How do we get spend depth above $100k for a hybrid-casual game?
Client: “How do we get spend depth above $100k for a hybrid-casual game?”
Wittle Defender (Habby) is the latest, and arguably most casually-packaged example of the AFK Arena-inspired ‘Idle RPG’ economy.
For anyone who hasn’t worked on ‘Idle RPGs’, the most defining features of the genre, from the economy perspective, are:
1) DEEP reliance on gacha duplicate fusion.
2) A reasonably small pool of heroes (20-40, not 200).
3) Automation of nearly all inventory management.
4) Economies that are VERY generous to players who engage consistently, while being VERY extractive for whales who are impatient enough to pay ‘retail price’ to progress.
In these games, gachas are pulled thousands of times. Most pulls yield duplicates of heroes already owned, and dupes are instantly converted into currencies (often element and rarity-specific).
The result is a casual, accessible experience with extraordinary spend depth.
In WD’s case, just 8 Mythic Heroes (so far) generate $𝟰𝟮𝗸 of ‘gacha fusion’ spend depth alone, by virtue of needing 37 copies* ea. at a 2.5% drop rate from primary gacha, at $3.60 per pull.
How can one achieve similar spend-depth design for games without character collection?
WD’s treasures (account-level gear) system uses gacha duplicate fusion similarly to add $𝟴𝟳𝗸 more spend depth. Each of WD’s 36 common treasure types can be fused all the way through the tree to max-rarity, but each requires 𝟭𝟬𝟴𝟬 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗲𝘀 to do so.
While WD has about $170k spend depth today, the economy systems convert new content into additional spend depth very rapidly.
If WD releases one new Mythic hero (with corresponding 2 treasures) weekly (+$10k), the game will cross $300k spend depth in just 3 months.
That said, we expect that Habby will do much more, both on the systems and content front.
FWIW, I’m not saying that this game is guaranteed to succeed. As a player, my initial reaction was that the gameplay was too automated and repetitive for my tastes.
But when it comes to basic economy design, WD is yet another Habby exemplar that hybrid-casual developers can study and model.
