Retaining Unfamiliar Audiences: Content Design for Ages 6-12

Brian Giaime – The Amazing Society

CONFIDENTIAL, SUBJECT TO NDA

25 minutes in 60 seconds

• Thesis

• Retention via Content Design

• Mental Models

• Solutions: What worked, what didn’t

Thesis

To make compelling content for ages 6 to 12:

1. Usability & Interface must be top priority2. Avoid text wherever possible3. Don’t punish failure, over-reward success4. Don’t introduce new elements when the player is stressed

Source Material:

• We built a Marvel MMO for all ages, specifically 6 – 12.• Our content was made to be played many times over.• We watched a lot of kids play the game.• We learned lessons applicable to any all-ages MMO.

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online

So how do we retain these players?

Better Content

What’s challenging about making content for ages 6-12?

VS.

Age 6• Doesn’t know right mouse button• Can’t use keyboard with mouse• Doesn’t know what a health bar

is• Barely reading, never under

duress• Will replay content 20x, dying

every 45 seconds, still having fun

Age 12• Expects depth and challenge• Wants to show off competence• Utilizes text in the UI without issue• Occasionally aware of tactics

CONFIDENTIAL, SUBJECT TO NDA

Retention via Content Design

Better content leads to…

• Better play experience

• Longer lifetime, more replays for your game

• More sharable moments

Building Mental Models

Gameplay Memes• Health Bars• Lives• Score• Special Attacks• Headshots• Levels - Content• Levels - Power Thresholds• WASD• “Teleportation”• Aggro

• Mana Bars• Tanks• DPS• Quicktime Events• Pausing• Scoreboards• Respawning• Deathmatch• PvE, PvP• Bosses

Typical 12 Year Old

• Game literate

• Good motor controls

• Familiar with a computer

Behaviors – Age 12• They’ll assume your game works like the last game

they’ve playedo “You tank the boss, I’ll kill the adds!”

• They’ll derive entertainment from masteryo “I GOT A GOLD MEDAL!” is not “I WON!”

Behaviors – Age 12

• They won’t require as many play-throughs to understand your content

• They won’t take long to master it completely

• They won’t mind replaying a unit of content repeatedly to level up (grinding)

Typical 6 Year Old

• Little to no mouse control / dexterity

• Little to no game literacy

• Inconsistent control assumptions

• No knowledge of right mouse button

What A 6 Year Old Sees

• (left) Click things to attack them• (left) Click places to go there

• Sometimes you fall down (get KO’d)• Sometimes you use a special move

o User could not reproduce these when asked, believed them to be random

Behaviors – Age 6

• They won’t read while engaged with the game

• They won’t read under duress

• They’ll never finish reading text that fades out

• They won’t wait, if they have the option not to

Behaviors – Age 6

• They’ll repeatedly try without getting discouraged

• They’ll (try to) play with only one hand

• They’ll invent their own meaning for your UI

Solutions

UI – What Didn’t Work

• Originally, had a moderate amount of text

• Usually large fonts, small words

• Choices communicated via rollover

• “Click here to start”

UI - Conclusions• Iconography proved generally necessary

• Rollover text is not read

• Text didn’t communicate much, if anything

Rewards – What Worked?

• The Scoring Systemo You never “lose”oMultiple tiers of “Winning”o Younger players tend not to acknowledge tierso Older players try to optimize, exercise mastery

Rewards - Conclusions

• Failure is in the eyes of the player

• Don’t add frustration to the experience

• Make it obvious: better performance = more rewards

• Over-communicate the awesome

Over-communicate the awesome

Mechanics – What We Tried

• Offered new ways to “solve” combat encounters• Players would…

1. Skip past unique gameplay2. Beat up enemies with regular attacks3. Explore unique gameplay without viable targets4. Incorrectly “learn” these elements did “nothing”

Mechanics – What We Did

• Minimized threats alongside new gameplay

• Gated progression until players demonstrated understanding of new elements

• “Gently” added challenge to new gameplay

• Utilized discipline in offering challenging content

Mechanics – Conclusions

• Require mechanics before suggesting them

• Build safe places for exploring new mechanics

• Be cautious when increasing demand for mastery

• Younger demographics only learn basic elements

Takeaway

Younger demographics respond to...• Over-rewarding in place of reward + punishment• Systems providing evidence of mastery• Feedback in unsubtle, non-text form• Mechanics which can be learned through use, rather

than instruction

Final ThoughtsAge 6 vs. Age 12

is a lot like

Casual vs. Core =

=

Brian Giaimewww.briangiaime.combrian.giaime@gmail.com

www.heroup.com

Questions?