Neko Atsume: My Collection of Kitties

This week, we’ll take a look into a very interesting App: Neko Atsume. We’ll talk about how it works, where is the fun, and whether or not it is a game.

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How does it work?

In Neko Atsume, you decorate a room and attempt to attract cats. You can do this by setting out different “Goodies” (boxes, balls, bags, etc.) to attract them. Each cat has a favorite toy, and when you set up their favorite toy, they might stop by to play with it. But toys aren’t enough for the cats. You need to feed them as well if you want them to stop by. Once you’ve set some food and items out, cats will begin to stop by and visit. After they leave, they will leave the player with a gift , either silver fish or premium gold fish. These are used to buy more items to put out for the cats.

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Here we can see the placement options for goodies as well as food.

Food mechanic:
Players need to stop by a couple times a day and set out more food if they want to continually attract cats. The cats can visit while the player is not in the app. If they do, they will still leave a gift for the player, but the player will have missed seeing them.

Side note: This is a nice little addition because if the player doesn’t get the reward of getting to see them, they will still get something.

Every time a cat visits, it will eat a little bit of the food. Upon all the food being eaten, no more cats will visit until the bowl is full. Because there is a free food bowl called “Thrifty Bits”, running out of money never becomes a problem.

Side note: So the food is like a timer. After so many minutes, a player will need to return to the app and refill the bowl if they wish to progress and receive more rewards. Because the food has no visible timer for the player to track, the player will need to check back more often to see more cats.

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For anyone still confused on how this game’s systems work, this flow chart might help.

Chart made in Lucidchart

So, where’s the fun?
In Neko Atsume, there are multiple kinds of rewards. I like to call these direct and indirect rewards. Direct rewards are something that is given to the player that’s blatantly a reward. In Neko Atsume’s case, this would be the gold and silver fish the player receives from visiting cats.

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Indirect rewards are more like cinemas, things that are rewarded to the players that are solely for their enjoyment. They don’t necessarily have an effect on a game’s progress, with the exception of story. In Neko Atsume’s case, this would be like getting to see the cats do absolutely adorable things.

Like hide in a box!

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Or play with a ball!

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Or even get their little fluffy butt stuck in a tube!

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These moments where the player gets to see the cats be adorable is the reason players continue to come back. The direct rewards are more of a means to an end. They are in place to support the adorable cat reward. These rewards, combined with the hidden food timer, makes sure the player has a nice steady stream of cats to enjoy, all the while not letting them see all of them too soon and instead forcing the player to come back.

Side note: I’m pretty sure the developers knew this is where the fun came from and wanted players to be able to revisit the adorable moments that they have already experienced. So they put in a camera feature where players could take pictures of the cats and put them in photo albums. They also gave them names and stats to help sell the attachment players might feel for the cats. So while the player could have a goal to fill up this album, there is no reward for doing so aside from their own satisfaction.

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My album is on its way!

So is this a game or what?
Typically, games have a win/lose condition. That’s kind of what makes them special. So I’d have to say no, it isn’t a game. That doesn’t diminish how much fun it is. It’s more like an interactive toy, because even if you fill up all your photo albums, the game doesn’t end, and if you do nothing, the game doesn’t end either.

In the end, Neko Atsume is an excellent app which is great at wasting a few seconds out of the hour. By giving players a variety of rewards, drip-feeding them new cats, and forcing their engagement through the food mechanic, they find themselves returning to this app again and again. I hope I got you thinking about how to make simple apps, which aren’t necessarily games but are still enjoyable.

Next week, we will be returning to our regularly scheduled posts/updates.

I’ll see you guys then,

Scott

If you like my work and want to support my caffeine addiction, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi.

Flappy Bird: Exploring Fairness & Fun in Games

Depending on who you talk to, you’ll get very different responses when asking, “Is Flappy Bird a good game?” From a monetization standpoint, it is an excellent game. Last I heard, the guy who made it was making 50K a day. From a game design perspective, I’ve heard a lot of, “It’s not fun. It just makes me want to pull my hair out.” Today we are going to explore why so many designers hate Flappy Bird. Additionally, we’ll try to figure out where the fun lies.

“I hate Flappy Bird.”

These words I’ve heard countless times. But when asked why, I usually get the response “It’s just not fun”. Well why isn’t it fun?

For the three of you who have never played Flappy Bird, let me elaborate on how the game works. The player taps the screen to accelerate their bird upward quickly in a short burst. After the burst from tapping is completed, gravity begins to take its toll and drags the bird down. This results in the player tapping the screen over and over again to attempt to keep the bird airborne. The player gains points via successfully navigating between pipes. Every pair of pipes cleared nets them a point. The pipes appear at various heights. If the bird touches any of the pipes on the screen, it falls to its doom and the game ends. Players earn medals based on how many points they earn.

·      Bronze = 10 pts

·      Silver = 20 pts

·      Gold = 30 pts

·      Platinum = 40 pts

At the ‘Game Over’ screen, the player can view their game ranking on a leaderboard or play again.

And that’s Flappy Bird.

