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PocketGamer.biz26 May 2016

FTUE: Crashing Season

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Koukoi’s 'Crashing Season' suffers from high user friction due to a disjointed onboarding process and unclear level objectives that risk early player abandonment.
02
Physics-based controls are inconsistent, causing unintended failure states and making environmental navigation difficult for the player.
03
The implementation of rewarded video advertisements immediately after the first level disrupts the core gameplay loop before players understand the value of the currency rewards.
04
The title utilizes a standard mobile monetization model featuring a dual-currency system, energy-based progression, and rewarded video advertisements.
05
The game restricts character upgrades behind level-based experience thresholds, preventing players from utilizing earned gold and gems until specific milestones are met.
06
While the game features unique mechanics like a time-slowing snail helper, a lack of visual feedback prevents these features from effectively driving user engagement.

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Transcript

hello and welcome to pocket gamer. bu's YouTube channel I'm John Jordan and this is our first time user experience playlist so the game we're playing today is called crashing season from the de developer I right probably not how you pronounce it because they're finnished and I was pronouncing it like maybe Japanese anyway um so it's it's their debut game and it's a endless kind of Runner destruction kind of game so you go through this uh kind of little intro sequence it's all kind of low poly stuff um that's the kind of art style and you play animals and you bash things up so let's see how we get on so okay I'm going into the straight into the game going to the first level so um what have we got so let's have a look we've got a

bear is the first character we can use um there's a few things um that all have zeros by them so let's just go to start start crashing look enemies survive seconds gain Health in the forest okay we can't see how we to save turn Okay so just press left and right move around use rocks to knock out enemies or just run over them so the controls are a little bit little bit getting used to oh he's shooting at me I need something with a bit more I'm getting shot I'm turning the wrong way okay I should be the gam tester on this is much harder already in the tutorial go these guys shooting me oh I've got my Spin Attack my Spin Attack okay so I did okay not not great leaves are coming at his bottom I don't know about that okay so what we going um so this is kind of interesting so

done finished the first level and I'm um got my gold and it's kind of saying I can get 100 gold if I watch a video ad um kind of interesting place to put a video ad um Again the video ad for mobile strike from uh machine zone or MZ as they're known which seems to be um the ad you generally seem to see quite a lot of because they spend a lot of money ading so um I don't really know I would necessarily put the rewarded video ad just after the level it's quite a big break this fairly long video um okay I'm getting more gold so I guess for me as a player but I don't really know how much Gold's worth at the moment all I know is I'm getting a lot more gold for watching that video than I did for finishing the mission so now 128 um new XP level um what do I press now there um okay new goals get a reward okay usual stuff so let's go and play another level I have to tap that door

need more gold okay so got loads of gold now now I got some diamonds as well some gems that's the hard currency we would imagine okay let's go and do number two I still got my I still I can up can I not upgrade my character oh so that's a bit annoying I say that's a bit annoying I've got now I've got 528 Golds and I I need 400 to upgrade my bear but I can't upgrade my bear because I have to be XP level six yeah I don't like that very much that that's that's a minus Point okay so I got this I've got to use the Bear's ability which I didn't use last time because I was bit incompetent now oh w i the physics error bit Bonkers um so it's kind of physics is a big thing here okay so that was bizarrely much easier than the first level not so sure about that I'm not going to watch another video level um only got 12 gold there that's a bit rubbish so um I've unlock the Moose now

okay Al i' got 200 gold okay not what's going with this gold wow loads of Diamonds though okay to 200 gold to unlock the Moose okay yeah he looks chunky doesn't he KO with bear what's that I don't really understand what that is okay start with the Moose oh is this same level as I had before yeah okay still not totally convinced about the controls I have to say oh oh I failed that's failure State it's particularly early on in the game to have like a big pond that you fall into CU I'm TR

oh there's more of them coming out okay not his secret thing was his special move yeah I'm not sure not convinced about this trolls we're going to crash we're going to fall in the Lake OH worries me but they did not complete it so they don't really understand what's going on now maybe have to do it with the bear I don't understand I don't understand I'm going to fall in the lake again what's down there oh there's more guys down here okay this the same level different level now I'm confused okay so let's go back and do with the bear then I think that's what it's trying to tell me oh my goal is got to get six car with the bear he's a bit more maneuverable I put that Lake right there

don't get from behind no yes um is gold I guess I'm up here let's go around here and they stun that's why they're going all Go's done so pass that level eventually so not sure about the flow of this really um going to get some more stuff here more gems they really give me a lot of gems okay so that was all to level two okay um it's interesting got these currency and stuff not sure I can oh not sure I can use it I got some looks like there's an energy system here as well so um survive for 15 seconds Ko's with

moose so I have to go the Moose that's a bit odd unlock snail helper oh I definitely have a snail helper oh he slows down time okay so start where's my snail helper then oh he's okay so I just use okay so he's not actually doesn't appear on the screen that's a shame not like a little sna helping me what are these looking he's whoa I'm going off the cliff these are women archers oh cuz I'm tapping the snouting B keep slowing down need should be to destroy more

stuff should know maybe power destroy okay so there we go I think that's kind of enough of crashing season you see nice art style doing something a little bit different not quite sure the flow um of the tutorial was right I was a bit confused by what was going on um and not entirely sure that that the physics um was as smooth as it would like to as I would have liked it to have been anyway um so that's crashing season so we do a lot of this um first time new experience where we talking really more about the flow of the game um CU I think it's very important once someone's downloaded your game you want to get them into it and enjoying the first few levels before they decide what they're going to do I keep playing or spend money or maybe delete it if they don't like it very much um so thanks for watching if this is the kind of thing you like to um view then don't forget to subscribe so we do a lot of this first time user experience uh videos and we also do some more in-depth ones about monetization and VAR things that going

on in the freet to-play mobile game Space so um subscribe and you want me a thing

Summary

Crashing Season, a debut title from Finnish developer Koukoi, is an endless runner-style destruction game featuring a low-poly aesthetic. The core gameplay involves controlling various animals to bash through environments and defeat enemies using physics-based movement and special abilities. The game incorporates standard mobile monetization mechanics, including rewarded video advertisements, a dual-currency system consisting of gold and gems, and an energy-based progression structure.

The user experience reveals significant friction in the game’s onboarding and progression flow. While the game provides immediate access to characters like the bear and the moose, it imposes restrictive level-based requirements for character upgrades, preventing players from utilizing earned currency until they reach specific experience thresholds. The tutorial and level progression lack clarity, often leaving players confused regarding objectives and character-specific requirements. Furthermore, the physics-based controls are described as inconsistent, leading to unintended failure states and difficulty navigating environmental hazards.

The implementation of rewarded video ads immediately following the first level creates a disruptive break in the gameplay loop, particularly as the value of the rewarded gold remains opaque to new players. Although the game introduces unique mechanics, such as a time-slowing snail helper, the lack of visual feedback and the disjointed progression system hinder the overall engagement. The experience highlights the critical importance of intuitive onboarding and smooth gameplay flow in retaining new users, as the current design risks player frustration and abandonment due to unclear goals and mechanical inconsistencies.