{Learn how to ideate, design, and launch a super duper hit game}
Chapter #1
Firstly, learn how to find a new game concept.
- Leverage market trends to your benefit,
- Experiment with diverse strategies,
- And design mechanics that enhance your core concept.
Before diving deep into knowing more about Superhit Hyper Casual Game!
There are 4 stages of developing a super hit game
- Concept
- Marketability Testing
- Building out the game
- And a soft launch and a global launch
Guiding Principles for the Concept
First things first, let’s lay down some guiding principles when coming up with your concept. Broadly speaking, the concepts need to do a few things
- It should be easily scalable for widespread marketing(that means, the goal is to get low CPI)
- Find a broader audience
- Easy for anyone to understand
- And have a mechanics that nicely compliments that concept
And then comes the next step
Do the Market Research
Developing the game concept is often the most difficult part of the process. You need to think of a great marketable game concept that is also easy to scale, and at the same time, you have to make sure it is highly engaging and enjoyable to play.
A good place to start is to analyze the market and find out what exactly is popular in the hyper-casual gaming industry.
Take a look at some of the market intelligence solutions like
- Gamerefinery
- GameAnalytics
- App Annie (Now Data.io, (Sensor Tower Company)) to find the insight that you are looking for.
Seeing the game mechanics, elements, sub-genres, and narratives of the games already at the top could inspire your concept and make sure it has marketable features.
After running your market analysis thoroughly, take a look at social media such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for new trends that could be integrated into your hyper-casual game.
For example, Fidget 3D games from Tiktok trends provided a lot of inspiration for games such as Fidget Toys Trading: Pop It 3D which eventually topped the hyper-casual charts, and loads of other games that tapped into Tiktok trends.
After monitoring social media trends and conducting a market analysis, you can start thinking of a concept.
Remember, you will likely test numerous prototypes, potentially all at once.
The market is extremely competitive and fast-moving. Remember, trends are constantly changing, so you need to keep up the pace.
Now, that you checked out social media trends and done your market analysis, it’s time to focus on developing innovative concepts.
Here are 4 strategies are as follows:
- Introduce a twist to an existing successful concept
The first strategy is to get inspired by an existing hyper-casual game template and then introduce a twist to the narratives or mechanics. Since the game that inspires you is already a popular concept is more likely to have high marketability power.
Having said that, you need to make sure your concept brings something fresh and innovative, if not, it could be a struggle to be marketable as the original game already garnered millions of users.
- Adapt a popular mechanic or narrative for a different sub-genre
There are a bunch of different sub-genres within the hyper-casual game category such as simulation, action, and puzzle.
If you see a mechanic or a narrative performing well in the charts, try adapting it for a different sub-genre. Reimagining a popular game helps to attract users into certain sub-genre. Well, adding a new element to your game that makes it stand out.
- Combine two successful elements
Successful games are also born out of the mashup approach or maybe a hybrid strategy, where you take one element like the core mechanic or theme from two existing popular games, and combine them to make a new concept.
As we know, each element has already proven to be popular, so applying these features to a concept makes sure your game has high marketability power.
Remember, that’s our #1 target at this stage, i.e marketability aka PMF(Product Market Fit)
For example, take a shortcut run from Voodoo which combines stacking elements from StareRun with a shortcut element from Aquapark which is also from Voodoo.
Bring both popular features into one game and tweaking the gameplay led shortcut run to the top of the charts.
- Create a whole new world
You can also consider creating something entirely new by reinventing the wheel, whether it’s a fresh narrative or a unique mechanic that’s not yet on the hyper-casual charts.
This is harder, but the potential upsides are larger than other approaches.
This approach needs a lot of creativity because there aren’t other examples of similar games for you to use for inspiration. And there is also a risk, that because this is a brand-new idea that hasn’t been proven its popularity in the hyper-casual charts. You don’t know if your users will understand it or enjoy it.
But, you can test its marketability to judge if it’s fit for the market.
It may take more tests and ideas to find marketable concepts vs using already existing popular concepts.
A very popular game(Going Balls) from Supersonic Studios is an example of this strategy.
No other successful hypercasual game at that time have the same core mechanic and overall execution. They tested the initial prototype and saw that the users enjoyed playing the game.
Average D(0) playtime playtime was over 850 secs
Day 1 retention rate was between 37 and 42%, pretty great!
Scaling this original concept and making some game tweaks helped Going Balls reach no 1 on Android in the USA all while maintaining its strong in-game metrics.
What are the trending hyper-casual mechanics worth considering?
Whatever approach you use, it will be really helpful to see some examples of trending mechanics in the hyper-casual charts.
Here are the 4 top trending mechanics that may stay relevant for quite some time
- Multiplier Mechanics
In Multiplier Mechanics, it lets players grow their resources and burst, instead of growing one resource at a time. This mechanic is frequently used in casual, arcade, and puzzle games, but it’s also seen in more complex genres like role-playing games (RPGs) and strategy games.
Using multipliers mechanics can add excitement and help players build their in-game resources faster which can improve in-game KPIs like retention and playtime.
- Stacking Mechanics
Stacking mechanics in games refer to the ability to accumulate or “stack” bonuses, effects, or resources to create more powerful outcomes. This mechanic is used to add depth to gameplay by allowing players to combine multiple elements, making their actions more strategic and rewarding over time.
- Decision-Making Mechanics
Decision Making Mechanics are good for story-based games and it gives power to the player and appears to those who are story-driven.
One prime example of these mechanics is 911 Emergency Dispatcher, which achieved incredible success in 2021, reaching #1 across all categories in both iOS and Android(even surpassing TikTok from the top spot).
In the game, players make right and wrong choices. They decide which emergency service to request based on the call they receive through dispatch.
- Transformation Runner
A transformation runner is a game mechanic or genre in which the core gameplay involves a character or object that runs continuously while undergoing transformations or changes during the game. These transformations usually affect the character’s abilities, appearance, or interaction with the game world, often requiring players to adapt to the changes as they progress through the levels.
We don’t want this blog to be boring, so we tried breaking it into 4 parts as mentioned at the start of the blog.
- Concept, Marketability Testing, Building out the game, and a soft launch and a global launch.
We make sure this blog is going to be interesting. Also, read our other blogs regarding great games and strategies!
