16 reasons why players leave your game

Players leave the game. According to one source, on average less than 40% of players return to the free game after the first time. The most important task of a game designer is to create an exciting product. We make games to make it fun to play. If they leave our games too often and quickly, we have not done the job.

Reflecting on why players leave your game, you put yourself in their place. Your financial success depends on the size of the audience - especially if your monetization occurs through in-game purchases. The two main reasons for leaving the player - frustration and boredom. They are the main enemies of the “ stream ”. The flow is a state of consciousness characterized by a sense of active concentration and absorption in the current activity. It is in this state that we strive to introduce players - regardless of the genre of the game.
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Our task as game designers is to approach the development of positive psychology. Retention of players is reduced to the development of a product that creates a stream condition. Do not confuse this with casual games or games built on the repetition of simple tasks. In the article, I collected material for the checklist — the reasons why players can leave the game are listed in descending order of importance. Make sure you check all the items in the list.

1. Your game has a bad intro.

From the very start of the game you need to give users a reason to stay with the game. The title screen, the loading screen and the first level will make the first impression about the game - and it will remain with them, even if they do not immediately delete your game.

2. The game takes too much time

Residents of modern society feel a constant lack of time. Most likely, your players are already overloaded with notifications and other applications that are trying to get their attention. If you are developing a game for adults - they probably already have a job and a family, who select most of the time. They can not play for hours.

Passing a certain stage of the game should not take an hour. Of course, it is not necessary to follow the fashion and reduce the time for the stage to 2-5 minutes. If you count on experienced players, half-hour sessions may work. But in the mobile market, you need to make sure that users can play just 3 minutes in a row - if you want to capture most of the audience.

The correct length of the game for desktops depends on the type of game. But even in a MMORPG like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV, you can clear a dungeon in 15-30 minutes. Online multiplayer games are becoming more friendly to different types of users, and not just to one particular type.

3. You incorrectly identified the target audience.

It would be inefficient to expect that the audience of the game Beat Them All will be those over 60. And although this is one of the basic points of game development, it will not be superfluous to recall it. You can not please everyone - you must select a target audience. You need to study it, find a few of its representatives, give them a taste of your product and get feedback in the early stages of development.

Choosing the wrong audience, you also destroy the marketing budget. Trying to please the wrong people will cost you time and money.

4. You are trying to penetrate a saturated market.

Imagine that we have chosen an audience: women over 40, inexperienced, have some free time. And they made for them a new game from the “collect three” series. The original title, polished, gets good reviews from the press.

But - does not work. Why? Perhaps because there are already a lot of such games. Big companies like King already have a big audience. People will not switch to similar games, regardless of their quality.

We work in the entertainment industry. Games are not only our creations, but also a product for sale in the market. The product must meet the needs. Needs for games "collect three" now no.

5. You drove not enough tests

Nowadays, mistakes in games and other programs are, unfortunately, the norm. If the game of the highest class is released without bugs - it is even surprising. But mistakes are the plague that impedes the progress of your game. Mistakes annoy players, even if they come out funny.

An independent developer is not able to track all the errors in his game, for this it is necessary to attract interested players in the early stages of development. Even if you are a beta tester, you will have comprehensive information on how the game works, which will prevent you from finding its defects.

6. Your tutorial slows down the player

Tutorial Dark Soul passes quickly, is accessible to everyone, and at the same time is optional

The tutorial should not force experienced players to go through long and boring stages. Tutorial is the first look at the game, and they need to do something special. If you are doing a JRPG or FPS, a decent part of your players will not need a tutorial at all - no need to force them to pass it. Dark Souls 2 is a great example of a tutorial that runs in a well-developed location and allows you to finish it ahead of time.

For more information, read the article from Ernest Adams " 8 ways to make a bad tutorial ."

7. Your game is too difficult

An independent developer tests the game himself and determines the balance himself. But complexity must be tuned to the experience of the target audience, and not to our own. Sequential beta testing and game analytics are necessary things to create an objective game balance.

