Hey guys Kdot here while I am busy working on Ben 10 slave quest I hit a wall with the money system I don't know whether the money should be some what hard to get making the rewards more rewarding or some thing like this.
I would like to see what you guys think
i would say: go the route of the psychologically addicting mobile games :P (the tricks they use in f2p games like cow-clickers like "farmville", or "cookie clicker" or gasha games like "dokkan battle" or "marvel contest of champions" or micromanagement games like "simpsons tapped out" or "forge of empire". (or many of the puzzle fighter/gem swap/match 4/bejewled/tetris clones, that are oddly satisfying to pop, match, organize and see combo. like huniepop)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BTGgCEFuQw
to break it down:
have a very finite currency that both looks, feels and sounds good. something like a "galaxy crystal" that looks all jagged and edgy, but with a blue to purple gradient and a star-like/portal to the universe like shimmering array of glittering inside
then have a satisfying popping esque sound when collecting or spending it. and see how it "pops/mines".
the most important part is: keep the player wanting more. aka, have alot of things you can accomplish, just out of reach, visible, even though you've just completed a bunch of awesome stuff, you feel like you just need to upgrade/progress a little more.
in other words, keep money hard to get in the sense that, there's a time limit to how much you can grind, so it's basically like christmas eve every time you get a currency and is about to spend it :P you could also make it so that getting even just a little currency requires a bunching of grinding time consuming repetitive work :P
of course, it's no fun if you start out that way.
start by giving the player a BUNCH of money and areas to upgrade in burst, starting from nothing and having experienced nothing in the tutorial.
then, growing accustomed to that "feeling of being millionaire", the player has a drive to grind to get that feeling again :P making it harder and harder to get the money to keep up/reach that level again, but in turn actually making it a hundred times more satisfying than if you just had it to start with and was bored and overwhelmed.
i feel like there's also a bit of fun in "the gamblers phallacy", but it shouldn't be too cruel. something like choosing to either grind, or try your luck rolling the dice. or adjusted rng, where it shows you an option (good or bad), being taking of the roulette each time you land on it. (so it goes from 1 in 100 chance to 1 in 99 chance, instead of being 1 in 100 chance every spin)
make the currency feel special, finite and something you worked hard for :P
the more you're invested in it/the higher level, and the more progress, the more you're willing to give just a little more, scaling the amount of grinding.
always reaching for just a little more, always trying to get that "just right" feeling, "just one more game mom!" or "it's my last life!" or "it's this zones final boss!"
in the same way, progress, lives, loot. there should be a crash bandicoot esque system or diable 2 esque system in place. if you die in a level, you go back to the start, or checkpoint (if there is one), if you run out of lives, you go back to the hub, losing all loot you gained in the level, making you keep wanting :P that's how old nes games and penny arcade cabinets kept you playing for a long time/spending money. eyecatches and difficulty spikes. as well as oddly satisfying graphical design and sound effects/music.
btw https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying
and https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting
and https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/
another thing is loot/treasure chest openings(i know it's a dating sim/slave trainer game, but just giving some examples :P) :
ReplyDeletewhen clearing an area, there's usually a reward/drop of some sort. have focus on anticipation. animate it, have special animations that peek the interest, sparkles that indicate it might actually be a purple or a rare this time. but not guarantee it. aka, slow box opening with satisfying sound and animation, specific design of chest depending on rarity, other factors that fill the person with "oh boy, this is a good omen!" stuff, like a special sound, something happening around it, like a beetle or sparkles, or it opening slower.
and then, *toots horns* the loot! it's either something you want or don't want. cosmetics, upgrades, currency. potions/consumables.
