Idle Games: The Mechanics and Monetization of Self-Playing Games
- 1. Idle Games: The Mechanics and Monetization of Self-Playing Games Anthony Pecorella Director of Browser Virtual Goods Kongregate.com
- 2. Who am I? • At Kongregate for 6 years, directing our browser-based virtual goods business • Producer for AdVenture Capitalist • Also an indie designer, cofounder of Level Up Labs
- 3. What is Kongregate? • Open platform for browser-based games – Flash, Unity, HTML5, etc. – 16M+ monthly unique visitors worldwide • Core gamers – 85% male, average age of 22 – MMOs, RPGs, CCGs/TCGs, TD, shooters, etc. • Platform level virtual currency “kreds” for F2P games • Acquired by GameStop July 2010
- 4. Some of Kongregate’s Partners
- 5. Kongregate is also a mobile publisher
- 7. Why Are We Talking About This? • It’s the birth of a new genre – Only 2 years old in modern form • It is becoming very popular!
- 8. Why Are We Talking About This? • Fabulous retention stats – Some of the best-retaining games on all of Kongregate.com • Generates great revenue – ARPUs well-above most single-player games on Kongregate.com
- 9. History and Evolution • Progress Quest (2002, Eric Fredricksen) – Parody of MMORPGs stats and auto-attack – A “zero player” game
- 10. History and Evolution • Kongregate’s chat system created early breeding ground for “idle” games Kongregate Chat (jmtb02, 2007) Ayumilove HackerStory V1 (Ayumilove, 2008)
- 11. History and Evolution • Anti-Idle (2009, tukkun) – Has both active and idle elements – Huge, with tons of content – Receiving new features and updates 6 years later • Literally yesterday!
- 12. History and Evolution • Cow Clicker (2010, Ian Bogost) – Parody of Farmville and other similar appointment social games
- 13. History and Evolution • A Dark Room (2013, Doublespeak Games), Candy Box (2013, aniewey) – Finite, can be beaten, more puzzle-like and exploration- based A Dark Room (Doublespeak Games) Candy Box (aniewey)
- 14. History and Evolution • Cookie Clicker (2013, Julien “Orteil” Thiennot) – Parody of Candy Box – First major mainstream hit • Arguably created the genre in its modern form • Established a basis for progression, upgrading, and prestiging imitated by most other idle games
- 15. History and Evolution • AdVenture Capitalist (2014, Cody Vigue / Hyper Hippo Games) – Parody of capitalism and idle games – Offline progress – More animated through progress bars
- 16. History and Evolution • Clicker Heroes (2014, Playsaurus) – Clearer RPG-style progression – Addition of cooldown skills – Great visuals thanks to clever reuse of assets from their MMORPG (Cloudstone) – Tap Titans (Game Hive) is a close derivative that incorporated great presentation and mobile UI
- 17. History and Evolution • Make It Rain (Space Inch, 2014) – First major mobile idle game – Hilarious concept, very viral – Idle elements were heavily limited, requiring check-ins to progress – Aggressive ad strategy – Pretty brutal FBI monetization
- 18. History and Evolution • Bitcoin Billionaire (Michael Stockwell / Noodlecake, 2014) – Fantastic style, tone, and topic – Very clear goals and presentation – Great use of opt-in ads – Strong appointment mechanics, very limited offline progress • Offline progress is actually a central monetization element…a mistake?
- 19. Other Notable Entries • DripStat (dripstat.com/game) – Fantastic visualization of information – Global live leaderboard – Realtime contributions from other players
- 20. Other Notable Entries • Swarm Simulator (kawaritai, 2015) – Explores a new funnel-based economy – Proving extremely popular
- 21. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Progress without interaction – Low pressure experience – Constant positive growth and feedback – Quick check-ins can be very profitable by shifting up the growth curve • Great for social/mobile play patterns
- 22. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Progress without interaction – Creates a celebratory moment every time you return to the game • The longer you don’t the play the game, the bigger the reason to return! – Forced appointment mechanics become an unnecessary element • Even daily rewards aren’t used AdVenture CapitalistAdVenture Capitalist
- 23. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Progress without interaction – Retention is often off the charts
- 24. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Progress without interaction – Retention is often off the charts
- 25. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards – Leads to increased sense of progress, psychologically fun and satisfying AdVenture Capitalist Swarm Simulator
- 26. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards – Core loop: • Log in • Spend all of your cash • Log out, to return in a few hours – Sound familiar? Cityville (Zynga)
- 27. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards – Creates a “natural” energy system without the need for an energy currency – More palatable to players (esp. “gamers”) • Has real-world analog, makes sense. – “I’m out of cash, need to come back when I have more.” • Player feels more ownership over this decision. – “I could wait, but my time is worth more than that.”
- 28. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards – Counter-balances offline play: yes, you get big rewards, but they grow linearly • Time loses value without interaction
- 29. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 30. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 31. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 32. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 33. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 34. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Rapid growth of costs and power/rewards
- 35. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Tons of goals and achievements – Provides moments of joy spread out through the experience – Allow for moment-to- moment optimization and (temporarily) meaningful choices AdVenture Capitalist
- 36. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+) – Choose to reset your game to get a boost the next time through – Start back over, but with much more power than before Tap Titans
- 37. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+) – Provides a crucial strategic decision for the player – Often tied to a separate currency • This lets you transform exponential growth back to linear – Leads to a new gameplay loop
- 38. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+)
- 39. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+)
- 40. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+)
- 41. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+)
- 42. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+)
- 43. Idle Game Core Mechanics • “Prestiging” (New Game+) – Ladder climbing • Start over, but get a rung higher each time – Gives a great sense of progress, flying through early content quickly. Feel incredibly powerful
- 44. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Regular updates – Simple design and code allows for rapid iteration • Balance • UI/UX • Features & content – True for every successful idle game on Kongregate.com Swarm Simulator
- 45. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Make It Bumpy – Smooth curves are boring, lack surprise and delight
- 46. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Make It Bumpy – Smooth curves are boring, lack surprise and delight
- 47. Idle Game Core Mechanics • Make It Bumpy – Smooth curves are boring, lack surprise and delight
- 48. Idle Elements in Other Genres • Real-time social and strategy games – Progresses while gone, though with hard caps (crops planted or max resource storage) Hay Day (Supercell) Mafia Wars (Zynga) Game of War (Kate Upton)Game of War (Machine Zone)
- 49. Idle Elements in Other Genres • Chinese MMORPGs – Current trend is becoming heavily auto- play – Can include “afk” mode Mythborne (R2 Games)
- 50. Idle Elements in Other Genres • Chinese MMORPGs – About min-maxing stats, making decisions optimize power gains – Western audiences seem to be resistant to this • Expectation management? Wartune (R2 Games)
- 51. Idle Elements in Other Genres • Launch games – Tight-loop prestige systems – Usually no choice over prestige point, but similar feel of ladder- climbing progression Curl Up and Fly (John Cooney / Kongregate)
- 52. Monetization • Cash infusion – Get a percentage of current rate – Time warp • Speed multipliers – Buy a permanent x3 multiplier AdVenture Capitalist Clicker Heroes
- 53. Monetization • Instant prestige • Protection against negative events – Bribe money for FBI (Make it Rain) – Shield for your heroes (Tap Titans) • Gacha system (random pulls of upgrades) • Event currencies AdVenture Capitalist
- 54. Monetization • Banner/Interstitial ads • Opt-in ads – Short burst of cash – Small bit of premium currency – Brief powerful boost – Relief of a negative status – Medium-length small boost Bitcoin Billionaire
- 55. Monetization • Banner/Interstitial ads • Opt-in ads – Short burst of cash – Small bit of premium currency – Brief powerful boost – Relief of a negative status – Medium-length small boost Bitcoin Billionaire
- 56. Case Studies • Idling to Rule the Gods (Ryu82, 2014) – Branched out with some new mechanics • Many new systems added post-launch – Made a ton of UI changes early on to address player concerns
- 57. Case Studies • Idling to Rule the Gods (Ryu82, 2014) – Branched out with some new mechanics • Many new systems added post-launch – Made a ton of UI changes early on to address player concerns
- 58. Case Studies • Idling to Rule the Gods – Complicated interactions with deep, dense systems and lots of content
- 59. Case Studies • Idling to Rule the Gods – Monetization is heavily focused on “God Power” premium currency, buying permanent boosts – Temporary (90 min and until- prestige) boosts exist, but only about 12% of revenue
- 60. Case Studies • Idling to Rule the Gods
- 61. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes – Does a great job spreading value across heroes
- 62. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes – Use of RPG-like cooldown skills provides quick action gameplay and very light strategy
- 63. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes – Prestige system involves a currency system (Hero Souls) with a trade-off between DPS bonus and ancient summoning
- 64. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes – Cash infusion and instant prestige
- 65. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes – Simple but effective gacha system • Allows for multiple, valuable purchases
- 66. Case Studies • Clicker Heroes
- 67. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Appeal to both browser and mobile audiences – Heavy use of theme, tone, and humor
- 68. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Appeal to both browser and mobile audiences – Heavy use of theme, tone, and humor
- 69. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Effective ad implementation • Fits the theme well • Provides high value to player • Is relatively scarce, keeps tolerance high from players • Has some bugs, people complain that they can’t watch ads!
- 70. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Early purchase of a x3 multiplier is extremely compelling • One of the highest buyer percentages on Kongregate.com – Unlocks bulk multipliers over time
- 71. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Early purchase of a x3 multiplier is extremely compelling • One of the highest buyer percentages on Kongregate.com – Unlocks bulk multipliers over time
- 72. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist
- 73. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – Mobile retention held up well
- 74. Case Studies • AdVenture Capitalist – As did mobile ARPPU iOS Android Kongregate.com
- 75. Case Studies • Spender categories let us see distribution • Each game has $1000+ spenders AdVenture Capitalist Clicker Heroes Idling to Rule the Gods
- 76. Case Studies • Revenue distribution shows a very different picture – This picture is common for successful games though AdVenture Capitalist Clicker Heroes Idling to Rule the Gods
- 77. What’s Next? • “Classic” spreadsheet-like idle games lose favor to more sophisticated visualization and presentation • Idle spin-offs of games and brands Adventure Quest: Dragons (Artix Entertainment)
- 78. What’s Next? • “Idle” becomes a modifier like “RPG” – Idle Tactics, Action Idle RPG, Idle Match-3 • Idle design philosophies integrate into meta-game of standard genres Puzzle Fuzz: Idle Stories (Andrew Pellerano / Kongregate)
- 79. Thank You! • Check out developers.kongregate.com • Browser games: apps@kongregate.com • Mobile games: bd@kongregate.com • Me: anthony@kongregate.com