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Lord of the Board: Backgammon

Lord of the Board: Backgammon

Itai Handler - Itai@hey.com - 052-4305010 - January 2021
💪 Work efforted - 22 hours | ⏲ Read time - 25min
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Core Loop

Main characteristics and features

❗
I'll focus on the key features, additional features listed but not fully described

Roll back the dice (Time-machine) - PRD

Get back what you lost ⌛

My approach

I’ll address this issue using the following steps:
  • My goal is to find how to get the users high intensity after a high-roller's game, translated into action (in-game pucrases) to increase Retention & Monetization
  • Moty the longtime player, after "16X+ing"* a game's stake (and getting a high rush!) and losing, wants to avoid getting back to 0$ cash.
    • "16X+ing"* → (while challenging the opponent, the player can double the stakes, in advance tables the stakes can get up to X62)
  • Practical solutions:
      • On game over, offer a turn back time for onetime fee.
      Pros:
      • Lavage the pick of the rush to get an action.
      • Clear distinct feature.
      • Short quick dev time.
      Cons:
      • Adds a purchase type in app store (more is not necessarily better).
      • Player may skip it due to high rush.
      • Changes the games architecture (backend)
      General score: 08
      Add a permanent Time-Machine on main screen where you can pay per game turned back. Possible Easter-egg, after x amount of turn backs in one use, show an old main page skin (with option to revert to the regular main screen)
      Pros:
      • Full main feature that will by introduce to the core game loop.
      • The user will know every time where to buy this in-game purchase.
      Cons:
      • Full main feature that will by introduce to the core game loop.
      • Expansive to develop.
      • Adds a purchase type in app store (more is not necessarily better).
      General score: 03:
      Offer a
      🎡
      SUPER SPIN       with a "Time Machine" (which holds last game losses) as the lowest prize amount, and change the "Are you sure" massage to indicate that the lowest prize is the players "Time-capsule"
      Pros:
      • Lavage the pick of the rush to get an action.
      • Familiar feature, the player knows what to expect (no need for further tutorials).
      • Short quick dev time. and minimal UI Team involvement.
      Cons:
      • Player may skip it due to habit (due to skipping every time on entry to the main screen).
      • May confuse players due to multiple Super Spin features.
      General score: 09
🎡
Considering the detailed Pros & Cons and strategical direction I would favor solution Offer a SUPER SPIN with a "Time Machine". The option Permanent Time-Machine is problematic because It has a lower ROI in compression, the option On game over is at substantial risk due to introduction of a new mechanic.
Some pitfalls that may occur:
  • Could increase Exit Rate from App after loss, due to annoying popups.
⭐
Success criteria Increase Moty'sLTV (Life Time Value) & ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User) over a week.

Goal

Get the users high intensity after a high-roller's game, translated into action!

Base Assumptions

  • → Moty's story average Lost Value is:
      • And
  • Moty's average SS ARPPU < Average Player average SS ARPPU (and this feature could change it)
  • We determined the priority of this feature as high 🔥 (or at least higher than the rest of the upcoming tasks)

Affected Players & pain points

The affected users are longtime players who play on Competitor ranking or above.
The main pain points I wish to tackle is: As a player I have a high rush from a an high stake game and I lost all my cash.

General description

It's the same Super Spin we all know and love, but with "Time Machine" mechanism
  • The lowest prize will be the stake lost.
  • Time Machine theme

Process

1️⃣
On Game Over screen of a game with high stake 16X++
2️⃣
offer Time Spin with small popup

Wireframes

Screenshot mockup
notion image

Workflow

After approval of the development of the feature, these tasks are to be done:
🎨 Design tasks:
  • Design art:
      • Spin wheel background
      Fun win animation after spin
  • Design assets:
      • Time capsule
💻 Frontend tasks:
First pop up interaction
Time capsule mechanic
Use game lost value in wheel min value
Move the exit button to the left side of Time Spin screen
Move the exit button to the left side of "Are you sure" popup
Change the "are you sure" popup to reference the lost cash.
QA the transaction mechanism.
🚀 Pre/On launch:
QA feature.
A/B test the feature on a small longtime players pool.
Hit an espresso ☕
Launch.

Time estimation

Todo: get the estimation from the R&D team lead.

Success criteria

To measure the effectiveness of our new feature for all those affected, we will use the following success criteria.
Player' success criteria:
  1. An increase in the retention and game play time!
Company-wide success criteria:
  1. An increase in the ARPPU KPI
  1. An increase in the PPU KPI

Future work

  • Re-elevate the feature.
  • On successes, test a robust version of the Time Machine.
Extra Thoughts:
  • Turn the leaderboard to a progress system! by scaling Win-rate
      • Right now, the leaderboard is for maybe 5 people in each country, If It will be based on skill, a new gamer can actually feel like climbing the leaderboard!
  • How come I didn't encounter a Daily rewards system?
      • especially after I realized in the first two days how challenging is to gets a new Dice et, I'd love to get a daily reward of jokers and once a month a special Dice set (Hearthstone monthly card back style)
  • Add a dice luck games (with the players dice skin) to win quick cash (like the roulette)