the way it's usually done: specific kinds of dungeons/banners/loot types have some very specific "unique ultra rare" drops, that are the ones you're going into the mission for, the chance of that drop (usually you can see them on a first party reward list, but there are also sometimes hidden loot drops, or with special conditions/challanges), but also of course, depending on the difficulty of the task/mission, a bunch of commons, uncommons and sometimes "rares" from other crossing over lootboxes or just general rares. sometimes even a "critical luck" or "critical bad luck" chance, where a really good thing can still explode from a bad chest, or a really bad thing can poof from a good chest, or an entirely different type. anticipation and gamblers fallacy :P
another thing that keeps the player grinding and playing is exploration. exploring combinations or ingredients, skills and characters, seeing the reaction and effects. finding new areas, fighting new monsters, figuring out every strength and weakness and best way to optimize.
another thing is "completionism". stuff that keeps you collecting every trophy, collectible and item, just to fill that empty slot and get the 100% rating, seeing the nice rewarding colors and sparkles, even if they don't unlock levels or stuff in themselves. or maxing your level to the level cap. or unlocking achievements 100%, no matter how absurd some of the challenges are.
and then of course top it off with a nice ending :P although you could in principle always patch in a new time based event, act/arch or items/level cap and areas XD (which even the smallest patch can prolong a games playability for a YEAR :O) anyways, that's how games keep you addicted and feeling too invested to quit :P
(remember the patch notes/communication on fixes ;P)
Can you do a tl:dr that's why 2 long bro fuck
ReplyDeleteweird, one of my comments keep getting removed >.<
ReplyDeleteand then of course there's the thing that keeps pulling people back in, keeping them from feeling "oh, well all good things come to those who wait, i'll watch and act in time".
ReplyDeleteno, here's how you prevent this, and make people just do it :P
first you give a reward for daily activities (as in, real life time basis, stuff that changes every 24 real life hours). such as WoW "daily missions" or "contracts" in tf2, something relative new that itches your completionism gene, but keeps endlessly replenishing and giving minute rewards, but also gives you a feeling of "if i don't strike now, i might miss something forever! or at least for like a year! it's best economically/strategically to strike now now now!"
things you've waited for, stuff like banners or events only being once a year with exclusive rewards/drops for that time only (of course most games have server side logins/checkups and bans and money investment to prevent people from hacking, but it's just an example :P honest players exist out there, as long as it's not more rewarding mentally to hack)
like a halloween event with drops being advertized in good time, getting a reward just for logging in, but an even bigger reward for grinding your ass off in a halloween only event. (it being said/counted down when it begins and ends, on screen of course, so people can't miss it, a big "ad tactic/malicious" intrusiveness tactics, but unlike ads, it's actually in the players best interest to know and see, even as a small banner in the side of the gui, rotating news (like in dokkan battle)
another thing is to keep players coming back by giving them a feeling, that if they don't, they'll squander their perfect streak. aka, "daily login bonus" (when they're there, they will see something new in a banner on the front page, check it out, and unknowingly play anyway)
in other words, having slightly bigger rewards (with a cap of course) each day you open the game consecutively, missing even just one day resets your timer.
another way to keep a player invested is rating each mission, stuff like combos (still just giving examples :P you can see if you can somehow incorporate it into the game XD) or stuff like being fast, finishing last second(slow start setups), finishing with full health, with 1 health, or supporting alot, being a lone warrior. of course, there's a bunch of different playstyles, so i guess it would more be rewarded to how well it went, and not favor one playstyle/hybrid playstyle over the other. (like collecting points or something or team victory rate consecutively)
ReplyDeleteor the social aspect. seeing how many points you scored compared to people on your friends list, your area, country or the world/globally.
or earn ranked/ladder points and ranks. things where you constantly feel "yes, just a little more, then i'm above THIS person!" constant milestones and personal goals :P or sorta like how overwatch or "gotham city imposters" does it, with medals for each game as well as "most healed" "most damage" and such, that you can then vote for/interact with.
