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Avetis Zakharyan and Gevorg Kopalyan are founders at Rockbite Video games.
Idle Outpost is doing nice – particularly for its area of interest – and we actually adore it to bits. And there is nonetheless much more we wish to construct. However funnily sufficient, this entire journey began with one easy concept: what if we added rush occasions?
As soon as we really launched the characteristic, it turned clear fairly quick – with out greater gameplay adjustments behind it, rush occasions simply weren’t going to ship. That’s after we took on a a lot greater problem: principally overhauling the sport with out scaring off our core gamers.
The mission was by no means a “traditional” idle recreation to start with, nevertheless it additionally wasn’t a full-blown RPG. Gamers spent most of their time buying and selling and upgrading stations. Fight? Not a lot.
However we had been seeing higher ARPU from RPG options, and we had been actively in search of new development factors – each in gameplay and monetisation. So we determined to lean tougher in that course.
The principle purpose was to put down a powerful basis for future options – and never mess up what was already doing effectively.
After all, there was some danger in all this. We weren’t positive if the shift in focus would go over effectively with our target market. However wanting again now, we will safely say it labored. Gamers are diving into boss fights and exploring the RPG techniques with far more enthusiasm.
And no, we weren’t making an attempt to hit some magical “enhance all metrics and participant curiosity in a single day” button. The principle purpose was to put down a powerful basis for future options – and never mess up what was already doing effectively.
Creating a house base and the each day routine that got here with it
One of many first large adjustments gamers see now when logging in is the brand new residence base. Earlier than this, the expertise was kinda chaotic. You’d bounce between commerce ranges, combat screens, gear upgrades, buttons overlapped, stuff acquired messy, and it was straightforward to get misplaced.
So we determined to carry some order to the chaos. Now, there’s a house display screen the place all the pieces comes collectively – your base. It reveals your progress, your standing, obtainable actions, bonuses – all the pieces in a single place.
You see your avatar in full battle gear they’re presently carrying, plus a model displaying your buying and selling outfit and the way a lot revenue you’re pulling in. Under are two large buttons: “Go to Work” (for commerce ranges) and “Missions” (for PvE and PvP).
What it did is make the dual-core gameplay – commerce and fight – immediately clear to the gamers as soon as they land within the residence base. You go do your factor, no matter it could be, then return to base to regroup and determine what’s subsequent.
In addition to it being an effective way to declutter recreation menus and sections, the house base gave us a solution to construction an intuitive each day routine for the participant. We added a each day missions tab proper to the house display screen – a guidelines with duties and rewards.
We did our homework: checked out how our opponents deal with dailies, crunched the numbers on what number of and which placements our gamers watch each day, and got here up with a system that is sensible.
The plan was easy – present gamers what they will do right now, what’s price watching, what duties to hit, and the place the rewards are hiding.
So right here’s the way it performs out: log in, see your pink marker on the duty listing – the primary mission is simply displaying up, so that you acquire your reward. From there, you verify what’s subsequent: perhaps it’s upgrading peaceable gear, spending shovels on fight tools, clearing the sector, or hitting PvE missions. Each accomplished job is marked pink, pointing the participant in the suitable course according to their targets.
Retention and advert views are up by a couple of %. R1-R3 lifted by about 3%, and later days are seeing even higher outcomes.
The principle concept behind this construction was to encourage gamers to construct a behavior just like a morning routine: get up, brush your tooth, seize a espresso, go to work. And that form of each day routine? That’s what drives long-term retention.
Most of those little missions additionally include ad-based bonuses. Struggle 3 times free of charge within the enviornment? Nice. Need two extra runs? Watch an advert.
In complete, for gamers to hit essentially the most quantity of bonuses, we’ve acquired round 20 placements per day baked into the circulation – however we made positive the entire routine doesn’t take greater than 45 minutes. It’s dense however not exhausting.
We’ve counted on the each day routine to spice up our retention and advert views, and yeah – it’s already working. Each retention and advert views are up by a couple of %. R1-R3 lifted by about 3%, and later days are seeing even higher outcomes. Not unhealthy for the beginning.
However the largest win? The house base and each day aims gave us a rock-solid basis. A transparent construction to construct new options on prime of.
From Idle… to Idle RPG
As we stated earlier – the core participant base spent most of their time buying and selling and upgrading stations, not often touching fight. However we actually wished to shift that steadiness and diversify the expertise with out turning gamers off or blowing up the circulation. That’s how we got here up with “save a personality”.
Right here’s the way it works: there’s a particular improve tab in buying and selling ranges. That’s the place you enhance items to earn more money and buff characters so that they work higher.
