Author: admin@hashbyte

Nowadays, mobile games have become an addiction to people of all age groups. And are ready to leave their office and household work to play the mobile game. Among the mobile games, there are few games that have endless levels and yet players never give up on the game.

What makes them play a simple game? How come people not bored with endless games? What is engaging in the game, that makes the players addicted to it?

Game Techniques That Make The Game Obsessive

Let us take the example of the popular Candy Crush Saga and find out the techniques they use to engage and attract the players. 

The Stockholm based company, King created the Candy Crush Saga that has millions of dedicated players. According to a survey taken among 1000 players, 28% play during their working hours, 32% of them ignored their family and friends to play the game, while 10% of the players got into arguments while playing, and 30% of the players have reported that they are addicted to the game. 

While there are many entertaining games available out there, what makes this game so addictive?

The answer to this question is quite simple. King has implemented fundamental game mechanics into their game, and those mechanics put together derives an incredible game that earns over a million dollars every day through the in-app purchases.

1. It Makes You Want More

The starting levels of the game are easy to play, and the players can effortlessly gain three stars for crashing and matching the candies. The players have five lives to crush the candies. If they are unable to complete the task within the given lives, they have to wait for 30mins to resume the game. And impatient players pay to play the game.

The players can easily cross the first 10 to 15 levels on their first try with three stars. The players feel that it is an easy game they are destined to play. They continue to play to see how far they can go without losing their lives. To encourage the players to continue the game, the players were given new cool ways to crush the candies, special moves, boosters that provide extra moves.

In further levels, the players will pay for freebies. But in the initial stages, they are offered with few boosters and extras. This makes the players addicted to the game and surprisingly they would have reached the 35th level by this time.

2. It Rewards Your Progress

Players are excited every time they complete a level. As mentioned earlier. The players gain three stars and the scores are based on the points received by them. But players do not know that these are default reward points built in the game.

The obvious fact is, the players can unlock and proceed to the next level even when they get one star. The next level is yet another set of the puzzle and the rewards are the progression to the next level.

The players are aware of the further levels using the map, which shows the train track that passes through the levels. Another game technique is, players should not be stuck in a particular level more than the requisite time. So, as a Candy crush player, you would have seen the glowing hints that appear on the screen if you stumble with the next move. The main objective of the game is not to make the players wait for a long time.

3. It is Creative And Empathetic

If you have noticed the Candy Crush game, no two boards would have been similar. At every level, the boards are arranged in random orders. This uniqueness enables the players to use their creativity to crush the candies in their style.

And when players crush a cascade of candies, they are appreciated by words like, ‘Sweet!’, ‘Tasty!’, ‘Delicious!’ and so on. These positive words are one of the reasons for the players to become addicted to the game. 

Also, the game uses a small tutorial before the beginning of the game to ensure the players are aware of how to solve the puzzle. This technique empowers the players the confidence to proceed with the game. Certainly, the game is split into various episodes, and each episode has fifteen levels. Just like the traditional video game, the final level is the toughest level and completing this level leads to the next episode. This thrusts the players to play the game on and on.

4. It Offers Virtual Goods

The game possesses few special candies called charms that have special features and can be used up to three times once activated. Though the cost of the special candies ranges from twenty-five to fifty dollars, players are not worried to purchase it, as it can be used throughout the game. 

At the start of the game, the boosters and charms that are purchased by the players are shown. The ones that are not purchased are faded out, but the entire set of charms and boosters are displayed on the screen. This tempts the players to purchase the left out ones form the Collection set.

5. It is A Social Game

Most of the game wants the players to Invite friends from social media. Candy crush also allows its players to interact with their friends and takes it to the next level. The game allows its players to send a request for free items to their friends.

Therefore, if the player wants to unlock a new episode, they can either get help from their friends or they can pay ninety-nine cents. The game has a built-in mechanism to send their friend’s request and gain extra lives or unlock an episode.

Conclusion

We have now come across different game mechanics used by King to create the most addictive and entertaining game. The main object of this blog is to help the game developers learn the dynamics and game design of this famous game so that they can create something unique and productive in Gamification. 

For the past few years, mobile app development has reigned a quality source of revenue and game apps weight more. Most of the users under the age group of 18 to 35 download and play the gaming apps. On average the gamers spend more than 9 hours playing, which is 25 percent more than the previous year. The exciting fact about gaming is that gamers wish to become professional gamers and are ready to leave their jobs.

This shows that mobile game apps have more influence on changing the global game market.

Mobile Technology Leads To The Development of  Mobile Games

More than three billion users all over the world own a mobile device. Thus, smartphones more accessible and advanced over the past few years. The growth of mobile technology has been the base of the mobile game app’s success. Certain improvements like high-quality graphics, impressive processing speed, and unlimited data plans pave way for engaging gameplay.