So why do designers hate it? My guess is lack of depth. The game doesn’t really change as time goes on. It doesn’t ramp up and never increases in difficulty. No upgrades. No progression. It doesn’t speed up. There are no strategies. Just take deep breaths and focus. Really, there’s not much of anything.  It’s incredibly shallow. Arcade games from the 70s have more depth. It’s not fun to them because there is no variety. There is no challenge.

Side note: I'm not speaking for all designers when I say this. Just most of the ones who I have spoken to about this topic typically state their dislike for the game.

No challenge? The hell are you talking about this game is tough!

I’m sorry, that was poor wording. Let me explain. While the game in itself is difficult, there is very little reward. In something like Final Fantasy, the players will be rewarded by the feeling of power, seeing more of the story, and beautiful cinemas to watch as they progress through the game. They will defeat more powerful enemies and solve puzzles. But here, there is no reason to continue playing aside from beating your score. (Or your friend’s score) Within maybe ten seconds, players have already seen all that the game has to offer. This leaves no reason to continue playing. This brings us to the genius of Flappy Bird.

It’s fair. Because there are no surprises or variables which could change, aside from the pipe height (And even then the player can see it well in advance), there is no situation where the player could say, “Well that’s not my fault, the game cheated!” This helps to push the player to play again. They begin to think “Well, I made it through the first five. I’m pretty sure I can make it through one more.” So they decide to try again. When this concept is combined with the game’s simplicity and ease of getting back into the game, it makes it easy for the player to try just one more time. The player literally just needs to tap the play button from the game over screen.

Side note: The just one more try phenomenon is something hardcore gamers know oh too well. As well as the just one more level, and just five more minutes. But thanks to mobile gaming, a broader more causal audience can experience it too.

But this still doesn’t answer the question: Where’s the fun?

This brings us to the bigger question. Where is the fun in Flappy Bird? Before we get into that, let’s talk about fun. What is fun? This is an incredibly difficult question to answer. That’s because the concept of fun is completely subjective. Take Destiny for an example. There are various points of fun. The players can chase loot, explore the world, chase achievements, become the best in Crucible, outsmart the A.I. and defeat all PvE challenges, complete the grimoire, etc. In a game like Angry Birds, the player’s fun comes from figuring out each level’s puzzle and progressing through the game. Maybe even scoring higher than their friends. But you get the idea.

Side note: My personal fun in Destiny comes from exploring the world and spending time doing challenging activities with my friends.

Every single person gets something different out of every single game. This is where knowing your audience comes into play. When people have a common view of what fun is they can be grouped into an audience. When designing a racing game for the Forza audience, the developers are not going to put in Mario Kart physics and controls because their audience wouldn’t enjoy it.

So where is the fun in Flappy Bird?

My gut reaction is the difficulty. The game is insanely hard, and some people might enjoy the challenge. Unfortunately, the fun is short lived because there is not a lot of depth involved in Flappy Bird. So why do people keep playing a game which isn’t necessarily fun?

Friends.

The same thing that is keeping the Destiny community alive (and many other video game communities) kept Flappy Bird going for so long. One person tried it, failed miserably, and then their friend tried it, and people just began to pass it around. Then they started to compete with each other. People began posting their scores online to social media. It’s kind of funny that a game which lacks any depth and any assistance to connect to social media would do so well.

Side note: We can take a brief moment to think about Dark Souls, another incredibly difficult game. But while Dark Souls is difficult, it offers so much more. A combat system which feels rewarding to master, a world to explore, lore and a story to uncover, and so on.  This gives it considerably more replayability and engages players for longer periods of time. This also appeals to a larger audience. I played Dark Souls initially because of the fantasy setting. I wanted to explore it and learn about the creatures I would encounter through the story. I fell in love with it because of the lore/story telling, combat, exploration and co-op systems. But Dark Souls will be for another time. I know I’m going to get some heat because technically Flappy Bird has access to a larger audience. But this is because of the device it is on, not because it has various hooks to grab players in and retain them.

The only other reasons I can think of as to why people kept playing it would be the same reason people stare at car accidents. They can’t help it. A sense of morbid curiosity if you will. How terribly will I fail? Or how terribly will my friend fail?

Or

It’s a great time waster. If we think about the average engagement time for players on iOS games, we know that it is very short. This game gets players in instantly, and as soon as they lose, it is really easy to get back in again. The entire game is designed around players having the minimum amount of down time. If players can get back into the game incredibly quickly and are constantly engaged throughout, that leaves them with no time to leave the app. It might just be the perfect mix of short gameplay and minimum downtime.

Side note: From my own analytics I’ve been running, typical engagement is less than ten minutes.

Looking at this game helped me to realize that maybe a fair game isn’t necessarily a fun game. People play games for a multitude of reasons. Some like them for the story, others to feel powerful. But I’ve never heard anyone say “I play this game because it is fair!” Maybe someone might enjoy Flappy Bird because they want a challenge, but endless games quickly wear out their welcome. Especially if there is nothing to unlock. With this post I hope I got you to think about where the fun in games are, and where is the fun in your game?

