Marvel Puzzle Quest: A Look Behind The Scenes

For about a month now, a bunch of us Sons have been addicted to Marvel Puzzle Quest, available as an app on the iTunes store. We've created a small group of us (an "alliance") that involves four Sons, an extra guy, and SoSG regular QuadSevens. You'll be happy to know that our alliance is trucking along pretty well in the game (and if any SoSG regular wants to join please drop a comment in this post; not sure if we have the money right now but we may be able to scrounge some up).

I've already dropped $15 on this "free-to-play" app: $10 to expand my roster of characters, and $5 to expand the alliance to include a sixth member. I think AC has spent at least $10 as well.

The game is pretty well-designed with retention mechanisms to keep coming back. And in goofing around on the net, I found a series of articles by the Demiurge CEO, who described their path from a game developer to a mobile free-to-play developer, and how they're constantly modifying this game in order to keep people engaged. It's pretty fascinating how analytic it all is behind the scenes; sort of like Moneyball, for apps.

One thing our alliance has noticed is that leaderboards do not seem to be unique. In other words, there have been a couple of us working iwthin the same alliance who have finished in the "top 10" individually, but we've noticed that we don't see our other alliance members' names in the top rankings. Demiurge seems to acknowledge that there are actually multiple leaderboards being used by their servers:

Leaderboards: When players join an event, they’re assigned to a leaderboard. These leaderboards are queried by the game engine to show player rankings and hand our rewards.

Rewards: Leaderboard placement is used to send players rewards during the events and at their conclusion. We follow the now-standard structure for our events. Players engage with the event and earn points that enable them to earn “progression rewards.” At the end of an event, players receive a set of “placement rewards” based on their ranking relative to other players on their leaderboard.

Interesting. But these guys have it down. Here's some notes on team-ups, and how they use them to seed future character purchases:

Certain missions called “team-ups” offer players a “loaner” version of a new character. These missions give us a chance to show off how fun it is to play with a particular character. By clearly presenting the value to the player, we hope they’ll spend some of their currency to purchase that character to have for future missions.

These missions also enable us to have a soft gate on progress. By giving the player a low-level version of the character, we make the mission more challenging unless they have their own, high-level version of the character to swap in. Players can overcome these challenges by having a high-level version of other characters or, more easily, by having a high level version of the team-up character.

And on alliances, it's a pretty thoughtful revenue-driving mechanism. Too bad we didn't get in earlier, when it was less costly to make huge alliances (which are now dominating the game):

The goal of alliances

While this series focuses on ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user), the reason Marvel Puzzle Quest is successful is that our game does a good job of encouraging spending over a very long period of time. We like it that way — rather than fostering an ecosystem of whale-centric burst spending, we covert players steadily. We believe we’re providing a valuable service to our players, and they reciprocate by throwing us a few bucks every week. The data bears this out — about 8 percent of our players in March spent money in the game, and a healthy portion of our revenue is coming from players who started playing way back in October.

At the same time, our position in the market wasn’t defensible. We want players to be enjoying Marvel Puzzle Quest for a year after they started playing, but we built a game that achieved stickiness because it was “addictive”. There’s plenty of other “addictive” games out there. If we’re going to build truly long-term value, we need other reasons for people to keep playing and social connections are one of the best tools we have as developers.

As you can see, user acquisition remains a challenge for us as much as everyone else in mobile. You might think the Marvel license alone would peg us in the top-100 most-downloaded games, but there are many Marvel games out there. Aside from a simple Facebook sharing mechanic, we had no in-game systems for players to ask their friends to start playing.

Anyway, it's a good read. I'm sure I'll stay addicted to this for a little while longer. It's pretty good fun.

The whole eight-part series can be accessed here.

Calling All SoSG Puzzle Fans

We haven't yet gotten round to rejuvenating the Puzzle Championship Series here on SoSG. However, we at SoSG World Headquarters always have plenty of time for time-wasting activity, and here's one we can join as a group to waste time collectively!

Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign is a turn-based puzzle game using the "match-3" mechanism made popular by Bejeweled and Candy Crush. However, like the highly addictive Puzzle Quest series, this game incorporates character leveling such that the puzzles are actually "battles" against computer-based AI, rewarding successful battlers by allowing one to advance one's characters ("leveling up"), making them more likely to win future battles.

What's cool about this game is, players can join alliances which allow groups of players to combine their wins towards a tournament ladder of sorts. There are multiple ladders in play at any one time, so it makes it fun figuring out how and when to contribute toward the alliance's goal. You can contribute as much or as little as you can, but the alliance's total score at the end of the period can earn the whole team points (and you also earn individual points as well, on a separate ladder).

Currently, we've got three Sons playing in an alliance. I think the game is cross-platform, but we're playing using the iOS app (free in the app store; there are in-app purchases however, though I've gotten away with spending only $10 to date).

If you'd like to join our crew, leave a note here and/or search for the alliance called "SoSG Fest". There's a limited amount of space available, so join soon!

