Making your F2P puzzler a story-driven game

What could possibly go wrong? Based on a true story.

This is a case study

• Story-driven

• Practical

• Anecdotical

• Hopefully with some general conclusions

ATGames

• Small, focused team,

• trying to make quality mobile games,

• with a love-hate relationship with F2P.

Story-driven puzzler

Game

• Another Case Solved - puzzle detective game set in the interesting times of the sugar prohibition

• tile-matching core gameplay loop

• strong story elements

Before ACS

• Puzzle Craft a relaxing game of farming and mining, F2P puzzle/townbuilding

• Our first tile-matching game and quite a success.

Before ACS

• The Mooniacs addictive physics puzzler with totally unnecessary three alternative endings.

• The first game we produced, and we learned a lot during the production.

Before ACS

• The Witcher - AAA cRPG about an emotionally unstable monster slayer.

• The first game I worked on, included here to explain the need for adding a story :)

The Quest

• Why did we decide to make a story-driven F2P puzzle game?

• We were bored

• We had some experience in puzzles

• We had some experience in storytelling

• It seemed like a good idea :)

High Hopes

• We hoped to appeal to mystery-games fans

• We hoped the story will be a driver to play for players that are not into puzzle games.

• We hoped the gameplay will be a driver for those not interested in the story.

• We hoped it will be awesome!

First Fears

• We feared we would lose casual players

• We feared the game will be harder to make

• We feared it will monetize poorly

Design Decisions

• Segmented gameplay - a series of criminal cases, as opposed to the continuous flow in Puzzle Craft

• Story - detective procedural series

• Gameplay - progress-driven

Story

Setting• Sugar Prohibition

all the great noir tropes, no problems with rating.

• Hardboiled Gumshoe struggling for money and fighting for the truth, a great hero archetype.

• Core fantasy in perfect synergy with the monetization model.

Making of a Hero

• We provide an archetype - players give the protagonist a face.

• We make the hero pivotal for the story.

• Players customize the avatar...

• ...show competence through the gameplay.

Customization

Mr or Ms Gumshoe?

• We wanted players to be able to choose if they are playing a woman or a man.

• To localize the game we had to accommodate for gender-specific texts...

• ... so we decided to make the most of it.

Behind the Scenes

True Romance

• The same cast of characters,

• different dialogues,

• significantly different story.

The Burglar

• Friend/rival for male detectives.

• Romantic interest for female detectives.

The Police Officer

• Friend/rival for female detectives.

• Romantic interest for male detectives.

Behind the Story

• Likable, competent protagonist

• Emotional ties to other characters

• Narrative inspired by TV series: episodes, seasons, recurring characters,slow development of the main plot.

Gameplay

Tile-matching

• Connect Tiles: to solve a case gather clues, different for every witness.

• Long Chains: get bonus puzzles, use them to max. the case.

• Limitations: number of moves, target numbers for puzzles.

Witnesses

Inspired by „Guess Who”.

Find the person, who matches all criteria.

Number of questions depends on photos collected.

Crime Scene

Hot or Cold, limited no. moves.

Find the ”hottest” item.

Max. ”hotness” shown depends on Fingerprints collected.

City Search

Find the place that matches all hints.

Some icons are hidden.

Number of hints depends on Maps collected.

Progress: Skills

• Skills grouped by puzzle type.

• Can be unlocked as the character gains levels.

• Players decide which skills to pick.

• Can be upgraded.

Progress: Equipment• Office: both esthetic

and gameplay choice.

• New items bought for in-game currency.

• Equipment modifies gameplay or gives bonus currency.

• Choice: many items per slot.

Behind the Gameplay

• Basics: tile-matching, and players’ abilities

• Additional puzzles: difficulty lowered by successful tile-matching

• Skills (persistent), tools (consumable)

• Progress: skills and equipment (modify and enrich the basic gameplay)

Story vs. Gameplay

Big Loop

• Major Cases: story progress, earning stars and cash.

• Your Office: investment, spending cash.

• Your Character: unlocking skills, spending stars.

Small Loop

• Newspaper Cases: easy, repeatable, grinding in-game currency.

• Tools: useable, buy them with in-game currency.

• Story Progress: newspapers needed to unlock Major Cases.

Dependencies

• Story Progress: you need to grind tile-matching puzzles to unlock new cases.

• Gameplay Progress: you need to solve story cases to earn stars for new skills and level up your character.

Story Constraints

• Every case consists from the same blocks:

• Investigation - initial tile matching,

• Suspects - identifying a person,

• Search - finding an item,

• City - locating an address.

• Suspects, Search and City - order may vary.

Gameplay Constraints

• The puzzles must make sense for the story.

• That means no random cases.

• Progress in the story => character progress => need for higher difficulty

One Environment

• Story to gameplay: hints in the dialogues, if you read you gain an edge.

• Gameplay to story: custom mechanics used only in crucial moments.

• Credibility: gameplay set in a context, story told not by text alone.

The Unexpected

• We encountered some surprises...

• ... that in hindsight are obvious...

• ... but we were surprised nonetheless.

Dramatization Effect

• As the story progresses the characters accumulate more and more background,

• demand more and more characterization,

• the story gets deeper and more nuanced,

• and writing takes more and more time.

Power Level Effect

• As the story progresses the protagonist becomes more and more competent,

• demands harder challenges,

• and new gameplay mechanisms,

• so implementation takes more and more time.

It Just Gets Harder

• Work gets more complicated as the project progresses:

• you have to design harder puzzles,

• repetitiveness creeps in,

• and the dialogues swell (or it’s just us?).

Localization

• The game was written in English

• we made the Polish localization in-house

• and it took much longer than expected.

• We skipped other languages - too much text, translation too expensive.

Updates

• New chapters - obvious choice, appeals only to long-time players.

• New skills - obvious choice, appeals only to advanced players.

• New players? - that is the question.

Adding Depth

• New skills - not in the main branch.

• New skill upgrades - some skills just cannot be upgraded.

• New mechanisms - all types of puzzles in newspaper cases.

Update Constraints

• Consistency - side cases raise questions of difficulty level, relations with NPCs, state of the world.

• Forced Progress - every new case progresses the character. Sooner or later new mechanisms will be needed.

• Limits - app size, memory limits.

Problem: Scalability

• Most puzzlers are effectively endless.

• Story-driven games need finite arcs.

• One leg is shorter.

Ways out?

• Freeze gameplay progress on high difficulty plateau (ex. high end-game skill prices) and provide interesting side stories.

• Introduce some kind of a „newspaper-burner” (ex. some collectible elements to be unlocked by grinding newspapers)

Look at the Bright Side!

Story

• Loyal fans, who care about your game.

• Story compensates for repetitive core gameplay.

• It is both a driver to play and a reward.

• Can be fun to write :)

Gameplay

• Loyal fans, who don’t care for your story :)

• Gameplay makes waiting for the next case fun - you don’t have to put the game down.

• Effective progress loop: mastery => advancement => puzzles change => need for mastery.

Was it worth it?

• Spoiler: oh yes!

• Great reception.

• Good profits.

• Diversification is good for your team.

But...

• Knowing, what we know now...

• ... we would have done some things differently.

• And we probably will :)

Thank You!ag@atgames.pl

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http://atgames.pl/jobs.html