making satisfying game loops
After watching a YouTube video about what makes Roblox games addictive (link), I decided to try to make a game that hit all of the design requirements for maximum user retention. Here were my goal posts:
- Progression - the game should feel like the player is advancing along a clear growth trajectory.
- Status - players should be able to show off accomplishments.
- Mastery - over time, players should be able to become skillful with the mechanics.
- FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) - game should have gentle pressure to encourage a user to return.
- Community - time spent with others in game is valuable, so the game should foster that.
This led me to an idea called "Stargazer" (link) - a social Roblox game in which you find constellations in order to unlock hidden UFO crash landing sites. You collect "Crash Cards" that depict dozens of different kinds of UFO crashes in the tone of X-Files. The reports are dry, comical, and inspire mystery. Users can show off how many crash cards they collect, and the game rewards time spent through the collection mechanic.
I didn't hit most of the goal posts, but the infrastructure is there. The social element is not fully developed. I don't have any daily rewards to inspire FOMO. And in its current stage, there is very little to master. But the reward really was changing the way I think about games.
Sometimes I'll have an idea and make an little project that offers maybe 5-10 minutes of enjoyment. But with this design rubric, sometimes I stumble onto a prototype that just clicks and feels addictive. I managed to pivot from Roblox and focused on an "agent assembly" game called "Assembling a Team" (link). The premise - you put together a team of characters represented by AI agents, and have them collaborate on fictional missions like robbing a bank, colonizing Mars, or producing an album.
When making games, I've been continuously asking myself "Is this fun?" but now I have a new angle to look at: "Do I want to come back to this again and again?".