I’ll be off for the holidays for the next two weeks, so I will not be posting a long analysis or updates on prototypes during that time. If I can find some time though I’d like to try a shorter, more bite sized, “Bonus Round” post. I’ll return January 5th. I hope you have a Happy Holidays!

I’ll see you guys next year,

Scott

If you like my work and want to support my caffeine addiction, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi.

Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade - Touching the Grim Dark Future

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war… and excellent touch controls. Freeblade is a lot of things, and I could gush about so many things it does right, but today I want to stick to the controls. Controls in iOS games typically fall into one of two categories: either they are intuitive and easy to use, or an absolute mess and frustrating.

Brief background:

Freeblade, at its core, is a 3rd person rail shooter set in the Warhammer 40k universe. The player’s robot follows a track, stopping every so often to fight a small band of enemies. The fun is found via expertly dispatching these enemies, and being rewarded by cool explosions and combat animations. A later reward for completing the level consists of medals and materials to be used to improve the player’s robot.

A typical encounter would look like this:

Side note: Yes, I understand technically the robot/mech is an Imperial Knight. As someone who played the Warhammer 40k table top game for well over 15 years, I understand the difference between Dreadnaughts, Knights, Titans, and the like. But I say robot to simplify the term, to not confuse anyone who isn’t familiar with the franchise. So please don’t crucify me. With that said, the Eldar shall live on! Forever! Not even the pathetic forces of man or Chaos can stop us! Muahahaha…. **Cough** Excuse me. MOVING ON!

Let’s dissect the controls & some mechanics:

The player is given a small arsenal to eliminate their enemies. Our first weapon is the standard machine gun.

When a player taps and holds the screen with one finger, this aiming reticule appears slightly above the player’s finger. The player can then easily maneuver their finger to direct their robot’s rapid fire. After a time, (designated by the machine gun icon just below the x1 and the orange circle around the aiming reticle) the player’s machine gun will slow its fire due to being low on ammo. If the player decides to continue firing, the weapon will over heat and they will be unable to fire again until it fully recharges.

Side note: The way this is designed encourages players to attack in short controlled bursts, instead of just holding the machine gun fire button down the entire time. This also makes the weapon effective against groups of weak enemies instead of larger armored enemies.

Next up, let’s take a look at the heavy weapon.

When a player places two fingers close to one another on the screen, and then spreads them, the view zooms in and the heavy weapon aiming reticle is displayed. This time it appears where the player initially touched the screen with two fingers. When the player removes their fingers from the screen, the heavy weapon is fired wherever the aiming reticle is displayed. It can be moved slightly after it spawned, when the player moves both fingers in a certain direction. We can tell how much ammo the heavy weapon currently has via looking at the heavy weapon icon on the left side of the screen, directly below the machine gun icon. (Notice the three rounds next to the heavy weapon icon) We can also tell how much ammo is available by looking at the aiming reticle. There are three marks below it, currently designating the three rounds we have left. After the player runs out of ammo, they will have to wait for a short time for it to reload.

Side note: These weapons typically are good for taking out large enemies. They do high damage to a controlled small space. Using this weapon will only kill one or two enemies at a time and it fires slowly. Thus this encourages the player to use it on tanks rather than troops. One of my few dings on this game’s design shows up here as well. The aiming reticle is orange, which blends into the enemies’ colors and the brown of the world quite a bit. When I try to figure out what the designers were thinking, the idea of it being un-obstructive and not something they want the player to focus on comes to mind. But as you can see in the above image, they went through a lot of work to show how much ammo the player has left on the aiming reticle and it’s barely visible.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the shield:

Occasionally, an enemy with a heavy weapon of their own will show up, typically within a group of enemies. So they might not be the first enemy the player shoots because they might not notice them right off the bat. These enemies are designated by blue parenthesis with arrows at each edge. The arrows slide along the parenthesis until they collide. This is when the enemy will fire. If the player taps the enemy before the arrows collide, they will deploy a shield. This allows them to take less damage from incoming heavy attacks. This is particularly useful when there is a group of them and the player has run out of ammo so they are waiting for a recharge.

Side note: I like this mechanic because, while not as exciting as combat, it continues to engage players and forces the players to do something different. So even if the player is shooting at another enemy, they may have to stop for a second to put up their shield to avoid the heavy damage from these guys. Because this also forces players to stop shooting for a second, it allows their weapons to recharge. Thus engaging them and not making them feel that they are only waiting for a weapon recharge.

And finally, my favorite close combat!

First the player must choose to engage in close combat.

This is designated via a red fist icon and some red parenthesis. What I like about this particular scenario is that I have a choice. Go into close combat and get an awesome combat cinematic, or Indiana Jones this poor guy and just shoot quickly with the big guns. For the sake of this post, and because we’ve already gone over the big guns, we’re not going to just shoot it. So, let’s say the player taps within the red parenthesis to engage in close combat.

Side note: If the player doesn’t tap within the red parenthesis or kill the enemy quickly enough, the enemy will get a free close combat attack on them. So doing the Indiana Jones thing of just shooting them has its own risks.

