REB8T DIGITAL STUDIO

Most game mechanics in marketing don't work. But the problem isn't with the tool, but with how it's being used In a new article on Adindex, our game director, Arthur Ryabushenko — Explains how to use game mechanics to make them useful — Discusses how to manage user behavior in gamification and business games — Shows what any game consists of — Provides a practical checklist for creating business games We're showing you the checklist right away, but to use it successfully, we recommend that you read the article first. Link to the article in the comments. The article is written in Russian

Where does gamification break down? The most common gamification problem for business is with rewards. They can be divided into 3 types. 1. Lack of a reward in the cycle. In this case, the user has a question: "Why should I try and log in every day if a random person will still take the prize?"  When we play, we subconsciously want to get something for it. In this example, even if there is a reward in the simple game cycle: log in and get coins, the purpose of logging in every day is lost. The user has no reason to keep a streak, as the reward for the complex cycle, such as a super prize like an iPhone, is randomly awarded, regardless of whether they have logged in for 100 days in a row or clicked on the app icon once. 2. A bad reward in a loop. One example is the "Wheel of Fortune," which is often found on marketplaces. In theory, it should be enjoyable, but in practice, it often becomes a tool of torture. We are given coins for our daily streaks, and we find ourselves logging into the app for the hundredth time to click on a button and watch the same animation for an unnecessary promo code. When the system prevents us from withdrawing 100 coins at once and receiving 10 prizes instantly, it ceases to be a game and becomes a low-paying job. For example, you dropped a promo code for power tools, and you will not use them, because you do not need power tools. Yes, it is random, a game of luck, but when this happens 5, 10, 20 times in a row, you stop perceiving it as a reward, and you start perceiving it as its absence.  Comparison of rewards in the Wheel of Fortune from the user and product perspective Comparison of rewards in the Wheel of Fortune from the user and product perspective In addition, in this mechanic, prizes are often not related to the action. While fintech may reward users with stocks on their investment accounts, which aligns with their goals and objectives and encourages them to use the main app's features, marketplaces that frequently use the "Wheel of Fortune" do not consider the user's goals and objectives. 3. Complete devaluation of the reward. Developers often forget why achievements are necessary in the first place, and start giving them out just for existing. If the reward doesn't provide a real advantage or at least aesthetic pleasure, it becomes digital garbage. When aggressive "blackmail" with the loss of a streak is added to this, gamification completely breaks down. Instead of healthy engagement, you get toxic attachment: You don't log in to the service because you like it, but because you're afraid that your "300-day counter" will reset and you'll be attacked by a crazy mascot. There's a lot of blackmail, but no rewards for completing streaks. Eventually, the user realizes, "Why am I even doing this?" At that moment, the game dies, leaving only frustration and a desire to uninstall the app.

An investment adventure that attracted 60% of non-investors 😯 "In Search of Stocks 2" is a pixel hunting quest for Alfa-Investments in a Mesoamerican style. To make the levels accessible to a wide audience, the illustrations combine the mythology of Mesoamerica with pop culture We drew inspiration from everything from "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Big Short" to "Treasure Island" and "Aladdin." 40 levels / 20 unique illustrations / 5 color palettes / 5 patterns can already be viewed on Behance and Dprofile, link in comments.

Mechanics: What does the player do every second? Mechanics are what the player does in the game to achieve a goal: connecting elements, controlling a character, or building a city. They answer the basic question: "What does the player do every second when your project is open?" Mechanics are a set of actions. It's important not to confuse mechanics with a genre. A shooter is a genre. Walking, running, jumping, turning the camera, shooting, and throwing grenades are all separate mechanics that make up a genre. ➡️ Mechanics in games are divided into two levels that work on different time scales Main mechanics Answering the question "what is the player doing now". Lives in a short cycle: action → feedback → adjustment. The basic mechanics keep attention within a single session and are responsible for instant engagement. Meta-mechanics It answers the question "why is the player doing all this?" but in the long run. Meta is not necessary to complete the game, but it motivates you to come back again and again. Without meta-mechanics, the game "ends" after the first session. The boundaries between basic and meta-mechanics are not rigid. Collecting can be both the main action and a background motivator, depending on the specific game's objectives. The cards feature mechanics and entire genres that are commonly found as the foundation and meta. ➡️ Good games combine both levels of mechanics. Examples: Hexa Sort: arranging pieces on the board (main) + collecting cards (meta). Gardenscapes: Match-3 levels (main) + garden repair (meta). In both cases, the main mechanic provides instant gratification, while the meta mechanic answers the question of "why would I come back tomorrow?" ➡️ What makes the mechanic interesting? Ease of entry. Players quickly understand what to do without extensive training. If it's unclear within the first 30 seconds, players tend to leave. A space for mastery. Over time, you can get better at playing — through skill, not just luck. This is what makes you come back. Clear feedback. The game immediately shows the result of an action — through sound, animation, or state change. Without feedback, the mechanic feels "dead". Balance of risk and reward. There is a choice between a safe path and a risky one, and it's up to the player to decide which path to take. ➡️ How to choose a mechanic There are several practical filters for choosing a mechanic: Audience. Age, habits, and willingness to understand complex rules. Children and the elderly prefer simple mechanics. Young and adult players can choose more complex mechanics. Session time. How much time does the player have for a single game session? Hyper-casual games are designed for 2-3 minutes, while RPG games can last for hours. Compatibility with other elements. A complex 4X won't fly in a browser or messenger, and it's strange to make a game on a console where the only action is pressing a single button on a timer.