just be careful with the facebook style of "ask friend to join for more gems!" one thing is "post your progress on front page for more gems" to advertise/bring awareness, but directly prying people is a bit too cringey. (not even gonna go into details of the classical marketing/subliminal/advertising techniques of the american media/placement and stuff in movies :P you know, stuff like "the golden section" or symbolism in perspective or colors or phrasing. or big shining red buttons O_O or bubble wrap :P
stuff that are all very "Edward Bernays" (freud's nephew who died as 105 years old in 1995, and is the father of all modern advertising) )
Dude the fuck, this is way to long he did not ask for a god dam essay put a to long didn't read ffs
Deletei got an idea for a "shop" system that would pace and grind the game nice and slowly/satisfying :P
ReplyDeleteyou decide how many of these you take inspiration from of course
first of all is limiting, for the sense of supply/demand.
having certain opening times, stuff being out of stock if you bought too many, having a refill countdown, as well as having a "membership card", for you rank of loyalty to pakmar's shop :P after being a returning and buying costumer for a while, you "rank up", getting a bronze membership card(relatively easy), getting access to more items that aren't the bottom of the barrel.
ranks get exponentially harder and harder to get in pakmars shop, but items available to people with higher pakmar ranks also get more expensive(in tandem with galaxy shards being easier to get), but also more potent, longer duration, less side effects/cooldown, but sometimes needing special requirements (like doing a favor or bringing an ingredient)
all items in pakmar's shop can either be purchased with "galaxy shards" or "pakmar points". pakmar points are "store credit" (mostly for the sake of "no refunds!", and converting galaxy shards into a sorta inflated currency (whereas galaxy shards are sparse and powerful), so the player loses tracks of how many pakmar points they're actually spending). pakmar points are earned (in small portions) by being a returning costumer, wanting something refunded (so the money stays in pakmars store :P) and selling something to pakmar/pawning/trading something in.
if you really wanna go balls deep, you could also have something like "sales/discounts/promotional deals/special offers/events" rotating in pakmars shop/catalogue, or earning ", bulk deals(buy one, get 1 free, buy 3 for X,99$!, buy one, get a free back massager) that expire/has a count down, so the player gets sorta rushed/stressed, and wastes money on something they might not have bought, but might as well, just to not “miss it”. (sunk cost fallacy, economic waste fallacy)
coupons (10% off - 90% off, golden, silver), or vouchers/gift cards (free item/prize/pakmar points), depending on stuff you do for pakmar or ranking up :P
as well as making the player sorta waste money, there could be things that made shopping with pakmar sorta slow :P (like the checkout having a progress bar (and not starting over if something is added), tempting people to buy more in boredom/spending time longer)
there could also be a “key items” section (to pace the game) that unlocked items to buy (that were very expensive, relative to players current rank/income), that would unlock depending on events/membership rank reached, stuff like a mystical key, a power drill, a map to a location/coordinates, night goggles. stuff like that. (of course, there would need to be a reason why ben couldn’t just go alien, some sorta anti omnitrix emp field maybe :P)
ReplyDeletemaybe even have a daily “mystery box”, appealing to the gamblers fallacy :P or a bargain bin XD
there could also be stuff (especially early on), that you needed to rent, with certain restrictions, things that broke after a certain time/amounts of uses, or consumables which effects only boost temporarily. Stuff that makes you keep grinding and upkeeping, and never resting on the laurels :P
who knows, maybe buying some stuff even earns you stamps/holes in a punch card towards a free item/prize :P
maybe even have some items with the only purpose of pakmar wanting them/wanting to buy it off your hands (galaxy shards OR pakmar points), personal or business :P (a rare naughty magazine, a crafting ingredients, a rare alien artifact, a metal, etcetera :P) (bargaining and different prices with different merchants would probably be a bit too difficult to do/not enough payoff though :P)
(maybe a bit overboard) maybe even being able organize a "planner" of jobs you can do for pakmar, in order to pay for an item :P (depending on rank, sweep, manage stock, cashier, manage backdeals, repo, push, bodyguard, etcetera) (sorta like the "krystal" flash game :P)