How to fail at hybrid-casual puzzle

How to fail 😩 at hybrid-casual puzzle ⤵️

Recently I’ve worked with several clients transitioning from hypercasual into hybrid-casual.

Mostly puzzle games, which represent ~50% of successful hybrid-casual launches since 2023 (AppMagic data, Arcade is the other 50%)

Each of these developers is doing a LOT of things right.

But they were all making the same mistake:

Underinvesting in or deferring robust loss aversion / streak features.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗦𝗔:

For linear, level-based puzzle games with loss states:

• Streaks systems are not LiveOps
• Streaks are 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲
• Without streaks, I have little concern about losing
• Why boost or revive?  I’ll just lose / try again.
• Do lives motivate? Maybe, but they end the session
• If I don’t care about losing, the economy is inert
• If I don’t engage with the economy, I’ve no interest in RVs or IAPs except maybe ‘remove ads’
• If you have an economy, but trivial engagement with it, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹, 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗮 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 😅
• So, make sure your streak systems are functional 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 it’s time to measure / care about monetization performance.

Best practice seems to (resoundingly) be layered streak events producing the “are you sure? -> are you really really sure?” loss sequence.

All that said, I do have a broader question…

❓Is this (layered streaks and maximal loss aversion) just how puzzle games will be experienced for the foreseeable future?  Will players get tired of this❓