A bar will appear in the bottom half of the screen and the player must tap the screen when the two white fist bars are within the green areas. If you have played Gears of War, think of the active reload system. If not, the white bars start on the edges of the “Hit!” bar. They travel inward simultaneously. The player has an area in which they can activate the attack to do normal damage (transparent green bar), and an area to do critical damage (filled in green bar in the dead center).

While the white bars are traveling inward, the two robots are chagrining each other.

If the player taps before white bars enter the green spaces, they will take a hit.

Ouch! Same goes for waiting too long and not tapping before the bars have passed one another.

Fortunately, it is incredibly rewarding to get a critical.

Oh yeah. Chainsaw sword.

This combat mechanic is simple. Due to the nature of touch devices though, it makes it feel good. This system allows for the combatants to get really close and fight. And the player is rewarded with a really cool animation if they win, or an even better one if they get a critical hit. A different system might not result in these amazing visual combat scenes due to how crazy the visuals of each combatant look. Don’t believe me? Look at the previous images without the combat bar. Sometimes it is tough to tell where one robot starts and one ends.

Side note: This particular reward of getting to see these robot fights is probably the biggest reason I don’t just shoot enemies as they are charging me. Although sometimes I will to try and soften them up before we engage in combat.

So back to controls.

We see a few themes in this game which are known across other excellent iOS games. The biggest point being the usage of touch gestures which are already commonly used in touch applications. To elaborate, separate fingers to zoom in and tapping on the screen with a player’s index finger are all examples of gestures we do every day just to surf the web with our smart devices. So players have been already exposed to all these gestures and they are easy to learn in game.

Wait a second you dinged another game for having buttons which the player must tap on but in this game, you are praising it for having enemies which the player must tap on as well.

Valid point. Let me explain. The games I dinged have buttons on the bottom of the screen. The buttons are away from the action and are not the player’s focus. Because of this it is easy for players to not notice when their thumb moves out of position slightly. Buttons work great for computers and consoles because players can use their sense of touch to tell exactly where the buttons are. On a touch screen however, players cannot. In Freeblade, when the player needs to tap a space (for example to put up a shield), where they need to tap is highlighted on screen and a part of the action. This means the player wont miss it. I guess an easy rule of thumb to follow would be this: Think about how we hold our devices. Think about what finger players will be using to tap this item. If it is their thumb, then there is a good chance it isn’t the focus of the screen and it might be a good idea to rethink it’s positioning. If they are probably going to tap it with an index finger, then it is probably safe.

Let me give you some visual examples:

This is Adventures of a Round Object. It’s a platformer where the player controls a ball in an attempt to make it to the end of a level. It’s also the first game I ever released about six years ago. Now think about holding your phone in landscape and trying to touch these buttons. It’s not tough to reach them, but it will be difficult to get the button precision required to platform effectively. This is because the player’s focus is not on the buttons, but instead on their ball trying to make its way through the level. In moments where a small misstep means life or death, those buttons need to be in focus.

Side Note: If I were to recreate this game, I might do something like: right side of the screen = move right, left side of the screen = move left, and center part of the screen = jump so I could get away with not having any buttons. This would allow the player to not have to focus on buttons because the area is so large, it is nearly impossible to miss.

Now in Freeblade, because the enemy location is different every time, the player will focus more on the location they need to tap. Due to that required focus players always look where they are tapping thus resulting in them not missing the mark.

I hope I inspired you to think more about how players are controlling iOS games. I know I am thinking about it even more now. All these screen shots were taken by me from Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade for iOS. Adventures of a Round Object used to be available on iOS, but I recently pulled it due to some poor marketing choices I made years ago. If you are interested in playing it, feel free to ask and I can send you a code to download it for iOS. Next week I will be doing a post mortem for an App I worked on not too long ago, NFL RUSH Zone: Heroes and Rivals. We’ll talk about what went well, what I think went poorly and maybe a little bit of the design behind it. Maybe if I’m lucky I can convince some of the other designers who worked on it to chime in as well.

I’ll see you guys next week,

Scott  

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Rayman Fiesta Run: My Kind of Party

Rayman Fiesta Run is a runner which feels like a party. Today we’ll brush over a few of the game features, but instead of looking at the individual levels, I want to dive deep into the hidden upsell system in play.

How it works:

In a nut shell, Rayman is running full speed through the level. Players can make him jump, attack, or hover for a short time. That’s it. Their primary goal is to get him to the flag at the end while collecting as many Lums (Think generic collectable/currency) as they can along the way.

At roughly 1, 25, 50 and 75 Lums collected, upon completing the level, the player will free a captured Teensy. Teensys are used to progress through the game.

Look at the charm. The Teensy is in a cage and still smiling and happy. The other three are literally dancing.

A player must rescue a certain amount to unlock the next group of levels. If a player collects all 100 Lums in any main line level (level unlocked via rescuing Teensys), then a harder version of the same level will be unlocked for the player to challenge.

