Presentation on Design Patterns for Mobile and Tablet games presented in July 2013 at ChinaJoy in Shanghai by Henric Suuronen, President & Co-Founder at Nonstop Games
9. Good Game Loop?
โข Real-life simulation
โข Fun 1 time โ Fun 1000 times
โข Few steps (4-6 max)
โข PvP or Trading element
โข Smart-Depth
โข Good Closure (session
management)
10. Smart-Depth
An extra layer ON the core
game loop that adds strategy
and more โgameโ
- Placing Units More with Thought
- Placing buildings optimally (=defenses)
- Planning optimal builder assignment
11. Common loop mistakes
โข Object disappears at the end
โข User does not get in-game money
from the Core loop -> focus else
โข Too complex/imaginary
โข Slow animations -> not responsive
โข Several Game Loops
โข Too simple
14. #2: Session Design
Game should encourage frequent short sessions but also
allow longer sessions
>10 10 min sessions per day
What do you do?
Can you enjoy game for
longer sessions?
15. Frequent Session Support
โSupercellโs two games are now
played by 8.5 million people every
day, who play the games 10
times per day on average.โ
APRIL 17, 2013
20. #3: Made for Touch
โข Touch Requires a
different UI than desktop
โข Still too much point and
click
โข Users expect to be able
to pinch & swipe
โข No compromises
25. #4: The โWoWโ
โข Deliver NEW Emotion
โข Sets you apart from the
800000 other apps
โข Makes you memorable
โข Creates best virality: real
word of mouth.
โข Can be small details
33. #5: Progression planning
Basic Check-List
โข First session progression
โข Screenshot after first session
โข 1 week objective defining
โข The 6 month player โart testโ
โข The โtile testโ calculation
โข Complexity progression
โข Balancing, balancing, balancing
Tightly related to monetization & LTV
34. Unlock Features Progressively
โข Un-lock new features or
resources at 3 days, 1 week,
1 month, 2 months of play
โข Donโt have new players
overwhelmed
โข High-level players bulk of
revenue, the new stuff will
increase their retention
37. #6: Monetization Design
โข When doing F2P you must
know math
โข No money cap
โข Console Companies clueless
โข Can you spend >$5000?
โข LTV importance
43. #7: Real Social Patterns
PvP, Co-op
UGC
Trading
Chatting
Forming Alliances
Sending resources
Helping newbies
44. Social is often time sensitive
Great for mobile & Push Notif.
PvP
Fantasy Sports
Trading
Bidding
45. Great Social Casino
โข Most social casino
โข Player Profiles
โข Gifting (real money)
โข Messaging
โข Status
โข โFlirtingโ
46. Great Active Chat
โข Social Glue
โข Very active
โข Social feeling
โข Means of
communication
โข Strategies,
resources sending
โข Make new friends
49. #8: Plan for Events
โข Western publishers suck โ
Asia Rules!
โข Events critical for long-term
โข Events are social
โข Events drive monetization
โข Kings of this in Asia
50. Puzzle & Dragons events
โข Game Feels fresh
โข Special enemies that
require special units to beat
โข Bosses
โข Special Item Drops
โข Themes
Continue to
monetize high
LTV players
53. โI think game
design is the
new MBAโ
Bing Gordon
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-07-
23-game-industry-legends-bing-gordon
Great Times for Game Design
54. Great Times for Game Design
โThe San Francisco school of making
games", where "you can optimise your
way to everything: design doesn't
matter, you can test everything and
iterate your way to the end"
"Sure, they (Supercell) track analytics,
but they make decisions based on
what feels right from a design
perspective. Instead of analysing
things to death, they step back and
say 'how do we make this a more-fun
game?โ
KRISTIAN SEGERSTRร LE 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2
013/may/30/supercell-kristian-segerstrale-free-to-
play-games
Things we do in real-life is easy to understand: Shopping, Restaurants, Real Estate, Norturing (babies, animals)Avoid too long animations that take too much time, will make the game loop lose it fun in the long-run(items/staffing/time speed up)Smart-depth and Closure are some of the key things in a killer game loops so I will go into depth of thsoe next.
Origanally posted on insidesocialgames guest blog-post
While Millionaire City was a successful title Fishville was not that much? What went wrong?Objects disappear in: Fishville, Happy Hospital, Safari KingdomNo money: un-released wooga production / MMA pro fighter Too complex -> Hotel CitySlow animations -> Happy Hospital, Pirates AhoySeveral Loops -> MMA Pro Fighter, Pirates AhoyYou can and should have s simple game loop but then you must add smart-depth on it