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Create free accounthello welcome to Pocket Gamer up business YouTube channel I'm John Jordan and this is our first time user experience playlist so let's fire up a game the game we are first-time user experiencing today is battle ages so let's see how we get on so 505 games pretty well-known game publisher not so much on mobile but it's been little bit mobile more in the console world set or straight label to send us push notifications generally this is kind of certainty for me frowned upon I kind of think before you pegged at the game it's nice to then get the option and I think the best game developers don't do this as a the first thing you see get off grunting okay so there's there is aya I la this shaman and so we can see this is going to be a building battler there's an nemesis spelling so the they're coming to attack me Oh dearly my
villages in totaled oh let the straight to the shop defenses up now build so then this mess up before let's go can do it free to less than five minutes okay come on come on still free then hopefully I get anyone okay old free moving back but we're gonna finish them off on it'll be destroyed I build anything else or will my check oh the Legionnaires are attacking Oh safe doing there we go get basic idea the Romans will save us now oh so we're going to quickly go in and we are going to do a
attack in some cold don't wait to see them this is going to help us so what you have got throwing the arches and deploy them it looks suspiciously like see the top of the screen protecting the gold and destroying the basin zero thing whatever I win so so the really confusing thing that I think is the basically were tacking look exactly the same to me as our home so there's a little bit confusing take graphically this is not the most polished thing I've ever seen I think it's very difficult in this nasty clash
of clans being our now for four years almost difficult to stand out I think so interesting here you can see here may not get it for free e ik nodes and timewise campus and boot for free two buildings like waiting for free for less than five minutes for the true that not given that option little bit counterintuitive hunter build another stone workers and this is getting very look at that so it's very interesting so often why you to call the third builder kind of problem or I mean in a lot of those games you've got two builders for free and then you had to pay the pod copy for that for the the third one in this case we've only got one but we can i scan the give us hard currency you're going to have to spend a hard currency to go through the tutorial again something a little thing a little bit is
kind of counterproductive now Benny wait for the tutorial so now we can build two things at the same time and wanted to go through the basic storage kind of on the basic building blocks how you build a basic tank in with those guys so these it's like another sort of battling with this game is one sock troops are employed back again we were always leave the Amish again I think that consists of having armies that you can you having any technical using any damage so why we kind of losing them say that's old-fashioned okay so get choose name but it's just taking it from my game center okay so it's got a bit of
the civilization stuff in the obviously there are games at a very popular abuses civilization brand dot nominations is the big one at the moment from big huge games and nexon and now we can see this is the full screen of beta gone through the tutorial the woman's gone away just let me turn so that's a bit of a hard hard golden handshake got the got to name my my base got how much kerosene and then I'm yeah that's that's it so look around this quite of stuff on the screen as well so there's I guess there's a different things that got shield for another fifty three days and I've got achievements I've got them all those there's my switch the X builder the costs that are researching it constant research assistant to this is the kind of research human level him up his research current even accidentally one thing a time so there we go that's
that some battle ages i would say that would be a fine tutorial in 2014 I think in 2016 there's not much to show me why I would keep going on this game we fought this seven other games and that kind of thing this stuff better unless I'm a big civilization forever and I think as as tutorials go that was a little bit hard and fast it's sort of going through the reason people care about tutorials and while we have this festival experience thing is this is the thing everyone who he's going to go into your gaming experiences so about you Tori off it means you go rather than for like that very much and uninstall it so obviously if you've got some of download your game you want them to like if something for being paying for people to download your game with user acquisition you definitely want to like it otherwise you're you are flashing your money down the down the drain anyway um I think that's enough for the time being so thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel also do a lot of this analysis of free play mobile games
and certainly luck not in this case necessarily put them sometimes we uncover up some gems that aren't really getting a family got not much promotion so it's kind of good for that purpose initial game developer obviously playing on people's games so leave this first amuse experiencing is something you should be doing anyway very important so thanks watching hope to see you again soon goodbye
Battle Ages, a mobile build-and-battler title, serves as a case study for the evolution of first-time user experiences within the strategy genre. Released in 2016, the game utilizes mechanics heavily reminiscent of 2014-era titles, struggling to differentiate itself in a market saturated by established competitors like Clash of Clans and DomiNations. The tutorial process is characterized by a lack of polish and counterintuitive design choices, such as immediate requests for push notification permissions and a forced expenditure of hard currency to progress through basic onboarding steps.
The gameplay loop follows standard genre conventions, including base construction, resource management, and troop deployment. However, the visual presentation suffers from a lack of clarity, particularly regarding the distinction between the player’s base and enemy structures during combat. Furthermore, the game employs an outdated model for unit management, where troops are consumed upon deployment regardless of whether they survive the engagement. While the inclusion of civilization-themed progression adds a layer of depth, the overall execution feels derivative and fails to provide a compelling hook for new players.
The effectiveness of a tutorial is critical for user retention, especially given the high costs associated with user acquisition in the mobile gaming sector. When a game fails to provide a seamless or engaging introduction, users are likely to uninstall immediately, rendering marketing investments ineffective. Battle Ages demonstrates the risks of relying on legacy design patterns in a fast-moving industry. Ultimately, the experience highlights the necessity for developers to prioritize intuitive onboarding and unique value propositions to ensure long-term engagement in a highly competitive landscape.
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PocketGamer.biz · 2016
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