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?
• Real-life simulation
• Fun 1 time – Fun 1000 times
• Few steps (4-6 max)
• PvP or Trading element
• Smart-Depth
• Good Closure (session
management)
10. Smart-Depth
An extra layer ON the core
game loop that adds strategy
and more „game‟
- Placing Units More with Thought
- Placing buildings optimally (=defenses)
- Planning optimal builder assignment
11. Common loop mistakes
• Object disappears at the end
• User does not get in-game money
from the Core loop -> focus else
• Too complex/imaginary
• Slow animations -> not responsive
• Several Game Loops
• 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
“Supercell‟s two games are now
played by 8.5 million people every
day, who play the games 10
times per day on average.”
APRIL 17, 2013
20. #3: Made for Touch
• Touch Requires a
different UI than desktop
• Still too much point and
click
• Users expect to be able
to pinch & swipe
• No compromises
25. #4: The “WoW”
• Deliver NEW Emotion
• Sets you apart from the
800000 other apps
• Makes you memorable
• Creates best virality: real
word of mouth.
• Can be small details
33. #5: Progression planning
Basic Check-List
• First session progression
• Screenshot after first session
• 1 week objective defining
• The 6 month player “art test”
• The “tile test” calculation
• Complexity progression
• Balancing, balancing, balancing
Tightly related to monetization & LTV
34. Unlock Features Progressively
• Un-lock new features or
resources at 3 days, 1 week,
1 month, 2 months of play
• Don’t have new players
overwhelmed
• High-level players bulk of
revenue, the new stuff will
increase their retention
49. #8: Plan for Events
• Western publishers suck –
Asia Rules!
• Events critical for long-term
• Events are social
• Events drive monetization
• Kings of this in Asia
50. Puzzle & Dragons events
• Game Feels fresh
• Special enemies that
require special units to beat
• Bosses
• Special Item Drops
• Themes
Continue to
monetize high
LTV players
53. “I think game
design is the
new MBA”
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
“The 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?‟
KRISTIAN SEGERSTRÅLE 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