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PocketGamer.biz17 Jul 2013

Monetizer: 2K's Turd Birds

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Cat Daddy Games and 2K utilize an aggressive monetization model in 'Turd Birds' that prioritizes immediate revenue conversion over long-term player retention.
02
The game's core mechanics are leveraged to create frustration, using limited resources as a primary driver for in-app purchases within the endless runner genre.
03
The user experience is structured to force frequent redirection to the in-game store, beginning within the first few minutes of play.
04
The monetization strategy relies on a dual-currency system that highlights the disparity between limited player resources and high upgrade costs to drive store engagement.
05
The game employs a coercive design that prompts players to spend hard currency gems to continue gameplay sessions immediately following a failure.
06
Unlike standard industry practices, the game omits complimentary currency gifts during the initial session, failing to habituate players to the spending process through positive reinforcement.

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Transcript

[Music] okay and welcome to pocketgamer.businessmonetizer this is a uh a uh bit of the site where we look at the first uh kind of a couple of minutes really the tutorial of um of some games and look to see what the user experience is like and particularly kind of focusing on the on the monetizing all the way way developers are looking to monetize particularly in the early stages of a game not really going hours into the gameplay and stuff but just to get an impression of kind of what what um kind of techniques people are using so um again we'll look at uh today is uh turd birds a lovely sounding name from um 2k so let's um it's an endless runner so we've turned the turn the ipad round to a portrait mode let's start the stopwatch and see what the experience is like okay first thing we see is if you'd like to send us push notifications i'm really not a big fan of the first thing i see is push notifications although every game pretty much every

game i've played them um seems to do this i think it's as much if i've just if i'm just experiencing i don't really know that much about it just downloaded it i don't know although you know i think we all get just too many push notifications um i think this could be done in a slightly better way so i'm going to not allow this for the time being okay so the developer is cat daddy games published by 2 2k um there we go yeah i'm sure that bird can aerodynamically fly [Music] okay so here we go

this is quite nice this is a casual game so i've not been too heavy with this um signing to facebook to people my friends i mean they don't have to do that they have to log in or anything um there's a few of these things here and come have a look back come and have a look back at later but let's just hit this button and see what goes on hopefully we don't have to tilt we'll get to it too much i'm just swiping all right yeah okay so swiping time you'll tap to poop on the people and click coins use coins to purchase items like this in the store [Music] obviously you're uh you're floating so it's perceptions a little bit off here i'm never used to it collect feathers to unlock more birds okay so we get feather boxes will give me feathers so feathers obviously seem to be currency [Music] so i've got a shield coming up power-ups

egg power-ups give me more life upgrade parrots from the store okay okay mystery boxes contain random loot so poop on them [Applause] nope miss that quick challenges a bit of extra coins splat the brat where's the brat so this is a kind of typical endless runner thing spend a splendid gem to continue my game could you know oh you're a short one generally like to buy them so um this is a coercive technique i'm really not keen on this at all so i've played this game i've got any gems

and i've already been taken to the to a hard cash store and potentially already been asked to pay 45 quid oh on so they've got two currencies two two hard currencies got gems and coins um no i'm not gonna do that so i don't care probably it's not very good and [Music] so it's fred's my bird i get more birds consuming so again i'm being offered to buy it the extra life is 59 gold obviously that was a terrible worm going but i've only got seven [Music] so there's a store i guess we've seen that so it goes to the store at the end of every session we're gonna get thrown back to the store um so that's what i'm gonna win i'm gonna

go in a hundred if i manage to do it probably won't because i'm playing a slightly weird position and i'm not very good at games obviously so what's the ufo doing oh okay [Music] so really shouting out trouble in this game okay so um despite me being pretty bad at it this is actually while you're getting into the game quite quickly and it's quite a casual game is i mean not i don't know i'm quite surprised actually that um the first time you play the game doesn't give you a coin that's kind of quite a well-known technique now people are using to go you're in a situation where you haven't got a coin but it's your first time so i'll give you a coin to get you into the habit of um of kind of using a coin or a gem or something to kind of get what you want and then and then that's you feel kind of you feel like that's the way to

play the game really um so uh i'm gonna do some number clutching on turbo but i'm gonna i think it's gonna come up with with a fairly high what i'm calling a monetization coefficient um yeah it's a that's an interesting one okay that's turd birds from 2k games you

Summary

Turd Birds, an endless runner developed by Cat Daddy Games and published by 2K, utilizes an aggressive monetization strategy that prioritizes immediate conversion over player retention. The user experience begins with a standard request for push notifications, followed by a tutorial that introduces a dual-currency system consisting of soft currency coins and hard currency gems. The game mechanics center on collecting feathers to unlock new characters and utilizing power-ups, such as shields and extra lives, to extend gameplay sessions.

The monetization model relies heavily on coercive techniques, specifically prompting players to spend hard currency to continue a run immediately after a failure. This design forces users into the in-game store frequently, even during the initial minutes of play. The game lacks a common industry practice of providing a complimentary currency gift during the first session, which typically serves to habituate players to the spending process. Instead, the game highlights the disparity between the player's limited resources and the high cost of upgrades, creating a persistent pressure to engage with the hard cash store.

The overall approach reflects a high monetization coefficient, characterized by constant redirection to the store at the conclusion of gameplay sessions. While the core mechanics are accessible and casual, the aggressive integration of microtransactions and the lack of a player-friendly onboarding experience suggest a focus on rapid revenue generation from the earliest stages of the user journey. The game’s structure serves as an example of how mobile titles leverage frustration and limited resources to drive in-app purchases within the competitive endless runner segment.