The secret and reasons for the success of card collectible games

The Russian gaming press avoids talking about mobile card games today. Along with it, Russian developers also bypass them. At the same time, these games are one of the most promising current trends.

Of the 10 games in the box office top of the American Google Play, three are collectible cards. There is only one such game in the box office top 10 of the App Store so far. But, attention, she has not been out of it for the past three months. It is clear that only in the States the game (we will call its name a little later) earns at least $ 2-3 million a month. In Japan, where social and mobile card projects are very popular and where they actually came from, the top game in this genre earns about $8 million a month. 

And now the question is: why, if we talk only about Russian developers so far, this genre is almost not mastered? The first assumption, which sounded like a rhetorical question in our editorial office, was the following: which country has the most geeks?

Indeed, geek communities in Russia are still poorly developed. At the same time, they feed the entertainment industries of Japan and the States. However, the absence of a potential army of picture lovers on “native soil” does not mean that you should not enter the card games market with your own project.  

Again, Rage of Bahamut (the same game from the box office top of the App Store) held the first position of the American box office chart of Google Play for six months before giving way to another card game palm. And DeNA alone knows how many tens of millions of dollars she has earned during this time. 

The secret of success

What is their secret, apart from, of course, the millions spent by giants like DeNA and GREE on their traffic?

Director of the D2C marketing company Xiaolei Zhang stated in his interview with Gamasutra that one of the reasons for success is the passion of users for collecting. In Japan, this culture has been established for a long time, as well as in the USA. This is what the developers of such games use. 

Jan himself describes the mechanism of card games using an example from his own childhood: “when I was little, I also collected cards, including those that were packed with noodles. So when I wanted to collect the whole collection, I bought lots and lots of noodles. And you know, in the end I collected the whole collection.” 

Savvy developers

Developers from Japan also love this genre for a reason. And it’s not just about the money he brings. Farms earn no less. 

Simplicity of development is the trump card of collectible games called battlers. Having made the engine, you can constantly release new versions of the game or new games, simply changing the graphics and UI. This radically reduces development costs. Moreover, with each re-release, by changing the balance and images, you are able to reach all new audiences (one game is about tanks, another is especially for fans of busty anime heroines, the third is about Legolas, etc.). Actually, this is what Japanese developers do. 

Greedy for pictures

According to Jan, in order to attract the attention of users, it is enough to add cards to the game. Players will definitely want to build a deck right away. Moreover, it is important that the topics are clear to them: fantasy, historical events, any popular licenses – all this is great. 

A familiar character on the map perfectly motivates you to buy, says Jan. Moreover, a character from a setting that is understandable to the player allows you to quickly understand the rules and what bonuses the card itself carries. Then Jan says about the Chinese audience, who are well acquainted with the satirical novel “Journey to the West”, in which one of the main characters is the Monkey King: “have you read the book? Z is well aware that the Monkey King is a powerful hero. You will definitely want to buy it.” 

What is the main thing in it?

Collecting is not so interesting and hardly anyone will be interested if the game does not have PVP, which is necessary to retain users. By creating a card MMORPG in miniature, allowing players to buy new cards, change them, join guilds, you will be able to get at least a small core of regular players. It depends on how closely you will work with it, how often you will update the player itself, and whether players will invest in your game or not. 

At the same time, retention is also affected by the possibility of upgrading the card. 

In the same Rage of Bahamut, it looks something like this: you have a map, for example, a war. You buy a similar one, then combine both cards into one. As a result, you get a knight. Find another knight card, connect, get a paladin, and so on indefinitely. The bottom line is that the player, firstly, is interested in which card will turn out in the end, and secondly, he will want to reach the end of the chain. 

Another important detail is a short session. Ideally, it should fit between two stops on the Tokyo subway. 

Instead of a conclusion

“The essence of card games is who will spend more time or money. Whoever spent it is the strongest,” Jan notes. In his opinion, this can be considered a disadvantage of the game. But he is still full of optimism about the future of this genre. “Card games will become an independent gaming genre with their own standards and metrics,” he concludes.