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PocketGamer.biz5 Apr 2016

How Supercell built an nonsensical session rhythm into Clash Royale

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Clash Royale uses a chest reward system as a covert energy-gating mechanic, providing four slots to create a psychological sense of structure and completion.
02
The game design encourages a 12-to-15-minute session rhythm, which is the optimal time required for players to fill their available chest slots.
03
The system effectively outsources the creation of a daily habit to the developer's template, incentivizing players to return throughout the day to manage chest timers.
04
By framing limitations as a reward-collection loop rather than a traditional energy bar, the game avoids the negative player sentiment typically associated with restrictive gating.
05
This model demonstrates that the most effective retention strategies integrate monetization mechanics seamlessly into the core gameplay loop rather than treating them as separate, overt features.
06
Future industry trends suggest a shift toward these sophisticated, user-friendly implementations of free-to-play monetization to maintain engagement while minimizing player frustration.

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Transcript

so another subtle thing in clash Royale that isn't a monetization technique so much as it is a retention technique but it kind of plays again into a slight kite or a very clever understanding of human psychology so if you can see at the bottom I've got one chest full I'm waiting the typical three hours for a silver chest to unlock which is fine now if you're kind of person like me who doesn't spend kind of currency I'm knocking stuff or in general doesn't not say I won't ever but if you're that kind of that kind of mindset then that's basically there's no point playing another battle if I played another battle suming I won all that would happen would i would feel another chess slot obviously I couldn't open that chest until the other chest had opened so I could open it by using kind of gems

to open it but when you talk to people who play clash Royale your kind of I guess the human brain wants to have feel kind of freedom within limits I guess you could call it and by having four slots that gives people the kind of the opportunity kind of the the kind of limit to play four games now if you're very good and you could win all four games that would take you you know 12 13 maybe 14 minutes depending on how much you're kind of messing around with other bits and bobs in the game but if you want is the 33 minutes a session there's four slots to fill you can fill them in you know 12 30 minutes of course you can actually open any the military we're going to kind of be spending money but you could feel at least in some sort of complete this way if they were all kind of were slots were completed then then you've done that kind of sessions were can obviously if you played another fifth battle there's no slot for it to

go so you don't you don't get that there's no point kind of playing any any more than that but actually when you consider it if the majority people most the time are not spending gems to open stuff then i get actually most kind of them you know medium level players and not whales who are spending loads of money to get gems to open them up straight away so this is actually absolutely no point in playing the more than one battle or having one chest opening at a time but because supercell have given you the option to fill four then you kind of go well why would I do that because the games are so quick to do you don't really feel kind of the the issue in in depending 15-20 minutes doing that how many people I guess that would be they do that one today no they would feel complete with that was their session no filling I filled the four slots and then they can just dip in over the rest of the day as

the chest become available to unlock so it may be the first thing in the morning you do that and then the rest of the day you would you would just you know open up the slope that open up a chest as it comes available and start the timer for the next stop and that's something I think a few game developers kind of think about that how you could have built a daily rhythm into the game the players will come up with a daily rhythm they will hate you they will you know if there's not anything provided for them they will come up with the rhythm of their own life and how that the game that they play the most fits into that but by doing it this way supercell has kind of provided a template for how people should play the game then unless you're pigheaded like me which often most people aren't thank goodness you you will tend to play in the way that the developer lays it open to you and yet obviously other in the other kind of big system that people would have to do that is in energy system people don't

like energy systems players in general feel energy systems are quite restrictive but to a degree you know I've done is thought about an energy system which is only a system that gates the amount of times you can play via time energy systems basically you use up all the energy and then you either pay money to get more energy or you wait until the energy you know kind of refills over time and that's what it's doing with this is kind of combined an energy system within the within the chest system but it's kind of hidden it so people don't know there's an energy system there at all but effective it's doing the same thing and again that's kind of a clever way of using a well-understood technique for gating session time with the with also the option of monetization but not doing in such a way that players go all there's a time energy gate here that's all for a hater and actually the more you kind of get into battle royale you kind of see the clever thing of supercell has done is do things that

have been done overtly by other developers and who have been criticized for that thing but super still have done them you know in a covert way and in a way that's so well integrated into a game that people enjoy playing that they have actually enhanced what in other developers kind of examples or games would actually come across in quite a negative manner so that's a the kind of thing that's the developers need to be thinking about not necessarily kind of rewriting the rulebook in terms of monetization techniques or attention techniques but thinking how they can apply them to the games they're making you know in situ to the kind of loops and the kind of gameplay and kind of meta game that they're providing to play it because that's going to be the obvious I'm sure what we will see in the next wave of free-to-play games that will be helped clash royale will influence the next wave of free-to-play games

Summary

Clash Royale utilizes a sophisticated retention strategy by integrating a subtle, covert energy system into its chest reward mechanic. While mathematically inefficient for non-spending players to fill more than one chest slot at a time, the game provides four slots to create a psychological sense of completion and structure. By allowing players to fill these slots through a short, 12-to-15-minute gameplay session, the design establishes a clear daily rhythm that encourages consistent engagement without the overt frustration typically associated with traditional energy-gating systems.

This approach effectively masks monetization and session-gating techniques that are often criticized when implemented explicitly. By framing the limitation as a reward-collection loop rather than a restrictive energy bar, the game guides player behavior toward a predictable, recurring schedule. Players are incentivized to return throughout the day to unlock chests and initiate new timers, effectively outsourcing the creation of a daily habit to the developer’s template rather than leaving it to the player’s own initiative.

The success of this model demonstrates that the most effective retention strategies are those that integrate seamlessly into the core gameplay loop. Rather than inventing entirely new mechanics, the industry can achieve better results by refining existing, well-understood techniques to fit the specific context of a game. This strategy highlights a shift toward more sophisticated, user-friendly implementations of free-to-play monetization, suggesting that future titles will likely prioritize these covert, integrated systems to maintain player interest while avoiding the negative perceptions associated with traditional, restrictive gating methods.