Apart from attracting a new user base, the fame of the gaming industry has attracted the content creators, game influencers, the ad-dollars from brands that are trying to reach the global users, and new game franchises.

Game Market Revenue

According to the report published on the Global games market in 2018, the overall revenue gained has increased up to +13.3% than its previous year. With 25.5 percent mobile game segment increased to $70.3 billion, console game segment by 4.1% with $34.6 billion, and PC game segment by 1.6% with $32.9 billion. Smartphone games generated 41% of the revenue in the mobile game segment and 10% by tablet games.

This strategic growth includes the effusion of games in the prominent market, new genres of games overriding the traditional style, and developers building pre-eminent games. Based on a report from 2018, more than 2.3 billion gamers spent around $137.9 billion on games. This is about sixteen billion dollars more than the previous year. Mobile gaming is the fastest-growing segment for the following 10 years with an increase in the revenue of seventy billion dollars. Mobile phones generate 80% of the game revenue, while 20% comes from tablet devices.

Game Development Conference 2019- Google Mobile Developer Day

Google shared the annual analysis report, where the mobile game apps will account $180 billion of the revenues by 2021

To support game development, Google is planning to support and share its best practices to help the gaming business improve on the Android platform. The technology company is investing in tools that will enable the game development company to have an insight into what is taking place on the device.

Also, a team will address the feedback on the multiplayer experience, high-quality graphics, development process, and more. They have even introduced new tools and updates that will improve monetization and game discovery on Google Play.

Overview of the Updates

1. Android App Bundles

More than 60 thousand games and apps on the Play Store use the App Bundle format to publish the games and apps that support Cocos Creator, Android Studio, and Unity. This app bundle makes use of the Dynamic delivery to deliver optimized and smaller APK file that has of only the necessary resources required for a particular device.

They have also increased the size to 150MB for the APKs generated from App bundles, and have increased the threshold for large download user warnings on the Play Store to enhance the quality gaming experience and reflect on improved devices.

2. Pre-registration

The game development companies can set up a pre-registration in the Google Play console. By doing so, the company can instantly start marketing their games even before its launch. All the users of the pre-registration campaign will receive a notification at launch, which will help in increasing the installs from day one.

3. Instant Google Play

For the past 6 months, gaining adoption has increased because of the Google Play Instant, where we can see 5 times the growth in instant sessions and 3 times the growth in instant games. Tapping on the ‘Try Now’ button will direct the users to instantly experience the demo without installing the game. Also, it is possible to build with Unity and Cocos plug-ins

4. Expect No Changes for A Decade In The Gaming World

Based on the forecast for Global Game Market, consumers will spend $180.1 billion on games by the year 2021, with an increase of 11%  between 2012 and 2021. To uphold and maintain the increased growth rate for a decade is truly remarkable.

Within a decade, the gaming industry has seen a bang on growth from being a small segment to a significant double-digit billion-dollar growth. However, this exceptional growth has not affected the revenue generation of the console and PC gaming industry. In the years to come, it is definite that the mobile game industry will exceed the overall game market, with 59% revenue generation.

We should not neglect the fact that the console and PC game market have also shown steady growth. According to this year’s report, PC games will generate 22% of the market while console games will generate 24% revenue.

5. Console and PC Has A Bright Future

The console segment grows in the market as publishers improve the in-game spending possibilities and retaining the revenue point. Furthermore, esports and live streaming will enhance the console segment by 2021. This segment will grow by 4.1% with $39.0 billion.

While the Boxed/Downloaded PC games will grow +4.2% and generate $32.3 billion in 2021. The PC games increase their growth with esports and competitive play based on many different reasons. In recent years, the pay to play PC games has declined and has reduced the pressure faced by the segment towards the revenue generation. As popular games are operating with potential monetization, no new games can replace them.

Growth Of Mobile Gaming Influence The Marketers

All marketers, advertisers, and brands have understood the ubiquity of mobile devices and the dominance of mobile gaming are the trends of the global gaming industry. Most of the brands are aware that the viability of advertising the gaming app users in many different ways, like branded integrations, levels, custom characters, and playable brand ads.

Due to the saturation and competition in the mobile gaming market, most of the elite gaming brands are becoming influencer marketing to reach, create awareness, and dive download. The large user base of the mobile gaming apps offers the advertisers with loads of opportunity to understand the best possible ways to reach the distinct and varied demographics and help them in crafting a potential influence marketing strategy.

Therefore, mobile game development companies have a bright future because of market demand and in-game purchases. Also, gamers can spend on monetary, as they obtain rewards. The growth of the mobile gaming industry benefits both the developers and the audience.