Rotbeard- Server 22
Oh, this is gonna be fun! I've wanted to write this for a while.
This is a very good game in many ways. It does virtually exactly what it was meant to do - collecting Monsters is fun! Trying to breed them and synthesize them and train them also works very well. Training was a stroke of genius, as were the daily rewards – I find myself signing in every day, usually multiple times, in order to get all my trainings done. I also try to always use all my challenge cards.
There are two major issues with this game, though, that I notice as a math major/economics minor. I’ve studied the League of Legends model for a long time, and have a deep understanding of why the game did so well.
The first issue involves combat. A game in which combat lasts 2-3 rounds
should not have dodges or 2x critical hits. It’s frustrating, to say the least, when a dodge or critical makes you lose a fight, or a monster, that you had no reason to lose. The fact that there’s no way to bring back only 1 monster that’s dropped to zero also isn’t awesome. Some sort of relatively cheap item that raises downed monsters would be nice to add, something smaller than a resurrection card.
Glancing blows and 1.5x crits are probably an okay idea, they make the game more unpredictable but without actually making fights that should have been easy wins into automatic losses.
A major thing game designers need to think about is transparency. You want your game decisions to be visible, and you want people to understand what’s happening. Many powers do not work like this at all. I have no idea how much DEF my Rock Armor gives me, and I also have no idea how DEF actually works. It’s very difficult to tell which powers are worth actually using in the first place! Adding in some explanation of the math of the stats, and mentioning how big a buff/debuff powers have, would go a massive distance into making the game more interesting.
Time for the one I hope everyone has brought up. Coins. I have no problem spending money on a game – but like most people, I like to keep it reasonable. Spending $70 to reach VIP5 seems completely absurd to me. Going from $1 (VIP1) to $20 (VIP2) also seems inappropriate. The idea of microtransactions is that they’re micro – you spend a few bucks to get a little thing. The bonuses here are too spaced out, and too expensive to be accessible to your average player. It gets even crazier when one decides they want an S rank Skelly. A long time in PVP (which is almost impossible to get to on some servers) for a Skelly seems reasonable. A long time in PVP, but $100 cash, to maybe be able to breed your way to an S rank? That is, once again, absurd. Skelly is my favourite mon, but I’ll be damned if I’ll spend so much time to get one if it won’t even be helpful without spending the price of an Xbox 360. On a similar note, spending 2n coins on respinning to consistently get the same one is frustrating and shouldn’t be possible. 2 coins per spin could get the same repeatedly, but honestly, at a certain number of coins, one should just be able to pick. My best guess at the appropriate way to do this would be “Spin freely once, then you can respin for 2 coins, can’t get the same one. Then, if you still haven’t gotten what you want, you can spend 10 coins to choose.” More microtransactions is more profit, but also, less frustration for the players.
My advice would be to make the microtransactions more micro. Smaller amounts for smaller things, and a less scary ceiling. Even $10 for a monster is something that would be shied away from initially, but once a player reaches a point in the game where they’ve fallen in love, it’d be way more reasonable than a $100 Skelly. Make VIP cheaper, and add more VIP levels. Make them scale in a far less terrifying fashion. $1 for VIP1. $5 for VIP2. $10, $20, $30. Add more levels where the final one isn’t as strictly necessary, but rewards a player for having spent $100 on this single, handheld iOS game.
Honestly, that’s a big thing. The game should feel less frustrating and more rewarding. Spending a dollar on coins should give a neat little warm feeling of supporting an awesome game, not a jaw-dropping terror at how many coins need to be spent to get everything done. Having a few people drop $100 on the game is good, but even if far less drop $5, more people are going to spend, and more people will tell their friends. Commitment is a great sales tool – having a loyal, varied playerbase is how freemium games make money! Get people to love you. The contests are a great start, but your average player doesn’t see much about it. If you ask a random LoL player how they feel about it, they’ll tell you how much they love it. For Haypi Monster, they’ll either be embarrassed about how much money they’ve spent, or they’ll be too scared to spend much. Make the players love you, and they will reward you in kind.
The bullet points/TLDR:
-Dodges and criticals are too swingy and make combat feel arbitrary and frustrating in their current incarnation.
-Lack of transparency causes confusion in decision-making.
-Microtransactions are far too macro.
-Too much frustration throughout the game (combination of all other points). Games should feel rewarding.
Thank you and sorry for the massive post, but you asked for it!
Rotbeard
P.S. I’m a professional game tester/board game designer, if you need a consultant to give strong, researched opinions in the future, message me.