If the game immediately turns out to be very difficult, the player will leave - especially inexperienced. The same happens if the control in the game is slow or inaccurate. Poor management makes the game unpleasant and difficult.

Deleting late games

First of all, you need to ensure that players do not leave immediately. Otherwise they will not play. But we need to delay them in the later stages of the game. Usually a very small part of the players reaches the end. And that's why.

8. Unexpected increase in complexity

Suddenly difficult stages violate the pleasant impression of the game. This does not mean that the game should not be hard - but it should be justified. The Souls series is a good example of non-forgiving game play with a smooth complexity curve. The player chooses the complexity of the game , not knowing about it. Also, Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac are very complex and very popular.

9. Excessive complexity or lightness.

In the game, Mario is great to feel invulnerable - because this state does not last long. Do not forget that the tasks in the game must match the level of the player so that he remains in a state of flow for as long as possible. And this is quite a challenge!

Once in Skyrim, I reached a state in which dragons turned into a formality. My skinny thief could kill them with one flick of a knife. It killed all the immersion in the universe. And I stopped playing.

10. The game is focused on the routine and does not give interesting tasks.

Routine gives a sense of achievement of the goal to the player and offers a basis for the consistent delivery of awards. But this is not enough for a good game.

Blizzard, specialists in the routine, for a very long time engaged in polishing mechanics, visuals and background games. Diablo 3 is not just hack and slash. This is a beautiful and dynamic action. In WoW there are dozens of unique locations and caves. And although the routine is the main component of these two games, it is needed only to enhance their basic qualities and gameplay.

11. To enjoy the game you need to spend too much time.

Previously, MMOs suffered this: The 4th Prophecy and Dark Age of Camelot required a lot of time to get to enjoy the depths of the gameplay. Not everyone is willing to spend a lot of time on the game. And most modern MMOs adapt to new users.

Final Fantasy XIII is an example of a single in which the tutorial lasts 30 hours. Functions of the game are shown one by one, gradually, on a linear path. And only after that the game offers a large open level. She was criticized for that.

Your game should offer entertainment content almost immediately.

The specifics of social and free games

The latter points do not apply to all games, but only to social games and games of the free to play class. Player retention in such games is constantly being analyzed. Most of the reasons why a player does not remain in them are fairly simple and their lists are easy to find on the Internet . I will focus on less obvious things.

12. Unpleasant community

Social games. Usually they are not very social, and are called so because they are built on working with social networks. But in multiplayer games, there is often a way to interact with other players. You need to track the growth and development of your community, if there is one in the game. Aggressive to beginners community will scare away new users. In social games there should be a community management system.

13. Poor resources

One of the illnesses is Free to Play. What people call Pay to Win, and I like to call Free to Pay. If those who do not pay receive too little resources for progress, they will be upset - sooner it will happen in the game, or later.

Monetization strategies that force players to pay do not work. If you shower them with advertising, they will leave. As Seth Godin explains in Trusted Marketing, the user has many options. If you build a relationship with him, the design of the game forms this relationship.

14. Game sessions are felt empty.

Continuing the previous topic, social game players want to become involved in various activities. Each game session must be lively and rewarding. For example, the game Zombie Catchers is new, alternating a cheerful hunt with the management of a simple store. In a few minutes you can get acquainted with the various phases of the game.

15. The game punishes inactive players.

On the one hand, if you force the player to come back, he can turn the game into a habit. On the other hand, people need a break. At any time, the player must be able to interrupt the game due to the need. Pass the exam, have a baby, go to the store, go on vacation. Having lost all progress after returning to the game, they will lose interest in it. Instead, you can reward users returning after a long break.

16. Updates are too slow.

Social and multiplayer games need to be supported. If you want to keep users, they need to take something or give a reason for return. Regular serious updates, once in 1-3 months - the key to stay in the memory of users.

If your updates are rarely released, users will delete the game or forget to log in later.