Aesthetics: How to make a player fall in love from the first screen Aesthetics is how the game looks, sounds, and feels. It is often perceived as cosmetics. In reality, aesthetics is on the same level as mechanics, context, and technology. Choosing the wrong style or sound can kill an interesting gameplay, and the player will close the game after 5 seconds without even reaching the gameplay. ➡️ Aesthetics functions: Draws attention to the game — this is the first thing the player sees before the start. It makes the game world whole, increasing the value of in-game objects and events. It works as a constant small reward — each new screen or character feels like a pleasant discovery. Smooths out the rough edges of game design and technology: players are more willing to forgive mistakes for beautiful games. Our task is not only to make it beautiful, but also to build the aesthetics in such a way that it solves the business task, is understandable to the audience, and does not conflict with mechanics and technology. ➡️ The visual part is the foundation of the first impression. The visual part is the first thing we see in a game. We look at the characters, the environment, the interface, the animations, and the effects, and in seconds we can tell whether we like it or not.  We have described the main visual directions in the cards. ➡️ Sound: Atmosphere and Navigation The sound in the game works on two levels: The first is atmospheric. Ambient, musical themes, emotional accents when winning or receiving a reward. They glue the visuals and mechanics together. Example - Patapon: the player rhythmically pressed the buttons, playing a march for the squad, and the sound was responsible for the movement and attacks of the characters. Made a mistake in the rhythm - the attack did not pass. The second level is the sounds of the interface and actions. Clicks, mistakes, getting points, strikes. The goal is to be readable and unambiguous. The player should be able to understand from the sound whether they have performed an action correctly or not. If there are no such sounds or they are chosen randomly, it becomes more difficult for the player to navigate, and the mechanics become less cohesive. ➡️ UX/UI as the glue of aesthetics The interface is the final but crucial layer of aesthetics. Buttons, progress bars, reward indicators, and victory screens are all part of the game world. If the interface stands out from the overall visual, the world begins to crumble during gameplay. The ideal situation is when the narrative, setting, and UI style are all aligned. In good mobile projects, even the "Buy" button looks like a part of the world, rather than an inserted advertising banner.

What is technology in games? We continue to understand the 4 elements of the game. Today - Technology Technology determines how exactly the player interacts with the world: what actions are possible, what restrictions are imposed, and how comfortable the game is on different devices. Without a well-thought-out technology, even a cool context and mechanics will fall apart - the player will not be able to play as intended. In Jenga, technology is wooden blocks and a table. In Among Us - screen, clicks/touch input device, voice chat. Among the four elements of the tetrad (technology, history, aesthetics and mechanics), technology is the most dynamic, the most changeable and the most unpredictable. Because of the desire for novelty and because of the attractiveness of new technologies, it is easy to get carried away by the possibilities and forget that the main goal is to create good games, so you have to be careful with technology. Technology is It sets limits in which you need to think about everything else. There may also be situations where technology becomes an inspiration for something new: the emergence of the internet and the network led to the emergence of MMORPG as a separate genre. ➡️ When to choose a technology ⬅️ 1. At the very beginning. In this case, the gameplay will be based on the capabilities and limitations of the technology, and if these are not taken into account, the result will be that nothing will work. 2. At the end. If the gameplay is the starting point, the goal is to find a technology that can be used to implement it. For example, a 4X strategy is almost impossible on a phone, and playing match-3 on a PS5 is pretty pointless. ➡️ 2 categories of technology ⬅️ Fundamental – create a new experience. These are input and output devices, where it is better to use a keyboard and mouse, and where a gamepad. For Match-3, a smartphone screen is enough, for strategies, a monitor is needed. Decorative – slightly improve the existing experience. Sound effects, graphics tools like Ray tracing. If we're talking about a phone, the basics are the touchscreen and gyroscope (input), screen size (output), and vibrations, flashlights, and touches on the back are all decorations. ➡️ What does the technology include? ⬅️ 1. The platform where the game is launched Browser - via link, without downloading, but weaker in graphics Mobile (Unity/Android/iOS) — on a phone, with access to the camera/vibration PC/consoles — powerful hardware for AAA graphics 2. Engine, a ready-made set of tools for the game Unity/Godot — universal, for 2D/3D games Phaser — ideal for browser-based hyper-casual games SDK (Yandex Games API) — a bridge to the platform for leaderboards 3. Limitations that cannot be ignored Performance — will the device be able to run the game without glitches Input — how to control (sensor, gamepad, mouse, keyboard, VR) Output — what the player sees and hears (phone screen, monitor, speaker, headphones)

