Breaking the Habit [losing retained players]

How long does it take for a retained user, someone who has been playing for weeks or even months to disappear for good?  The answer may surprise you….  It’s only three days.  That’s right all it takes is a long weekend where your loyal player unplugs and enjoys not having to collect coins, shake trees or watch timers.  Habit is a powerful thing and the mechanics developers rely on to create a sense of obligation weigh heavily on players. Taking what may be intended to be just a short break could, in actuality, become a welcome change of pace and subsequently never return.

Losing paying players is a much more serious problem for developers. In general the rule

The Dark Arts of Monetization

The large fear for developers is losing players due to over exposing ads but what about In-App Purchases (IAP) that lead to churn?  I’ll give you several examples of what to avoid and best practices to maximize return on investment (ROI).  Just remember “You can shear a sheep many times but you can skin him only once.”

I use the term “dark monetization” practices meaning two things.  The first being that they actually hurt lifetime value (LTV) despite showing an uptick in metrics because players quit earlier than they naturally would have.  The second reason is because they are confusing or misleading which leaves a bad taste in the mouths of your players.

Bad monetization practices:

Super Cell Clash Royale lowers prices

The second major update on Clash Royale after opening its doors worldwide came yesterday.

One of the changes of note is the pricing of items in their shop.  The shop sell 3 different cards per day (6 on Sunday) of different rarity ranging up to the most expensive which is “epic”.  You can buy a limited multiple copies of the same card (used to level them up) with prices that previously escalated exponentially and now there is a linear price increase.  

Let’s take a look at the before and after:

We have to assume Supercell tested this

iOS Review: Tekken Card Tournament

I have a real love/hate relationship with this game. I want to spend money but it would be like throwing a penny down a well.

Breaking the top 10 for iPad free last week in the United States and number 1 in dozens of other countries, Tekken Card Tournament has entered the card collecting arena. (Appannie) Following in the footsteps of games such as Rage of Bahamut, it combines simple Rock, Paper, Scissors strategy game with addictive (and expensive) card collecting mechanics.  It leverages the strong IP and brand recognition of 8 classic Tekken Characters which encourage players to buy in and promises a real world tie into physical cards in summer 2013 on its iTunes page.  The graphics are 3D and would make a great stepping stone along the way to creating an actual Tekken fighting game, which many consumers are eagerly awaiting.  There are strong monetization features in this game such as multi-day events, 190 cards to collect (at as much as $6 for 5 random cards) and energy refills at $0.25 per match.

iOS Review: Sonic Dash

Sonic Dash stands out with its clean UI, stellar graphics and great first time user experience. Possibly the best endless runner right now as Sega Mobile continues its strong release of titles in the past 6 months with Sonic Dash.  It’s nice to see a large studio leveraging great IP with smart fremium design, they must have a strong team.  There is a great mission system in this game which rewards players with premium currency and increased scoring potential, a nice balance of reward and game play value.  However, current missions need to be put in the players face more often because they currently only show up on the pause menu or when players click on an icon of a trophy, which most players wouldn’t associate with missions. Another stand out feature is the monetization system,

iOS Review: Nimble Quest

Another great title coming from a celebrated company in the industry, NimbleBit LLC builds its products around solid game design. Nimble Quest is a fun twist on the classic Atari title Snake. The product stands on its own by adding progression into the gameplay and all the expected freemium features. Featured in N&N for the week of March 28th (during the 2013 GDC) they topped the charts at #7 overall in combination with cross promoting traffic from their other titles and paid acquisition. My favorite features of this title are posting replays of levels and competing in the Arena. They add a real reason for players to act socially (share or challenge/invite friends) and make the arena a very powerful monetization tool.