Hello again, my name is Atilla. I’m a hypercasual game designer with over a year of experience now, and I would like to share what I’ve experienced, what I’ve felt, and what I’ve overcome on this fun yet challenging journey of game design. I posted another blog post on the same topic with less experience, and with this post, I’ll provide an update on where I am now.
What is Hypercasual? Is it edible?
First, I’d like to answer this question. Perhaps some readers already know, but in case someone doesn’t, I’ll try to explain what hypercasual gaming is. In essence, hypercasual is not a genre but a business model. Hypercasual games generate revenue primarily from showing ads (and I mean, lots of ads). You can think of hypercasual games like fast food. They aren’t the hardest to make, but good fast food is still enjoyable. Most of the time, hypercasual games don’t use IAP (In-App Purchase) as a primary revenue model, but in some cases, they might sell a “No Ads” feature as an IAP.
Because of their revenue model, hypercasual games try to show players as many ads as possible (e.g., after every level, after every loss, etc.). HC games try to fit ads everywhere they can. This means every level should be as short as possible. When we analyze most HC games, their level structure is designed for completion within 15–45 seconds. If a level is short, that means they can show more ads, which translates to greater revenue.
However, of course, aggressive ad campaigns can hurt player metrics, even if people are playing these games. Long story short, by nature, HC games have rapid gameplay times. Mostly, you open the app, play the game for around 5–10 minutes, and then you close it.
Is it different being an HC game designer?
To be honest, my game design journey only covers HC so far. So, answering this question is a little tricky for me. Because of that, I’ll try to explain this using my observations and what I’ve heard from other game designers. The answer to the question is: Yes, it is a little different. The difference comes from the scale of the project. As I said, HC games have rapid gameplay, so we design their levels, mechanics, and fun factor around that rapid gameplay. Other games like casual, mid-core, indie, or AAA games have their own scope and project scale. In HC, you typically have 1–2 weeks to finish a game.
If the time exceeds this, your HC project might not fit the hypercasual model very well, or perhaps your team’s capacity doesn’t support the project’s scope. To me, the most challenging part of being an HC game designer is having so little time to accomplish something significant. I have to say that HC games are not as complex as others, but that doesn’t mean they are really easy to develop.
Challenges of HC game design
“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” Roger Crawford
As Roger Crawford said, challenges are inevitable, and like everything else, being an HC game designer has its challenges. First of all, adaptation is the primary and probably one of the most important things in HC. Trends in HC are constantly changing; at one time, it might be about getting something into a hole, and later it can be simulation games, or action games, and so on. Players’ tastes change very quickly, and following the current trend and adapting to it is crucial. Also, acting quickly and having nerves of steel is a must. Because you have so little time to do many things, effective time management and planning save a lot of time.
Understanding key metrics like CPI (Cost Per Install), CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Mille), Retention Rate, and other seemingly boring but crucial things is really important. And probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve encountered is “thinking simply.” By nature, HC games are not complicated, and because of that, they need to be simple. By simple, I don’t mean “a square moves forward and jumps on cubes.” But the game must be understood within 15 seconds of launching it.
Of course, new mechanics can be introduced throughout the game, but even the youngest children should understand your game without help. The human mind always tries to complicate things; when I have an idea, my mind always tries to make it more complex than the original. Sometimes it can lead to better results, but most of the time, overthinking and complicating things doesn’t work in HC.
Design, Iterate, Kill, Design, Iterate …
Probably one of the most frustrating things in HC is killing an idea or a game. Not every idea is going to succeed, and validating this early in production saves a lot of time. That’s why an HC game designer should also understand key metrics, because if you don’t, you will be rowing against the tide. That’s why you should iterate if metrics are bad and kill if your iteration doesn’t work.
Or in some cases, you can shelve your idea and wait for that kind of game to become a trend. Being stuck on a game for too long is always dangerous because the HC market is really fast, and there are many players in the game aiming for the prize. If you lose even one day, they can get ahead of you.
In general, game development requires lots of patience, ambition, defeats, and learning from mistakes. I even have a small story about it. When we first developed Slap Masters, there wasn’t a single slapping game in the market. But after we soft-launched it, a week later, other slapping games started to show up.
After that, the race began. Because there were more slapping games, it meant more competition in that genre, and we needed to be fast. When the “slapping” race ended, we were in second place. The #1 spot in the US game market was claimed by another slapping game, and we ended up being #5 in the US. It was a little overwhelming, but that experience taught me a lot.
Communication
“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.” Zeno of Citium
I think communication is one of the easiest yet hardest encounters a human could face. As humans, we are communicating almost all the time with words, sounds, gestures, music, mimics, etc. But do we really listen? Do we just hear what others say, or do we try to understand what (and why) they say?
If I speak for myself, listening to others without judgment and understanding why they said a particular thing was hard at first. In my first months of my game design journey, when someone said something about my design or spoke about a game idea, I always judged it in my mind. But when I read a particular quote from Ram Dass, I figured out that I was doing it all wrong.
As Ram Dass said, “When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.” And this quote is so true. Because when I began to “listen,” I saw that there were many things to gain from someone’s speech. But not only does listening lead to a successful conversation; speaking is important too. What I meant is, as a game designer, I talk with developers and artists a lot. Most of the time, I try to be a bridge, a translator between them.
Because what I saw in my experiences is that developers and artists speak and understand differently. Because of their job expertise, they look at the world from a different angle than each other. So, speaking their language saves a lot of time and makes for good communication.
Conclusion
I tried to share my experiences, my perspective on HC, and game design in this article. If you’ve come this far, thank you for your precious time in reading my article. My aim with this article is that there are almost no articles from a junior game designer’s perspective. Always, veterans of the game industry are writing, but I think what juniors think is important too. Because when I first began this journey, I wanted to read/listen to what my peers encountered. So, to all junior game designers in the world, I hope this article could help you. Please stay safe and healthy during these troubled COVID-19 times.