On the level select screen, we can tell which levels where 100 Lums are collected because they have a crown above the level. The more difficult version appears directly above the completed level and looks like a skull. Each of the four circles within the level icon fill up when those Teensys are rescued. Empty level icons are levels which have yet to be completed. As we can see, the track fills up as we rescue Teensys. This unlocks additional levels, characters and various prizes.

Power Ups:

Freeing Teensys aren’t the only purpose of collecting Lums. Another is buying temporary and permanent power ups. At the start of each level players are allowed to purchase temporary power ups. These power ups last until the player successfully finishes the level.

·      Magnet: Attract Lums around your hero

·      Phoenix: Allows respawning in the middle of a level in case of death

·      Too Much Help: Show how to complete the level and collect all the Lums

·      Golden Heart: Protection from 2 hits

·      Ultimate Flying Punch: Unlimited and stronger flying punches

Permanent power ups can be purchased from the shop in the level select menu. These the player can activate at will without paying for them on each level. Obviously they cost considerably more Lums.

The Good:

·      The level design for most levels is on par with a standard non-music level you might find in Rayman Origins or Legends.

·      “No upsells” (I put this in good because usually these annoy players, though I understand in a typical free-to-play game it is a necessary evil to make money) I put this in quotes because there are upsells, the players just don’t notice them.

·      The Ubiart Engine –I’ve seen this one in action on consoles. It still looks beautiful on iOS.

·      The Charm – This is a little more difficult to describe. But the eyeballs on everything gives the enemies a lot of personality. Then there is Rayman’s undeniable excitement to go running. You can see this in the beginning of each level. It reminds me of a dog running. Little touches like this add to the charm.

o   When a player jumps off a lime his eyes close in an “Oof!” fashion

·      Controls – We can see the jump button on the left side of the screen and the punch on the right. I can’t tell you how many mobile games make the mistake of only having the button image be an input. This causes problems due to the precision needed to hit these buttons. (Unlike controllers, your finger can move on a flat screen and doesn’t have the feedback of touching an actual button so they are easy to miss, but that’s for another time) Not a problem here! The entire left side of the screen is the jump button. The right side of the screen is for punching.

·      The Yoshi’s Wooly World Effect – In Yoshi’s Wooly World, it is perfectly possible to beat the story levels without collecting everything in the game. And it isn’t a particularly difficult game. The difficulty skyrockets when the player decides to be a completionist. Rayman does the exact same thing. The levels aren’t particularly tough but, if the player wishes to collect all the Lums, the difficulty level spikes. God forbid collecting all of the Lums on the difficult series of levels.

The “Free”-to-play:

Technically, the game isn’t free to play. Generally, it costs $2.99 to download. Then, on top of that, the players have the option within the game to spend additional real life money. Before you grab your pitchforks and torches, the in-game purchases are completely optional. They are entirely to speed up progression or just for fun. The three different purchasable items, via Lums, are:

·      Permanent power ups

·      Art images

·      Characters

There is an additional purchasable item, but I’ve never thought much about it because I haven’t had any trouble obtaining them. Those are Lums. Because the player can collect up to 100 Lums per level completed, I’ve never had any issue where I had to buy them. They feel strictly like if the player wishes to have a whole bunch of them very quickly they can buy them, but it isn’t needed.

Side note: This is exactly the mentality we want players to have in a free to play game. This keeps them from getting mad at the company for attempting to make some money. It also makes them more likely to actually purchase items because they are feeling happy and more trusting of the developers.

Earlier, I mentioned that there were upsells, but the players never noticed them. You might think, what the heck? How is this possible?

That’s how. After the player has lost at least ten times in a row, before trying again they are upsold a power up. Now this power up is upsold through using in game currency, which is plentiful. Because it seems so plentiful, players don’t mind buying the power up. There is no button asking for money, and the language seems to be more suggesting help rather than “HEY YOU SUCK AND NEED TO BUY HELP”. The look of the heart definitely helps as well. (Derp faces can’t be taken seriously. The Charm is literally hiding the upsell.) Now, this particular power up costs 80 Lums. The player can only ever receive a max of 100 Lums for each level completion. So what the player doesn’t think about is that one power up costs nearly a whole perfect run. And this is one of the cheapest power ups, most are much more expensive. (the highest being 200 Lums)

As you can tell from some of my images, I have over 4,000 Lums at the moment. Five levels ago, I had 1,000 more. The difficulty balancing of later levels nudges the player to use power ups to do better and complete the levels. This slowly drains the Lums as the player chooses to use the power ups. They are not feeling pressured by the game to use them because it is their own drive pushing them to do better. (Essentially they are not doing so well and need help, so they pay for it) All the power ups have a purpose and feel useful. (My go to team is the Magnet, Too Much Help, and the Golden Heart. Every time I do this, I spend 440 Lums without giving it a second thought. That is four and a half perfect runs.) And it works. When I run into a level which is particularly difficult, I’ll try a few times and if I get stuck, I’ll pop one or two power ups. Mostly, the ones I use help me collect all the Lums in the level, where as the other power ups are typically helpful just to get to the end.

