The principles of midcore games success. Part 1: Basic Cycle

To be honest, I didn’t want to write about midkor. Because it is the perfect template for a portfolio. Like, I made casual games for adult men with experience in games, but who have no time. Because they grew up. I made games for adult men with a steady income, a credit card, and a desire to materialize in the gaming world.

But what can I do. You asked for such a post, and I did it. Here he is. True, instead of one long-post, I will do four short ones, divided into topics: basic cycles, retention, sociality and, finally, monetization.
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First of all, we will talk about basic cycles, and not only about the structure, but also about the goals that the cycle seeks to achieve. I will also talk about the mortal sins of most midkorny games and how they could have been avoided by building a cycle. Finally, I will touch on the invisible, but extremely important part of midcore games - the metagame.

Basic cycles midkornyh games

Look at successful examples from the market, all have three common key elements. The first is a double cycle, that is, the base cycle consists of two separate ones. The second, which follows from the first, is the controlled length of the average gaming session. The third is the metagame, the invisible but key element of midcore games.

1. Double cycle

The basic cycle, consisting of two, allows the player to choose - to stop the session after the first cycle, or to play both, expanding and deepening the game. Developers offer and encourage short sessions, play on the go - this increases the involvement and adjusts the player to the metagame. But more on that later.


In the picture above, we see the base cycle of Clash of clans. At the first stage, we collect resources (coins and elixir), but spend time on it. Next, we either build buildings / train troops, take resources and, again, time (Cycle 1), or go to war, where we spend elixir, but we get coins and promotion in the rating (Cycle 2). Any stage that requires time can be accelerated with crystals.

For all its simplicity, the basic cycle of Clash of Clans contains three different actions - collecting resources, building and training units / combat. All parts of the cycle, excluding construction ( although I would say construction, too ), encourage people to enter the game several times a day. For example, for a super fast, 30-second session, a player will have time to collect resources, and a full-fledged session, including an attack on the enemy and the distribution of the queue for training new units, will take less than five minutes.

In general, the player can collect resources in the CoC at any time of the day or night, all thanks to the "mining" buildings. In other words, at any time when the player opens the application, there will be resources that need to be collected, even if the player has recently dropped in. It turns out that regular quick visits are encouraged by the base cycle, but for a long time, “not leaving” is, on the contrary, punished with a lost crop, idle mines or robbery.


In this picture, we see Clash of Clans motivating and punishing the player. For example, we plant a crop, but you need to remember when to harvest it - if you do not go for a long time, the crop will rot. With the elixir collector is still more interesting. We can collect the elixir in an hour, and after three and after six. But in six hours we will collect as much resource as for three, that is, the power was idle for nothing.

Gathering resources and the fear of losing these resources is the main motivation for constant short sessions with newcomers and low-level players. Veterans are returning thanks to social motivators, which I will describe in the metagame section.

Building new buildings, fast at the beginning, but slowing down exponentially as the game progresses, sets powerful mid- and long-term goals. In order to keep timers in balance, unit training is much faster. Often, the player waits less than an hour to restore their own troops.


Here we see two completely separate cycles of the Marvel War of Heroes game. The PvE cycle is controlled by Endurance and brings the player in-game currency, new maps, experience and treasures. The PvP cycle is controlled by energy called “Attack Power” and brings the player in-game currency, experience and treasure.

Card games, and especially my beloved Marvel War of Heroes, are another example of successful mid-cycle double-loop games. Where the CoC cycle was tied to PvP, the MWoH cycles are divided into single and multiplayer with different energy expended (Endurance and Attack Power).

A single cycle consists of polishing a deck and mining new cards. A player can complete a level in less than a minute and earn a pair of cards while doing so. The same thing happens in the PvP cycle, even faster - there is only one battle. These two cycles, supported by energy mechanics, encourage players to return to the game several times a day.

It turns out that long game sessions consist of several small ones. When each session awards the player with a pair of cards, at some point, when these cards accumulate enough, the player will begin to think about the metagame (pumping and development).

2. Length of session

Too long gaming sessions are the deadly sin of midcore games. Clearly, we, the developers, are passionate about such games, we are interested in playing them, so we easily assume the excessive length of the session in the game. But do not misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with a long session, in fact, this is an excellent indicator of player involvement. But, if each session requires many minutes for a game that cannot be interrupted, you will have problems with retention. Plus, if players can't take the time to play a game at least a few times a day, the game will never turn into a hobby. But we will see these incredible, up to six months, retention rates, only when an interesting game turns into a hobby.


Here is a wonderful example. Gameloft Heroes of Orders & Chaos is a good in every sense of the game. But each session lasts 10 minutes and can not be interrupted! Yeah, this is definitely not a game that you can just pick up and play.

3. Metagame

In my understanding, it is the metagame that is the most important part of any midcorn game. This is the invisible part of the game that you have to face. The part where we are not talking about the collection of resources. The player remains in the game with a simple goal - development and optimization.


Here, for example, Kixeye with one of the best cycles of the metagame. Players are encouraged to customize their game in detail in order to further increase their competitiveness. And, in fact, such micromanagement generates a ton of fun. Plus, it gives a sense of control, extremely important in competitive games.

As we said above, a short average session is perfect, it keeps the player interested throughout the day. However, the whole essence of midcore games in deep gameplay, the game should involve the player in a long session. Long enough so that the player can go deep into the strategy of the game, break down his tasks into subtasks and - very importantly - have time to interact with other players.

It's all about balance

I think it should not surprise you how much the mechanics of the base cycle of a successful midcore game coincides with the mechanics of the same cycle in any other f2p game. Short, accessible and encouraging sessions are the main goal. It is better to motivate the player to linger in the game due to the metagame, instead of forcing the person to play in a long session. Hide the complexity and allow the player to admire himself - these are the main tasks of the metagame. Oh, and do not forget about the gentle slap, if the player has not entered the game for a long time.

And finally, don't even try to segment your audience. You would be surprised to find out who, in fact, plays midkorny games.


I will leave it without translation.