies – Quest: Kill 10 Orcs.

Investment(Long Term Experience)

I have spent ten hours playing Farmville. I am a smart person and wouldn’t spend 10 hours on something unless it was useful. Therefore, this must be useful, so I can keep doing it.”

– Jesse Schell, Schell Games

Multiplayer mechanics and community management.Engaged users are your best buds. Give them what they want.

Examples: Head to Head Competition Leaderboards – Global, Local, or Social Reciprocity – Tend my Crops, ROYGBIV Gems Clans, Guilds and Point Systems – Realm vs Realm Everyone vs World – City of Heroes Aliens Contests and Giveaways

Engagement(Player to player Experience)

“Engagement is the heart of your game.”

– Roger Dickey, Zynga

Mechanics that increase reach by providing: A compelling incentive to invite new user An enticing invitation An obvious, low friction channel to share the invitation

Examples: Pyramid Schemes and Visiting Friends - Farmville Contact Farming and Suggesting Opponents - Words With Friends Gifting your App – Tricky Messaging Techniques Marketing Tricks – User Segregation & Ratings

Virality(Auto-Marketing)

Protip: When new installs and reactivations become improbable, focus on catering to your most engaged, loyal users. They’re most likely to pay anyway.

What will people pay for? Fun and Story (Quest Unlocks, Hard to Sell) Decoration and Identity Primacy and Exclusivity (Seasonal Items) Chance and Rarity (Grab Bags, Mystery Boxes) Competition and Social Value (Sharable Power) Stat Progress and Vanity Scarcity and Consumables (Bullets, Food, Energy) Space and Expansion

Monetization(The Business)

“Your game is a store, treat it like one.”

– Jon Walsh, Fuse Powered, Inc.

All of these mechanics drive each other.The key is elegance. Beware the “Pizza that nobody wants.”Perform a cost-benefit analysis of every feature.

It costs much less to spend time in the design phase.

Example: Collections – Collect X Things to Receive Y How do I get the things?

For simply playing? Grind, Spam, or Pay

What do I receive? Coins – Yay? / Premium Coins – Better, but limited. Consumable, Mystery Box – Repeatable New Ability – Investment, Addictive

The Whole Package(Connecting Influences)

Games are now a Service industry Seamless and platform agnostic

Multiplatform, not Cross-Platform Social (Integrated) Snackable

Asynchronous, turn-based works! Value Reigns Free (Mostly)

Current and Future Games

“If you want to work in games, go make something.”

– John Comes, Uber Entertainment