Out of the Box Live Events Insights - Wilhelm Voutilainen, GameRefinery.

[Music] [Music] [Music] today's session is going to be about Live Events particularly outof the Box Live Events insides uh my name is Willam W I'm the chief game Analyst at game refiner uh lift of company and we are the leading uh game analytics platform for features Live Events player motivations and so on uh today's agenda

is really interesting so we first we're going to look at a different uh event framework showcases then we're going to hop right into the out of the box insides we're going to look at mini games win win streak twists social events and I would say last but most important in interconnecting events so I would stay super focused right till the end uh but let's start uh so first why are we looking at outof thebox live event insights well live live Ops has been the key success factor from the beginning of the freeo playay games but mostly at the start it was just about adding new content features and so on but nowadays as the market has majored Live Events particularly have become kind of the major part of liveops and nowadays if you want to succeed and have a good player engagement you almost must have some kind of event framework going on your in your game these event Frameworks can include for example in casual games really often include various kind of task events leader

competitions and these longer seasonal events like pal passes but on top of having a great uh event framework as player engagement nowadays it's really more important than ever the top performing games are looking to improve this even further by uh further um adding higher production values and innovating inside the event framework so for example what this means is having interesting twist and mechanics having mini games limited time game modes especially in the mid core adding interesting social layers having event in their connections uh teams and even story elements but then let's hop right into a great example of the currently top Crossing match Tre game Royal match so they basically from the lounge they had a really solid uh event framework going on on the blue we have the padle pass it's all right we have the padle pass in the blue then on the then on the brown we have lots of kill DS going on on the red they had their list of these

solo tournament competitions uh and and of course in the light green as well they had their task event so basically this weekly event format going on almost pretty much from the lounge of the game but especially during the past year they've added more to increase engagement and and especially these higher production value events like the dragons Nest C event which we're going to look at later really interesting one uh two different mini game events they are running uh back to back nowadays and this lava gu social win streak event that we going to look at later but then another example I want to bring up The Phase 10 which is currently the number one Crossing this kind of C SL board game uh their event framework looks really different uh so while they don't have the same amount of events that doesn't particularly mean that their event framework wouldn't work so while they have their own set of solo compe competition events they focus on mostly on these main teen events so they are focusing on lesser number of events but then focusing on having larger events then they usually last from 20 days to

about 1 month for example during the Christmas they had this winter wonder roll event which was this kind of Bard game event with combinate with renovate renovation elements and also some competition elements so basically wholly different approach and this is kind of what you often used also in the midcore games but it really works for them uh but then talking about mini games let's hop right into the outof the Box insides and when we are talking about mini games we have to talk about play so play ER is known for utilizing mini games as one of their kind of the main event types across their whole portfolio so Township uh you have homecapes Garden Scapes and also fishdom all utilizing these kind of mini games they've had in the past some side renovation events makeover events kind of similar gameplay to the project makeover they've had decoration shop events even hyper casual mini games uh and also even tested this kind of mahajong solitary mini game which kind of like was was introduced by Zen match as as well but actually past in the past

year they have shifted almost completely to having just two types of mini games going on so exploration and merge basically going from back to back in all of their for titles this of course Rises the question maybe these exploration merge event give the best player engagement for them and the best return on investment as well uh and of course which is really interesting is the player pics basically recycles these event assets and stories in their exploration merge events in all of those four games and also when they bring the same events in the future they always have the same mechanics and bring basically recycling assets always adding new teams to keep it interesting as well there also a really good example if you have multiple games and you want to have great event framework in all of those this is a approach to consider for sure uh of course in with the merge and the exploration event is really interesting that they don't only support the core gameplay Loop of the game so of course you have the player to if you

want to progress in the event you have to play the core match trees but they also have direct monetization S as well in both game games uh sorry both cases you need this energy which can be then directly purchased as well and there's also this event boost and everything going on and also really want to add here that that there's so much depth in this in these events basically kind of feel like their own games and really like the newest example that was actually just introduced by homescapes at the start of this year was this restoration event uh this is really interesting kind of feels like this exploration event 2.0 what how it basically works the player plays the core gameplay then finds these uh uh gets this energy to find these resources on a map then uses those resources to basically uh build materials and the uses those materials then the the build the whole area around so it basically mixes kind of this uh renovation with adventures and even with Tycoon elements uh this is also really interesting case

