¶ Average playtime
Playtime is the most important metric that measures how much time players spend in your game and signals how much they enjoy it. It's a key metric that's closely tied to retention. To ensure that players are having meaningful play sessions, you need to focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of engaging your players.
¶ How to improve average playtime
The friction of starting to play and quitting is very low on HypeHype, so first impressions are extremely important. You want to get players into the fun part of your game as quickly as possible.
¶ Start with fun and show them how to play
- Ensure players have fun action within the first seconds. Think about what makes your game fun and what makes it stand out from other games. You should be able to communicate these to your players within the first seconds of starting to play.
- Help players get into the action as soon as possible, but avoid long or complex tutorials. Players might get bored and quit playing if you lock all the fun of your game behind a lengthy tutorial. Make learning to play contextual and action-based, such as short, unobtrusive pop-up instructions when a player encounters a new game or feature. Having clear instructions on your game is a great way to keep players playing your game and attract new ones.
¶ Give them a reason to come back
Regardless of what type of games you are designing, you want to design for repeat play sessions. Try to motivate your players to continually play your game.
- Give users clear goals to work towards. Think about clear goals that your players might work for, such as completing a level, getting the highest score, and defeating an enemy or boss. Make sure players have clear short-, mid-, and long-term gameplay goals to work towards.
- Add a progression system to make content last. Progression systems give players a clear path toward their goals and can make content last longer, so you have time to make more content before players unlock them.
- Balance the progression system to not gate off the fun. If you add progression, make sure there is still enough content available upfront to ensure new players can still have fun in their first session.
¶ Related Topics
Explore the following links for more related content and additional resources. These pages contain valuable information that complements what you’ve just read.
How to Improve Retention How to improve Conversion Rate How to Improve Your Games Performance