Phillip Black

𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗠𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗜𝗚𝗠𝗔 & 𝗔𝗜 Every game/economy diagram worth its salt contains a +Power ↔ +Action slide. It says 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, but usually it’s not enough to understand what the hell is going on. Like traditional economic modeling, diagramming clarifies uncertainty by revealing a game's internal structure or “wiring.” It forces a simplification of assumptions, and, like the effect of understanding the world from a Mercator projection map, the diagram itself shapes one's understanding of reality. The most valuable economy diagram anchors in player action, where currencies play a secondary role. All diagrams start with either spending time or money: the two raw ingredients that all output derives from in games. Each further step is an action-driven refinement of the last stage. Along the way, usually deriving from the final production step, is a “final” good. This is ultimately what […]

7 Things Squad Busters Needs to Experiment with NOW The game needs to go crazier. If game development aligns with an explore-exploit model, Squad Busters must continue exploring. That means covering as much exploration space as possible. Eric Seufert makes similar claims in UA creative testing, and those lessons apply similarly to games. The changes from 2.0 were big, but they need to be bigger. 1. Deck Loadout EverywhereDue to short mobile session times, there is insufficient time to build depth through in-round progression. Marvel Snap is a goddamn gift from the CCG gods in this light, and remains the top tier benchmark. Players must be able to theory craft, which rarely happens in real-time. In auto chess, players have specific deployment phases, which is also true for CCGs, MOBAs, and Vampire Survivors. Players also enter with a known strategy.Squad […]

𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝟮.𝟬 & 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗫’𝗦 𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗢𝗥 𝟯 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘 Squad Busters’ original thesis has been falsified. What once seemed like KPI paradise: hypercasual-esque core, aggregating Supercell’s beloved IPs à la Super Smash Bros., and infinite consumable-based monetization with zero marginal cost, is now unrecognizable. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭’𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨! Yet, just a year later, the hypercasual core has vanished, giving way to multiple player-activated abilities and completely removing consumables. Squad Buster 2.0 attempts to simplify nagging launch criticisms, including combat readability, character UX, progression speed, agency out-of-round with unit selection, and agency in-round with abilities. It gets halfway there, but in solving some issues, surfaces others.The original mechanics captured contemporary design zeitgeist: merging, star systems, in-round progression and economy, roguelike, consumables, hero collections, and mods. It’s a system designer’s dream, but it’s spun the […]

𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛 𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗛𝗔𝗖𝗞 Overwatch's new Stadium mode officially marks the launch* of Overwatch 2, building on the previous release's perk system. Inside Stadium, there's one content productivity hack, known previously only to the savviest Steam roguelike indie developers: conditional passives. Retention is the sum of each piece of content multiplied by the level of retentive units that content adds. For example, a profile picture may be low-cost but will likely add only a few units of retention per profile picture. In a world where titles like Call of Duty employ thousands of developers, the counter-thesis can't be to just produce smarter, but under an entirely different system instead. FPS developers quickly realized that map packs are poor retentive units producers. Packs typically resulted in a 2-3 week bump in week-over-week retention before resuming long-run equilibrium. The […]

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗧 𝗕𝗢𝗫𝗘𝗦 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗦𝗧  Nothing is as misunderstood as loot boxes in gaming (virtual currency is a close second). Critics decry them as a normalization of gambling that preys on weak impulse control. Strip away the moral panic, and a sanguine explanation emerges: Loot boxes solve two vexing economic problems. Games create highly variable value among players, and second‑price auctions reveal it. Magic: The Gathering cards and Counter‑Strike weapon skins routinely fetch five- or even six‑figure sums. However, while auction houses help maximize price, they exclude large portions of the player base from participation. Loot boxes address this inequality problem by correlating the reservation price (willingness-to-pay) with the actual price.Like any lottery, loot boxes fractionalize value by creating a chance-based “ticket”. Many games extend this to “shards” or token-like “pieces” of character that may be summoned when players collect a particular amount. This […]

𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗬’𝗦 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗗𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝗛𝗜𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 Monopoly Go (MoPoGo) spent truckloads of capital quickly, but UA is simply maxed out. There’s no better evidence than the game’s shift to celebrity-driven TV advertising following a nearly linear decline in downloads since its August 2023 highs, dropping from 13m a month to 3m. Stocked in the F2P dev/pub medicine cabinet is F2P's natural aspirin, a prescription known for its reliability and convenience: a game extension/re-skin. Embraced by the warm arms of Machine Zone (Game of War/Mobile Strike), King (Candy, Soda Saga), Playtika (Grand Harvest, Disney Solitaire), it’s both a cost and design play. The re-skin "sweet spot" combines what's proven, what's improved, and new audiences—a bastardization of Sid Meier’s Rule of Thirds.The Game of Life (GoLife) leverages what's proven: wealth accumulation, a coop-competitive core, live ops tied to IP, and […]