Side note/Soap Box: While writing this post it got me thinking. Typically, in free-to-play games we have two kinds of currency, gold – found in game, and gems – premium currency bought with real money. I can’t help but wonder if the lack of gems in this game is helping them to have a more positive response. Because there is only the one currency and it is so plentiful in the game, (By plentiful I mean I understand how to get a decent amount of it using my skill) perhaps this is contributing to the feeling of not being nickeled and dimed. Yes, I can buy Lums if I so choose, or I can put the time in to make the money in game. Where as something like gems are only available through buying them (or getting one or two for a daily reward). Additionally, in other games some content will be locked behind paywalls which require gems. Thus the player is getting more annoyed over time due to the fact that the developers are asking for “more” money later on. In Rayman it doesn’t ask for money, the player has to navigate to the store if they wish to spend real world cash. Thus the player is making a conscious decision to go there and take a look at the products. They aren’t having it shoved in their face.

An analogy if you will:

The way Rayman does shopping is more akin to going to Target and looking around. You have chosen to go to this location and engage in shopping or just looking around. Maybe you will get a flyer in the mail (the incredibly passive upsell in Rayman.) but they don’t do a lot to annoy you. Because you chose to expose yourself to the advertisements and products you will have a better time. Most upsells in games are like your cable company calling you trying to sell you better cable. The first time you are courteous and politely decline. After the fourteenth time…. Not so much. And the way we typically do upsells it would be during every commercial break, while we are watching T.V. While they position it strategically to not directly interrupt us. It still gets annoying when constantly asked.

This bleeds over a little bit into ads as well. Most ads in games are more like telemarketers or door to door salesmen. You’re minding your own business at home, watching the newest episode of Game of Thrones and someone bangs at your door. “Hello sir or Madame? Would you like to purchase a vacuum?”. The interruption is mildly annoying the first time. But if new salesmen keep showing up the annoyance just builds. Until you are frustrated and start to yell at they poor guy trying to make a living. Thus angry comments.

But Scott wouldn’t you go into these games knowing that you will get ads/upsold products? I mean it is common knowledge by now.

This is a valid point. It might be more like watching the Walking Dead then and having commercial breaks. But with technology these days more and more people are avoiding commercials all together. Ad blockers for the web. DVRs allow people to fast forward through commercials during their favorite shows. Heck, I just use Netflix for most of my shows now a-days. No commercials. People don’t like to be interrupted when consuming media. But we need to interrupt them with ads to make a profit or we can’t create new media. So we need to find ways to make their interruptions subtler. Or even passive so we don’t force them from their immersive experience.

Personally, I’m a big fan of subtly. Like how all the Transformers, in Michael Bay’s films, are GMC vehicles. It’s subtle and unobstructive to the player’s engagement. Upsells are a little trickier. I can’t tell you for sure what works perfectly every time. But I can tell you what pisses players off the most: Locking content behind paywalls and feeling like the items being upsold are necessary. Specifically, as far as paywalls go, ones which require real world money. If you want to use in game currency to halt a player’s progression, we know this doesn’t piss them off. Countless games have done it without a problem. But real world pay walls piss players off more than anything. For the items being upsold they must not be necessary. By this, I mean the player must not believe they are necessary to progress. In Angry Birds 2 there was more than once where I felt I required an item in order to beat the level. This is the worst thing you can do to a player. It ejects them from the immersion and the fun of the experience. It’s up to the Designers to make sure the gameplay feels balanced so the items being upsold enhance the gameplay or simply speed it up. We don’t want players to think it is necessary. (Clash of Clans does this expertly with speeding up building construction) And with that I’m stepping off my soap box and continuing on with this analysis.

The “Eh, that could be better”:

·      The music: Now, the music is not actually bad. It’s charming like the rest of the game. The issue here comes from working on a mobile device. Because they chose not to use a loader (You know how when you boot up Angry Birds 2 it takes a few minutes to download new assets from the internet? Yeah, that.), they have a limited amount of memory to work with. This doesn’t allow the designers to have as many options. Let me elaborate, in Rayman Legends (2013), in the music levels the player’s jump and attacks are timed with the beat of the music. (I can try to explain it all day but it will be better if I show you:

And while I understand it is almost definitely a different team, other people might not. Due to them making the game for mobile, they have a very limited amount of memory to work with (#mobileDeveloperProblems), or may not have the resources to do it. So they are restricted to using the same five songs over and over again and can’t pull off precision experiences like the one in the video.

Side note: At this time, I would like to acknowledge that it was obviously not the chosen direction to go with due to multiple reasons. And I completely respect that. The game is fantastic already as it is. I’m just saying, I think, it could have been even cooler. People who have not experienced Rayman Legends won’t have this problem because they wont know this exists. But I know this amazing experience exists and I wish they could do something on that level.

Side SIDE note: I do give them credit for not using a loader. It gets the player in and out of the game much faster. It makes the game feel smoother and I love not having to wait 2 minutes to start playing. This, aside from the fact that it is a really solid game, contributes to me hopping in so often.

