4 Tips for effective autoplay that enhances your mobile game (Autoplay in mobile games, Part I)
Through exploration and research and adventures in game-making we’ve learned a lot about autoplay. Here we’ll share some tips we’ve compiled to help our fellow mobile game developers understand the role of autoplay in the game you're building.
1. Take a holistic approach
Consider these 3 spheres of gameplay:
- Mechanical Gameplay (Intrinsic rewards)
- Physical skills such as tapping, clicking, swiping
- Includes real-time battle reactions and decisions
- Meta Gameplay (Extrinsic rewards)
- Long-term strategic decisions and growth optimization
- Resource management
- Includes collecting, upgrading, leveling up items and characters
- Competitive Gameplay (Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards)
- Comparing achievements and progress with other players (leaderboards, ranked play, and so on)
- Includes multiplayer competition
Autoplay is at its most effective (and least disruptive) when implemented to enhance Meta Gameplay. Approach game design with all three spheres in mind. This will help you develop a full and rewarding experience for a variety of players. It’s a reality that player profiles are different and varied. Some gamers really enjoy the intrinsic rewards of mechanical gameplay: button-mashing, perfect timing, and split-second skill. For others, real-time gameplay is the least appealing part of your title. Autoplay features allow you to offer these players a satisfying and enjoyable way to engage with your game.
2. Make it meta
Autoplay allows the player to assume a different role. Released from the front line of battle, the player can instead focus attention on the meta aspects of the game. It allows players who enjoy strategic and progression mechanics to focus on these areas and bypass some of the tediousness of mechanical play.
What happens when the enthusiastic button-masher eventually tires of the repetitive nature of the mechanical game? There are only so many skills to master. You can re-engage them through autoplay, offering a way to stay in the game and continue building their character(s) and team without repetition burn-out.
Another reality to keep in mind: Players have a finite amount of time. Each decision about what app to open at this particular moment is a mini zero-sum game. Autoplay can make it easier for players to choose your title because it reduces the time cost of playing. It can even change the nature of the interaction entirely - idle gameplay defies the zero-sum game rules by allowing play to continue while the player is doing something else.
3. Keep it fair
Players do not enjoy competing against someone who has an unfair advantage and many of them will loudly express their outrage over this situation. You can avoid these issues by including balancing measures to offset autoplay advantages.
For example, autoplay as a feature of real-time competition, such as PVP matches, could place the live human player at a distinct disadvantage if the computer effortlessly chooses the best moves in each scenario. One way to correct this imbalance is to keep the AI "dumb," giving it just enough capability to perform the task with no advanced reasoning or strategy. Keep it basic.
4. Impose reasonable limits
Autoplay can wreak havoc on your carefully designed game economy if it allows players to continuously grind or mine unlimited resources without spending real time in the game. Prevent this disruption with scaling and metering.
Scaling
Upgrades in a game should scale. Since autoplay can act as automatic currency / resource generator, the cost of the ‘generator’ should correlate with the size of the reward.
Scaling
Upgrades in a game should scale. Since autoplay can act as automatic currency / resource generator, the cost of the ‘generator’ should correlate with the size of the reward.
Metering
Idle gameplay can be balanced by imposing time limits (metering). For example, a cookie clicker game allows players to purchase an oven to bake cookies for, say, 2 hours. At the end of two hours, cookie production stops. To restart the cycle, you can either require the player to log in and collect the cookies, or better yet introduce a cool-off timer that begins right after cookie collection and requires a wait time of 4 hours before starting another batch in the oven. The specifics of the timing depend a lot on your game and its economy. The idea is to prevent endless production of in-game resources.
Idle gameplay can be balanced by imposing time limits (metering). For example, a cookie clicker game allows players to purchase an oven to bake cookies for, say, 2 hours. At the end of two hours, cookie production stops. To restart the cycle, you can either require the player to log in and collect the cookies, or better yet introduce a cool-off timer that begins right after cookie collection and requires a wait time of 4 hours before starting another batch in the oven. The specifics of the timing depend a lot on your game and its economy. The idea is to prevent endless production of in-game resources.
A similar example is found in Pokemon Go. A player must use incubators - which can hold one egg at a time - to hatch Pokemon eggs. The player can hatch eggs concurrently but needs multiple incubators to do so. All players have one infinity incubator which has no use limits. Other incubators “break” after a set number of uses and can be acquired as drop from PokeStops or by purchasing in the PokeShop. This metering of resources allows the player to choose to allocate currency toward additional incubators to increase the number of eggs hatched over time if desired, but imposes limits to prevent infinite production of Pokemon.
Stay tuned for Autoplay in mobile games, Part II, which will discuss specific autoplay implementation examples found in some games in the market today.
Stay tuned for Autoplay in mobile games, Part II, which will discuss specific autoplay implementation examples found in some games in the market today.