It used to only say “rent a personality”. Now, there’s additionally a mission – “save a personality”. It performs out like this: your character’s been snatched by a bandit or a zombie – and also you’ve gotta get them again. Till you do, progress is frozen. No upgrades, no new revenue. You wish to continue to grow? You’ve acquired to combat.
This rescue mission turns right into a full-on boss battle in a delegated location. Bosses have energy indicators, and when you’ve been skipping fight upgrades to go commerce? Good luck.
However right here’s the kicker: these bosses put on premium gear, often from future units – it’s principally a dwell showcase of stuff the participant can finally earn. It’s a sneaky, efficient little bit of set advertising and marketing that may be folded into the dwell ops calendar. We’ll get to that in a second.
Now, we’d really had a full universe and lore for Idle Outpost mapped out in docs for ages, however barely any of it made it into the sport. This gave us a solution to lastly begin utilizing it. Every boss is constructed across the lore – they’ve all acquired their very own backstories, and every of the 19 areas has its personal boss and henchmen.
There are additionally three super-rare elite bosses. While you beat them, they don’t die – they escape, organising future encounters. Feels kinda old-school in one of the simplest ways.
First, you combat off the henchmen, after which the boss reveals up close to the top of the zone to complete the job personally – flexing the good gear, in fact. That gear? Coming quickly to a dwell ops occasion close to you.
We additionally added a small experiment: throughout boss fights, gamers can watch an advert to choose considered one of three buffs. The gamers, total, dug it.
If a boss is simply too robust for you, there isn’t any disgrace in retreating. Head again to residence base, seize some shovels, improve your loadout, and are available again stronger. After the current updates, nothing’s gonna come straightforward when you don’t toughen up as a warrior, not even buying and selling.
We additionally added a small experiment: throughout boss fights, gamers can watch an advert to choose considered one of three buffs. The gamers, total, dug it. We managed to layer the techniques in a manner the place they don’t conflict, they assist one another.
While you’re buying and selling, you’re laser-focused on station upgrades. While you’re on a mission, it’s all in regards to the combat.
So, what else is cooking?
Subsequent up, we’re placing collectively a correct dwell ops calendar, one which lays out what’s going to occur within the recreation over the subsequent 100 days. When the occasions begin, what you get out of them, what sorts of bonuses to anticipate – all the pieces can be spelled out prematurely.
Our hope is that with a transparent calendar, gamers will keep extra engaged, and we’ll be capable to plan content material – and income – extra confidently.
Proper now, we’ve acquired Rush occasions and normal LTEs working, however we’re additionally beginning to group them into bigger themed occasions. We really examined this over the New 12 months with a mega-event that mixed Rush and LTE into one factor. It did nice.
So now, we’re seeking to make these sorts of occasions a daily factor – with unique units as rewards you can’t get wherever else.
We’ve additionally fully overhauled the sector. Now it has clearly outlined time home windows for seasons, revamped rankings, and as an alternative of servers, we’ve divided the entire thing into combat zones.
We tightened up the steadiness and enviornment ticket distribution – in order that newbies have a motive to leap in, and seasoned gamers nonetheless get a superb problem. Plus, the sector’s not a separate module, it’s a part of the “Missions” tab, proper alongside all of the fight stuff.
The PvE part below “Missions” additionally acquired a glow-up. Now you combat zombies in a subway setting – assume Neo vs. agent Smith vibes. You get three fights a day, and two additional when you watch an advert.
The larger imaginative and prescient right here is to regularly increase the Missions tab right into a full ecosystem of battle modes. Make it one of many anchors of the sport, not only a facet gig.
Talking of latest modes – the primary one is already within the works. We’re taking our hottest inventive and turning it right into a Tower Protection mode. Think about hordes of zombies charging your base when you maintain them off with a squad of heroes. Not only one hero – a number of directly.
This checks a bunch of bins. First, it pushes us deeper into RPG territory – lively fight the place your selections actually matter, not like the Area mode. Second, it offers gamers a motive to gather extra characters. It’s form of like constructing a mini-CCG on prime of the core recreation. Extra depth, extra monetisation potential.
Appears to be like just like the experiment is working
So, what did we find yourself with?
First off, we reworked the UI and launched the house base. That’s now the participant’s essential hub – all of the each day, acquainted stuff lives there. Something gameplay-related – whether or not it’s buying and selling or combating – lives within the “Go to Work” and “Missions” tabs.
The concept was to softly nudge the sport within the course we wished: extra depth, extra selection. However with out breaking what already labored. And, to this point, we predict we managed to tug it off. The sport now looks like an actual RPG – you wish to end it, you’ve gotta improve, gear up, change into a beast.
On the core, this entire system is a springboard – a framework that we will use to layer in additional gameplay depth, evolve our meta, and develop smarter monetisation paths. It’s a base we will actually construct on.