Previous iOS diversions: 1000000

Three Things They Absolutely Should Fix On Candy Crush Saga

I'm not much of a facebook user, but the mobile version of Candy Crush Saga has been a pretty addicting distraction for the last three months or so. It's just "snackable" enough to get in a couple of levels / attempts in those moments in between meetings. And I love the fact that the "random" drops of candies make it either impossible to use a walkthrough / video tutorial, and/or devious in that the game developer, King, can probably manipulate the player's pace of advancement to its liking.

Nonetheless, I'm deep on this game. I'm a little past level 300 right now, having succumbed to extend-play boosters only once (I paid $0.99 to get five more moves, and have been guilt-ridden by it since then). Beyond that momentary lapse of weakness, I've advanced through Candy Crush Saga only through guile and persistence and what I am guessing is a little help from the game every once in a while (sensing I'm about to be frustrated enough to stop playing, and knowing I'm not going to buy another booster again).

But if King wants to make Candy Crush Saga a better user experience, here's three suggestions they should definitely update in the game:

• 1. Allow the game to rotate direction when the iPhone is on its side, but not rotate images when the iPhone is upside down. The gameplay is gravity-based, so it's important to know what is "up" and "down" while playing. But if they make the game like web pages in safari, in that the screen doesn't rotate when the iPhone is held upside down (it stays in the last horizontal position), then one would be able to play in bed with one's head on the pillow. Trust me, this would be key.
• 2. Changing the language from "The bomb is about to explode!", when what it really means to say is "The bomb is out of time and will now explode!". When the bomb turns zero, you're fucked. So don't say "it's about to explode", because if that time hits zero, it's not like you can duck and run for cover, or make another move to address it. Game over. So just call it a spade. (Plus, if you win the challenge with your last move, but your bomb hits zero, you still lose the round--so just call it what it is. Timer hits zero = game over.) I thought this was because King was a European company, but it looks like the company is based on the UK, so one would have thought they'd understand the Queen's English.
• 3. Add a Prince of Persia-like spin-back-time booster, to let the player erase moves that had bad unforeseen consequences. Again, I wouldn't use that gameplay booster (the only extra money I'm giving King through in-app purchases at this point--and it's not insignificant, given my progression--is the $0.99 for accessing another 15 levels of play), but it would be an easy way for King to make some extra monetization. Too often the candies / gems drop and something goes haywire. By spinning the clock back, one could "take that move back" and try a different combination.

Okay, I've gotta get back to playing.

Your Diversion Of The Day

We know you come to SoSG to escape the drudgery that is work, or chores, or off-season hot stove. So here's another thing to steal your time: the iOS RPG / puzzle game, 10000000.

It's great fun, sort of like the way Puzzle Quest 2 was when it came out; however this has a retro feel (video and audio) that's also kind of funny. Took me about six hours of gameplay to beat the game. Good luck!

Matt Kemp Has Some Cool Fans

Matt Kemp has been campaigning to get on the cover of MLB 13 The Show (vote here!), and some of his higher-profile supporters are helping him to get out the vote:

Fam! Let's get @therealmattkemp on the cover of @mlbtheshow! Vote for him! #MLB13KEMP mlb.com/covervote

— Mary J. Blige (@maryjblige) January 7, 2013

Let's get my boy @therealmattkemp on the cover of MLB The Show!#mlb13KEMP Retweet to vote!

— Eva Longoria (@EvaLongoria) January 7, 2013

Vote for my man @therealmattkemp for the cover of PlayStation's @mlbtheshow 2013 by tweeting #MLB13Kemp

— COMMON (@common) January 9, 2013

An 8-bit Trade

Like every other Dodger fan, I have been religiously watching the sports newswire trying to comprehend and believe that this trade with Boston was really happening.  Words like "unprecedented" and "historic" were used to describe the trade that included All Stars players and a whole lot of money.  But when I think of this trade, it reminds me of another blocker buster trade that occurred in 2006 between my beloved Dodgers and the Florida Marlins.  This also included All Star players and was a real steal for the Dodgers.  The Dodgers received Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for Mark Henderickson and Wilson Betemit.  And it all happened on my Playstation in the middle of my MLB 2006 season.  It worked out very well for both the Dodgers and me.  I played all 162 regular season games and went on to win the World Series that year.  

I have grown up playing a lot of video games and still have some great memories of my brothers and me sitting in the living room and playing the original RBI Baseball by Namco on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  In fact, I can still hum the background tune that accompanied the game.  The closest thing to playing a stacked team in that game was controlling the American and National league All Stars which included such baseball icons as George Brett and Mark McGwire.  Our family enjoyed the game so much, we went on to buy the RBI Baseball sequels. Then when I had my Playstation and Playstation 2, I was able to enjoy the Sony MLB titles that gave the player more freedom in selecting rosters and even making trades.  And that is where I remember that "other" Dodger blockbuster trade happening.

So for me, this trade is so unbelievable, that it feels like I am playing a video game and am stacking my beloved Dodger team to make a run to the World Series.  Except it really did happen and the trade seems to have positioned the Dodgers well for this year and in the near future.  Now it is up to the Blue Crew to hit the start button and avoid the glitches to bring home a title to Los Angeles.  Go Blue!