Hopefully, I got you thinking about how to hide upsells and how to make players feel like nobody is attempting to make any money off of them, even though we are. I know they aren’t glamorous topics, but as mobile developers we have to use them. So why not use them in a way which doesn’t annoy players and makes sure they have as much fun as possible, while we still profit.

Rayman Fiesta Run is a fantastic runner with a lot of charm. The levels are incredibly clever and I suggest you try some of them out for yourself. I would love to discuss them with you in the comments if you’ll join me. This post almost was a look into a few levels and how they taught the player skills just by putting new obstacles in their way. But the hidden upsell really stood out to me. Maybe, if I have a little more time, I’ll do a bonus post this week going over the first level. We’ll see.

Next week we’ll be trying something completely different, I’m going to be getting back out there and showing off a prototype. I created a paper prototype a few weeks back and figured it might be fun to bring it into the digital world. I look forward to sharing that with you.

I’ll see you guys next week,

Scott

If you like my work and want to support my caffeine addiction, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi.

Two Dots, Too Charming.

Two Dots is an excellent mobile game, from the easily understood gameplay, to the sights and sounds within the game. My goal for this post is to break the game down. What are the core mechanics? How do they use the free to play model? What makes it so charming? What can we learn from this game?

How it works:

·      Basics: Players connect two or more dots of the same color to remove them from the board (Vertical/horizontal only)

o   Typically 4 colors

·      Squares: If players create a box (Connect 4 squares and close the connection) it removes all of the same colored dots from the board

·      Bombs: If players create a larger box, with other color dots inside the box, all of the dots which share the same colors as the connected dots are removed from the board. Any dots inside the box will destroy other dots around them after the connected colored dots are removed.

Every level is based on these mechanics. The beauty of this is they found additional ways to play with these. In each world a new challenge is introduced. In world 1 the players simply need to connect a certain amount of each colored dot. In world 2 we are introduced to anchors, something I’ve seen in match 3s like Frozen Freefall, in which players must get specific “Anchor” dots to the bottom of the board to eliminate them. This keeps the gameplay feeling fresh and interesting. Then, right before the player is bored of the anchor feature, they change it up. In world 3 they introduce the “Ice”. Here, players will have to connect dots behind the ice plates to do damage to them. Three connections behind each ice pane will cause them to shatter. The player will have to clear the board of ice panes to beat these levels. Like I mentioned, every world introduces something new to challenge the player.

The free to play:

We see the common five lives restriction in Two Dots. (A life recharges every 20 minutes or, for 99 cents, the player can recharge them immediately.) There is the Facebook connection, which shows the player where their friends are and what they scored before and after they finish a level. But the two fresh ideas I want to focus on are their take on daily rewards and giving the player an upsell for a power up before the level starts.

Daily rewards:

From my experience, I’ve seen two types of daily rewards fairly commonly. First there is the gem rewards, like in Angry Birds 2, where everyday the player plays they are given a miniscule amount of gems. These add up over time, but players can’t do anything with them for a long time because everything is so expensive. (In Angry Birds 2 this was two or three gems. This didn’t help much when a continue or a power up would cost 60 gems or so.) So I never ended up getting any enjoyment from the gems they gave me. I stopped playing long before I saved up enough.

The other style of daily rewards are the building rewards. (We used this frequently at JumpStart.) A player would gain a reward when they entered the game for the first time that day, and if they entered the game on the following day they would get an even better reward. (This stacked for a week and then would reset.) The idea here is to get the player to return day after day to get better and better rewards. Typically, these were rewards like “20 Gold” or some minor item, which wouldn’t be immediately useful to the player. They would still have to save up the gold or spend real money to get enough to buy something useful. Some of the later rewards were more useful but only in specific situations.

Side note: School of Dragons has always grown at an alarming rate. As such, the talented developers have caught this issue and seem to have adjusted it since. The items now are much more useful to most players, but they still have the issue of not always being useful to all players. This is because the game is so large. It is impossible to predict what everyone would want. The only things useful across the board are gems and gold. But they cannot give out too many of those or they risk breaking the economy. I use School of Dragons only as an example of a different style of daily rewards, the building style. In a smaller game, like Two Dots, this style would be easier to balance and give out rewards everyone would use.

Two Dots gives the player a random power up. Whether that’s extra lives or a boost, the daily reward is always immediately useful. This almost always pushes me to use it. Also I’m more liberal in my use of boosts because I know there is a good chance I will be getting more. So what’s hurting Angry Birds and School of Dragons? The saving up. While logically this seems like it would continue to engage players over a longer period of time because they are saving for something, we live in a world where no one (aside from the wise or elderly) saves. Especially in mobile games. Everything is about instant gratification. (And less than 10-minute play sessions) So while players need to learn to save, they will enjoy the game more if they get that instant usable reward.

