Read this month’s Headline Release and Market Watch
Providing Incentives to Use Multiple Characters Extends Engagement
Huuuge Casino’s Nick’s Monsters prolongs engagement by incentivizing players to complete its progression with multiple characters. Each time players finish the machine’s map, they receive a unique bonus based on their chosen character—plus a final bonus once they’ve completed the map five times.
Unlike similar machines that allow players to change characters at any time, Nick’s Monsters requires players to finish the progression with their current character before choosing a new one. This approach leads players to engage longer with each character instead of quickly sampling each one and moving on. To balance this reduction in player choice, the machine allows players to access all characters from the beginning rather than unlocking characters as they progress—another departure from other character-driven machines.
When creating machines that require players to finish a progression before switching characters, designers must ensure that all characters have worthwhile, distinct bonuses, because players may churn if they get stuck playing an uninteresting character. Designers can further increase replayability by adding prestige mechanics that upgrade bonuses for players who have completed the progression with every character.
Nick’s Monsters Combines a Common Bonus with a Rare Progression
Progressions that combine maps and fill meters, like the progression in Nick’s Monsters, make up just 2.8% of machines released in the past year. Machines with these progressions are significantly more likely to have bonus features than other machines. In contrast, bonus features that contain multiple types of bonuses at once, which includes the bonus in Nick’s Monsters, are the most common type of bonus feature.
Read this month’s Headline Release for our full analysis, which includes a detailed teardown of Nick’s Monsters and insights into the design choices that make playing each character a unique experience.
Market Watch: Boxing, Pets, and Fishing Tournaments
In Cash Frenzy’s King Kangaroo, players trigger a bonus in which they choose an opponent for an automated boxing match. Before each fight, players can spend currency to buy upgrades for their boxer.
In Jackpot World’s Fiesta Smash with Magical Paradise, players choose a pet with a unique bonus and spin to collect tokens. Players use tokens to trigger their pet’s bonus and level up their pet.
In Huuuge Casino’s Huuuge Catch, players land certain symbols to catch fish with prizes, which enters them into a 10-minute tournament. Players compete to catch the biggest fish, and catching all 12 unique fish awards a jackpot.
Read our full teardowns of all notable releases in this month’s Market Watch.