here is also interesting to see if player is going to be utilizing this kind of event in the future uh and really want to highlight here how basically these Scapes games have evolved from being just match trees with renovation and your basically your normal type of events with these many games these these uh Scapes games and all of these play titles have become this kind of this platform of games you have Match Tree you have exploration you have Tycoon elements you have him merge so what it means for them their players doesn't necessarily have to move away from let's say playing homescapes they get all of those casual trending gameplay lines right inside that game but of course this takes a lot of resources having these kind of fully fledged almost full game like events so let's look at next about digging mini gamess which are much simpler but I would say it's the right now the kind of the top Trend in the top performing games so the core idea in digging mini games is basically to play the core gameplay of the game to get these pickaxes or some other currency then you

use those pickaxes to basically uh remove these tiles from this crit area to then you want to find these kind of gems or other rewards when you find that you move on the next grd and you get rewarded a Royal match was basically the trend setor in this event they introduced at the hidden templ event already back in June but lots of other top titles from all around the different casual Charmers have followed in so for example Monopoly go casual casino game everybody knows that uh is utilizing this event Chrome wall Customs which the match tree but bit more of this male focus is already using this event and also in the merge we have gos paror that already used this event so it seems to be really this kind of like trending type but I would say the most unique implementation definitely goes to cooking Madness of this event because they have actually merged this kind of Dicky mini game into their padle pass so the ble pass otherwise it's a basic basic padal pass you play the core game play you get the progression you unlock the RS from the free and premium track but but instead of getting the

progression instantly when you play the core game play You're then playing this digging mini game u in the side and that way you get the progress but of course while this idea is really Innovative it kind of introduced this role of Randomness that you might if you if you can't find it find find the item in the grid you might not get palas progression so it's really interesting to see if googie Madness which time management game will be adding these mechanic inter F future battle passes which would then we could see that hey did it work for for them or not but then uh let's look at the wi streak events then so definitely uh sort of kind of like almost like a must to have mechanic nowadays if you are in this kind of these level based puzzle games or level based casual games uh most of the titles have this so at least I mean at least the normal implementation which is usually during the event you have want to complete levels without failing the more you complete without failing the better rewards if you fail then be you basically lose a lot of the possible

rewards of course this increases the sort of monetization a lot during the event as the players is super inse to you know purchase boosters and do whatever it takes to not to fail you know purchase those uh continues and red rise but of course this is kind of like a basic event nowadays so know what happened here all right we're back so uh I would say one of the most we have seen of course win streaks in battle pass plans and so on those are really interesting but I would say the most interesting most kind of like trending right now are the social aspects in win streak so this was actually again popularized by Royal match with their lava guest event and the basic idea is that you get matched you enter the event you get matched with 99 other players uh and then you basically have to complete certain amount of levels in a row usually it's seven if you manage to complete with all those levels in a row uh you get to the

end and you share the reward huge reward price with all of those players who made it till the end so it's kind of feels like a competition is not really not but it's got like have this really interesting social layer to it but uh triple MRI actually had a really interesting version of this so they have more levels to complete inside the one day event so 21 total but they have these checkpoints where you can basically choose to exit and get small amount of rear so it kind of introduces interesting kind of this risk to reward type of element to it and of course uh with the triple match 3D they basically run the event three times per week on average but then if you look at the other titles that implemented this kind of event they usually have only those seven levels to complete Lily Garden tomb blast two dots Royal match they run this pretty much every single day so they this with this event they really increased like the total gadance of events per week that they have uh but talking about then social another really interesting type

so this event type that was was first introduced by Monopoly go uh talking about partner events and these are really good example of having this communal social task inside your game without needing necessarily A Team or Guild system or without player needing to be in one so in the monopolis goes part beging Partners you are partnering with four other players you basically play the core gaml uh to get every C then you spin this wheel and then you get this event progression in this event case you be basically baking this cake with one other player uh and as you are kind of like uh cooperating with just one other single player and not the whole full of team this can possibly make it more uh kind of like personal and more engaging for the player if you compare it to that it's it's it's just you and them and no one else compared to you have a team of 20 or 40 players who are cre doing the test there player

might feel that maybe they their like progression doesn't matter that much but in this it's way more personal and that way possibly more engaging M body go really cleverly also has this same mechanic in like they've run many of they've run many of these kind of these social uh one oneto one events but they always bring a new team to it so it feels refreshing for the player but again many of of the top Crossing games have already also implemented this kind of event so they clearly work but the really interesting one is the Royal matches Dragon Nest event which has the same kind of mechanics as Monopoly go but instead of having the sort of you rolling the uh spinning the wheel sorry uh you're actually playing this Plinko board mini game you you have the mini game layer on top of it and then based on your your your success in the mini game you then get the event progression in this Royal matches case you're basically Rising dragons with with one one other player uh and of course the dragons as well they fit really well to the Royal matches kind of this fantasy