Context: Why should a player spend time? We continue to explore games, and today we're focusing on the first of the four elements of any game: Context. Context explains to the player why they're spending time and creates an emotional connection with the project. Without context, even the most brilliant mechanics are just a collection of actions. There is no single element in the game system. All elements are interdependent and influence each other. Even a game with no context still has context. If we don't think about it, it's because we haven't considered it. This means that we don't control it, but there is still a context. For example, the game "Neon Tower" The mechanics are immediately clear. It's a hyper-casual game. A tower where you have to fly a ball along without getting into dangerous areas. It has a distinct aesthetic - the outline of neon. However, the game doesn't have a storyline, but! It does have a context. It starts to be born from the mechanics itself: the better you move, the faster the ball accelerates, and aesthetics: neon. And now the player's head already has associations, for example, with the movie Tron. If the game creators are satisfied with this association, then super, they didn't even have to do anything - the context itself was born from mechanics and aesthetics. If you don't think about the context when creating a game, it will still appear. But it may not be what could be needed. What to consider when developing the context: The news story – linking to an event, holiday, social topic: game for March 8, quiz about the World Cup, New Year's quest. Setting – the world in which the action takes place: office with monsters, space galaxy, underwater kingdom, medieval castle. Creative idea – the player's role and motivation: Blogger, reviewing the life of cockroaches, Detective who investigates cases only using the Ball of Fate, Manager of a kiosk on the moon. All of this can be detailed or, on the contrary, mentioned in passing, as in the example with the neon tower. These are more things that we consider to be part of the context and that we need to think about when developing a game. How to choose a context 1. We study the space - where the game will exist, who is the target audience 2. We look for emotional hooks - what concerns this audience right now 3. We create a semantic frame - we turn actions into a mission A good context answers three questions WHO is your player in the game world? WHY is he doing it? WHY is it important right now? If there is no clear answer to any of the questions, refine the context.

How to create a game that everyone will play There is such a person – Jesse Shell, in the book “Game design. How to create a game that everyone will play” he describes four components of any game. We have adapted this model for the mobile and enterprise segment, and in this series of posts, you will learn how to create a game that your customers will play. ➡️ There are four elements that are present in every game – regardless of the genre, platform or budget: 1) Mechanics – what the player does: swipe, tap, connect, build, shoot. 2) Context - the story and meaning of what is happening. Plumber against monsters, auto blogger teaches traffic rules, the researcher of distant planets is looking for financial wisdom. Context explains to the player why he is doing it. 3) Technology - platform and capabilities: mobile app, web game, Telegram Mini App, VR. Technology determines what is possible to implement. 4) Aesthetics — visual style (pixel art, minimalism, realism), sound, and interface. Shell depicts the four elements as equal. Each element affects the others, and the main task of a game designer is to make them reinforce each other, rather than conflict. “They are all interdependent. A change in one element usually leads to changes in all the others” — Jesse Shell ➡️ In theory, the tetrad looks symmetrical. In practice, often, one of the elements is set in advance or has a greater influence, and the others are built around it. Since we make custom games for businesses, we almost always have an idea of what the game will be about. Our goal is to understand which element the idea is most strongly defined by, and to move forward from there. 💬 Examples from practice: - Game for an audience of 45-50+: most mechanics are not immediately available, and it is desirable to use something simple and relaxing. This immediately determines the technology: PC and VR are obviously out, and a browser is unlikely. Mechanics for such an audience are played in a doctor's waiting room or in front of a TV, so it's almost always a mobile project, and it's better to make this decision at the very beginning. - Game in Telegram Mini App: the technology is defined from the beginning. The gameplay and visuals are designed without going beyond the platform's technical limitations. - Game for a luxury brand: the aesthetics are determined by the customer's context, which conveys luxury and sophistication, so the mechanics and technology are chosen to match it, rather than vice versa. - Animal Day game: the news story sets the context, which is reflected in the mechanics (saving animals instead of developing a farm store), in the aesthetics (soft shapes, natural colors), and in the setting (it would be strange to talk about aliens in such a game). The element that is set by the input becomes the starting point. The other three elements are designed to support and enhance the element. In the following posts, we will discuss each element in detail.

Quantitative and qualitative research and what's the difference ❗️Research is not a way to confirm or deny a hypothesis. It's a way to create new hypotheses We can conduct interviews to gain more context about the user and understand the reasons behind their behavior. We can also conduct surveys to find out what users think. Hypotheses can only be confirmed through real-product analytics.

A UX hypothesis is a formalized assumption about how a specific change in the interface will affect observed user behavior in a particular context. Formula: Context + user → change → observed behavior → criterion A good UX hypothesis answers "yes" to all questions: – It is clear what exactly is changing and in what situation – It is clear how we will notice it and make a decision Examples of hypotheses can be found in the cards →