Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2015: The illusion that the game requires skills works well in mobile

Games built on the skill of the user do not work very well in mobile, according to the authors of Leo’s Fortune, one of the most successful paid games of last year.

“Being both players and developers, we love those situations in games that require a certain skill <…> But you can’t really transfer it to a mobile platform. In most cases, the illusion that the game requires certain skills works well in mobile,” Jesse Divnich, vice president of product strategy at Tilting Point, said at his presentation at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2015.

In his opinion, the user can think as much as he wants that he is cool in Candy Crush. But in fact, the progress in the game depends solely on how much time and money the user spent on the game. Nothing depends on the skill, on the gaming experience in Candy Crush. Divnich calls such projects imitating the skill.

Of the 30 games topping the charts of shareware projects, only 3 games are based on the user’s skills, 19 imitate the skill, and the rest are casinos,” Divnich calculated.

In his report, he also touched on the topic of game content. Speaking about Leo’s Fortune, Divnich noted that the project turned out to be profitable. But it turned out to be impossible to make a service out of it. The authors spent up to five months developing several hours of the game: they had to do too much high-quality game content.

So now Divnich is sure that the best shareware games are projects like Hearthstone, Clash of Clans and Heroes Charge. Content for them is fast and cheap to produce. Moreover, it remains relevant for a long time even after the release of the next updates, since it is used by players in multiplayer.

“No matter what you do in Heroes Charge, you play the same game over and over again. The same content and the same carrot over the user’s head,” said Divnich.

A source: http://www.pocketgamer.biz