Kingdom kind of team uh but then I would say last but most important is the interconnection of these events when you have these unique events going on when you have a really good event framework you want to make sure that your events and the whole game is interconnected together so players is incentivized to participate in everything and they're always making meaningful progress no matter what event they take part in so some like not super new but of course collectibl albums have been and passed in a really great way to do this basically you either have this limited time or permanent collect this album usually it's cards or stickers that you collect from all around the game from different kind of events if you manage to feel the collect this album then you get these huge rewards and of course Lily Gard is actually really good example of having these mechanics so uh they have this side renovation meta so of course in the the main meta in L Gardens you renovating this Garden but there's also this permanent rooms that you need to collect these blue tickets and where you get these tickets is from different kind of events in the game and same with Lily

Garden they are also running these kind of these makeover events where you need these makeover tokens and again where you get those is from different kind of events and offers so whenever you participa in events in Lily Garden you're always making some kind of meaningful permanent progression to the room renovation and also this limited time progression to these limited time events so you like super easy device to participating in events and you're always making this progression but then I would say super interesting one can work in midcore in casual no matter what kind of game is season sub system so Clash Royale is a really good example of this so they basically overhauled their entire or not entire but like most of their events in in in back in April last year and they what they used to have is just one of weekly event modes with separate reward so everything kind of felt a bit separate and not that connected but with this new system each season basically has its own shop which connects everything together so over the the course of the Season you're collecting these tokens from different

events in the game so event modes P basses and so on and then the season tokens are then used in the shop to purchase various kind of items and of course when the season resets the tokens resets so players are always in device to come back each season play all the different kind of events and then they get to choose which rers they purchase and of course this is kind of really interesting one if we look at the revenue graph monthly Revenue iOS Revenue graph of clash Royale so that's a point basically where they over their uh their season up system they also overhaul their P pass system and of course most likely run some UA campaigns as well and we can if we compare it to the sort of November November last year they have almost doubled their monthly Crossing revenue on iio so of course season shop was not the main part here but definitely part of the overall overhaul of the event system so really interesting graph there uh and then I really wanted to bring out this example from LA and Pi just to like show that you don't need to have a midcore game to

have a season shop system so la and Pi it's a merge game uh they introduced this hard shop which is limited time shop uh back in uh May last year uh and similarly to The Clash Royals season shop you play this events all around the game you got get this hard currency which is then used to purchase different kind of materials permanent decorations to your your area and so on and again it's gives this extra inen device for the players to participate in the events and also let the players to choose their own reward so some player might like some other decorative some player might some other decorative and they can choose and having this kind of currency system also means that you can add additional monetization sys to your game for example if a player is missing a little bit of currency and the season shop is about to end you can have these targeted offers for example that hey maybe you want to purchase this amount of currency and then you can you know get the get the rest of the items purchased and so on but again really can work in all all around the games we have seen like in the PC World as well where

War for example when the newest expansion have has a season sh I think it's called like Trading Post uh so it used all around in different kind of games so I would definitely consider this one to interconnect your events but then let's go the key takeaways then so if we look at the mon success of Monopoly go and Royal match and if we look at their live Frameworks they had a really working solid Li and framework from the lounge of the game pretty much they have the good set of events so so when you are even thinking about your game designing it start already thinking your life of strategy and the event framework from that point of course social elements they have proven to work for few years now so it's really good to incorporate different kind of social elements to your to your uh events of course have a coherent event framework what this means have a good list of different kinds of events in your game which then support the core gameplay Loop and the whole sort of whole sort of core Loop of your game to again incentivize to players to participate in

everything uh and so on and then of course as we just checked interconnect your events to even further the engagement with season shops or uh these collec albums or side metas like Lily garden and so on and then for example like playc or mono reuse your reuse your resources in different parts of your game and events for example uh the really the monyo goes the the the social partner is a really good example they have the same mechanic in each of the events they just replace the team to make the event feel uh new and refreshing and then of course check what's work in the market look at what the top you know games are doing look what they are not doing and look especially what they have sort of stopped doing and what they have replaced those features or events with and then last but not least definitely look at all the different genes if you want to really differentiate from the competition don't just look at your your direct competitors if you're in the Casual look at what the midcore games

are doing and so forth uh because we have seen many of these examples they can impl implemented in a more midcore way or in the more casual way so definitely do that yes we're in the end so thank you fantastic I really appreciate the uh the load of detail there that you included in there the samples of games and and for going at a pace to catch up with with time I appreciate that I tell you what we are about 5 minutes behind in this room but I'll tell you what why don't we see if there's a question from the audience just uh maybe there's one question we can take here if not what I will say is um of course probably find you on Meet to match will and catch up outside or outside or maybe have a drink at the party tonight and ask any that maybe um uh so look let's leave it there thank you very much will that was great I really appreciate it so thank you thank you thank thank [Applause] you