Power Up Upsell:

Last week we talked about Angry Birds 2 and the issue players are having with upsells, the primary issue being with the gameplay itself. Two Dots does an excellent job of upselling power ups to players but doesn’t change a whole lot from Angry Bird’s upsell system. The one big difference is where the upsell with a video ad appears. In Angry Birds 2, these video upsells appeared only after the player lost or in the daily reward for a double reward. In Two Dots, it still has the daily reward video ad upsell, but they moved the location of the second video ad upsell. They have it attached to the pre-game screen. When a player watches it, they get a free boost power up. And you know what? I watch it every chance I get. I actually look forward to them. I think why I look forward to it so much (where as I just skip the Angry Birds post failure upsell ad videos) is because I know it will help. I know I will start off stronger and have a better chance to win because of it. Where as in Angry Birds 2, (Since it only pays out one random bird, unfortunately, after I’ve lost) it only feels helpful in very specific situations. And even then it has to give the the bird I need. (Due to the randomness, it doesn’t usually happen)

Side note: So how can Angry Birds 2 learn from this? Add a video upsell for the power ups in the beginning, then they can pay out the player a random power up to use in the level they are about to play. I guarantee this will have almost everyone watching their upsell video ads every chance they get.

The Challenge & Charm:

Two Dots holds the challenge of a basic match 3 game, where players will have to see how removing specific dots will effect the rest of the board. Due to removing the timer, the player has a much more zen experience. This allows players to have the time to really look around and try to figure out the best move.

Let’s take a look at how these puzzles work:

Here we have two anchors which we need to drop out of the bottom of the level. So I ask you, “What is your gut reaction?”

By just glancing at this you might think eliminating the most dots below the anchors as quickly as you can might be the best option, but it’s not. If we do this, it will increase the level’s difficulty, and ruin our chances of beating it. Instead let’s change our thinking.

If we examine our situation, we can see that ideally we need to get these two greens next to each other. This way we can eliminate them both and clear the anchor on the left while lowering the right anchor as well. We need to lower the right green dot by two.

Luckily, if we remove these two purple dots, we can get our greens lined up and win the level. This works out perfectly because if we are thinking a couple moves ahead, we can see the purple above the right green and the purple below the two we will be removing, will line up.

Now our greens are lined up.

While tempting, the player must remember that they are playing the long game. And as such, they should avoid removing these two purples at this moment because it will ruin our chances at beating the level. Remember, it isn’t about moving your anchor to the bottom as quickly as possible, because there is no timer. It is about doing it in the least amount of moves possible.

Our true goal, to ensure our victory, is getting these purples and blues together.

Due to our previous moves, the left green is surrounded by blues, which we can connect upon removing the greens to drop that anchor. The right green is surrounded by purples which we can do the same with to drop the right anchor. Upon doing so, we have ensured our victory of this level.

All we need to do at this point is connect the blues and the purples to drop our last two anchors.

Sweet victory is ours!

I really enjoy this style of thinking ahead. This creates layers of gameplay which makes each level fun and challenging. And with each world’s mechanical twist, strategizing and thinking ahead becomes a necessity. Also, while in Angry Birds 2 it was nearly impossible to think ahead and strategize, here we can see it is very possible. You might ask, “Don’t they both have random levels?” Ah! Not quite! Here are two screen shots from the exact same level played one right after the other. (I started one up, lost, then restarted the level)

We can see some dots are changed. But some stay consistent! The player is able to have a similar opening move every time. And because they will never run out of moves with a certain color, they aren’t forced to hold back, thus the randomness is not as frustrating. Additionally, this style of gameplay gives the player enough variety to make them believe that if they lost they might have been able to do something different. Perhaps they missed something. That thought is incredibly important because it helps players to not feel shoehorned into purchasing what they are upsold if they want to win.

The charm comes from everything else in the game. The world theming matching the mechanics for one:

Anchor mechanic in level? Boom! Ocean World.

Ice mechanic in level? Boom! Mountain peak world.

This extends across the music and the menu animations as well. I think the best way to get the feeling across is this image:

When a player reaches a new world, they are prompted to share their status on social media. This is the image it posts. “Join me in the ocean depths! Playtwo.do/ts #TwoDots” is the text that posts with it. It doesn’t feel overbearing or “HEY! WATER MY CROPS!!” “Join me in the ocean depths!” It’s different. It’s not in your face demanding your attention. In fact, It’s subtle, with a beautiful piece of art. Something I might actually want to share. This actually draws my attention on it’s own. It makes it sound like a friend is merely suggesting that we should go on an adventure together.

In order to have an enjoyable puzzle game, players need to have all the pieces available to them. Without all the pieces, they just get frustrated and rightfully so. Last week, we looked into Angry Birds 2, and comparing it to this week’s look at Two Dots, we can see how one arguably is a better puzzle game than the other. This is simply achieved by withholding minimal amounts of data (what dots will fall down next) from the player, thus they get less frustrated.

I have learned a lot via comparing these two games, and I hope you have as well. Next week we will be looking into Rayman Fiesta Run. Being a fan of the Rayman Legends music levels, I’m pretty excited. Thank you for sticking around through the entire post.

I’ll see you guys next week

Scott

If you like my work and want to support my caffeine addiction, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi.