How to Improve Player Retention in Gaming

Balancing a premium game’s battle pass progression Getting the right amount of work to reward balance can make or break a battle pass, especially in a premium game. Premium Game Player Expectations/ Progression Goals 🌡️Because they’ve already spent $60 completing progression should feel achievable 🔥Because they’ve already spent $10 on top of the $60, most players expect to be able to complete the battle pass in time 🌋Treating it like F2P balance is a recipe for low retention and mass churn What do premium games need to do differently? Depreciating Experience Rewards 👀If you look at Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Halo they all do this 🚀The basic idea is large chunks of XP are earned for completing daily and weekly missions 👣Dailies typically run out after about an hour of play a day ➕A new set regenerates the next day at a set time 🐭Small amounts of XP are earned for completing games Depreciating Experience Rewards P2 🎯The amount of XP required for a level is consistent 🏹It needs to be consistent so players can build habits and have predictable progression ⏲️Every daily 1 hour session makes predictable satisfying progress, this builds retentions How do we balance for each engagement group? Group 1: Power Gamers 😎 Play 20+ hours a week 😥 Will churn if they run out of content too early 💃 Solution: when balanced correctly, they are making small amounts of additional progress beyond the average player. Thus they complete the pass only a few weeks early if they really push Group 2: Average Players 😁 Players that play for about an hour a day 😣 These players churn if they run out of content, or they feel they can't achieve the goals of the event 💪 By doing the dailies every day, they’ll complete the pass within a week or two of the end of the time limit 😶🌫️This allows a grace period for players, which they appreciate Final Group: Casuals 🙂 Casual players engage for less than 3 hours a week 😱 These players churned if they felt the rewards were out of reach 👾They will not complete the pass but will make meaningful progress every time they play. The focus for them is to make sure they’re having good sessions so they don’t churn Casuals Part 2 💡This is where our one hour session to progress a level comes in  ⬆️With a level up per session, they’ll feel like they made meaningful progress in that session The progress in premium 📈 In summary, for a 3 month battle pass, we solve the problem like this:  😎 Power Gamers - 100% progress, in about 2 months  😁 Average Players - 100% progress, in about 2.5 - 2.75 months  🙂Casuals ~ 50% progress, in 3 months Was This Helpful? 👍Be sure to save it so you can come back to it later! #gamedev #indiedev #gamedesign

People are more interested in other people than anything else. This leads to something powerful as a designer. Give them other players to compete against and they will be endlessly entertained. Here's what you need to know about competitive play as a retention strategy: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: Plan for PvP From Day 1 Adding PvP (player versus player) to a game means that its difficulty can grow as high as the strongest player's ability. When players have finished the main game and want a greater challenge, the natural next step is to seek out others with the same achievements. This strategy demands the game be structured to support PvP from Day 1. You cannot add it at the end and expect it to be balanced and effective. Shortcuts that are okay for PvE will destroy PvP balance. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: PvP combat is the best way to keep players testing each other. You'll hone your skills fastest against a human opponent who's actively trying to make you lose. 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: • Elden Ring's colosseums • Dark Souls invasion system • Street Fighter's ranked matches 𝗖𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝟭: PvP modes tend not to require a ton of extra content. When PvP isn't the primary mode, it's viewed as a way to test out the skills players develop during the main game. Reusing existing abilities, art assets, and animations is often completely acceptable when adding a PvP mode, but the game engine needs to support it early and animations being timed appropriately for PvP first. 𝗖𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝟮: Don't force PvP into a game that isn't built for it. Some games just aren't structured around competitive combat, so it won't work in every scenario. Poor PvP implementation can actually damage the overall experience of your PvE elements. Strong PvP retention works because competition drives improvement. Players return to test their skills against friends or opponents. Use that drive, but only if your game supports it. What's your favorite PvP mode in any game you've played? ---  Hey, I'm Alexander 👋 Game designer with 25+ years of experience on titles like World of Warcraft and League of Legends. Follow me to learn more about game design!

What would you learn from analyzing 2.8 million League of Legends matches? A new working paper just dropped from Gandhi et. al. (featuring someone from Riot Games) and it goes through "Beliefs that Entertain" -- Here are some key findings! 🔍 Winning isn't what matters!: Higher engagement occurs when behind in a game, regardless of the outcome. 📈 🤔 Thrill of Uncertainty vs. Unexpected Outcomes: Gamers prefer suspense but have mixed feelings about surprises (It's really important to separate these two!). Winners enjoy minor positive surprises, while losers prefer fewer, significant negative surprises. 🎲 🔄 Harmony of Challenge and Skill: Aligning with flow theory, the study finds optimal engagement when a game is challenging yet manageable. This balance is crucial for peak player involvement. ⚖️ 🎨 Designing for Optimal Engagement: Insights for #gamedev - strategic revealing of game outcomes is key. Players behind in a game prefer early outcome disclosure, while those ahead enjoy later revelations. 🎯📊 📏 Measuring Engagement: This study measured engagement as the likelihood to play another game within an hour of completing one, examining various game aspects like winning probabilities at different stages. 🕒 🌟 Overall, this research provides novel insights into player psychology and offers actionable strategies for game developers focusing on enhancing player experience and retention. 💡 tl;dr? Suspense, challenge, and strategic information sharing Go read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/gvQTX933 #startups #gaming #venturecapital #videogames

So you've launched a game. And the initial hype is amazing. But over a couple of months it starts to die down. What do you do now? I've got 5 suggestions for you: 1\New content drops Gamers want new experiences. Regularly add new characters, levels, and quests to keep the excitement alive. 2\ Live operations events Tie in-game events to real-world holidays. Christmas? Reskin the game with festive themes. Halloween? Throw in some spooky challenges! 3\ User feedback Listen to your players. Keep your ear to the ground and make changes based on what they love (or hate). Your players are your biggest asset. 4\ Create a progression system Give players a ladder to climb. Make each level feel rewarding and worth the effort to reach the next. 5\ Scarcity and Rewards Introduce time-limited items or events. If players know they might miss out, they’re more likely to keep coming back. In short, if you want better game engagement you've got to use: ↳ Freshness ↳ Excitement ↳ Feedback ↳ Motivation ↳ Scarcity  How do you keep users hooked on your projects? 😀