Part 1 - Hero Kit
Character 1
Value Positioning: Play to get this low-tier powerful character for the early stage and will not regret upgrading her for weeks
Optimal Role: Sub DPS & Support
PVE: The goal is to enhance damage and reduce injury to complete challenges faster. (To save time)
PVP: Because this game does not have many PVP events, to avoid unfairness due to level gaps (DPS, HP), activities should focus on movements (stamina) and/or supportive abilities that rely on players’ control.
Element: Pyro
Attributes: a slightly higher Max HP, ATK and Max Stamina
Weapons: Bow or other ranged weapons (to protect her from a distance without a shield mechanic)
Artifacts & Constellation: To empower damage, energy recharge, HP
Talents:
Combat Talents:
Attack: Auto aims; single target; a higher damage
Elemental skill: A higher fire damage; charges energy; a shorter cd
Elemental burst: A larger scope of fire damage; applies pyro element to other characters; when HP is lower than [50% (adjustable)], their health will regenerate.
Passive Talents: Decreases cd; increases energy regeneration and HP
Profile:
Appearances:
Gender: female (Based on the demographic data, over 50% of users are male.)
Type: intellectual and domineering lady (compared to Amber)
Reference: Lisa
Story & voice: Based on the type and intro, they can be specified in the future.
Why do I start with the opening heroes?
Prerequisite:
If Lisa is not taken into consideration, three elements are available, including anemo (wind), pyro (fire), and cryo (ice). Although I ran into hydro (water) and dendro (nature) in environments, which do not fit this case.
Goals:
To complement the disadvantages of the team
To use the constrained mechanics without new ones
To add diversity and freshness to the party
To pitch the ideation clearly and concisely from a high level
To demonstrate the reasonings behind the design
Processes – how I did my work:
Played the game within a limited time to learn about the combat system
Dived deep into the holistic combat system (inspiration)
Researched the basic characters’ strengths and weaknesses (inspiration)
Looked into what the next hero was given to players (inspiration)
Searched for popular characters from players’ feedback on the market (inspiration)
Understood what kind of abilities would be desirable on the initial team
Identified the new hero’s optimal roles, elements, empowerments (talents), weapons, personalities (deciding the appearance, actions, dialogue, and voice), appearances (art/inspiration), and background stories
Reasonings – considerations for why she will be desirable:
Fire can react with anemo (wind) and cryo (ice).
Most early enemies have a dendro (nature) attribute, which can be easily destroyed by fire.
The team requires more DPS, which can be solved by increasing basic attack, accelerating attacking speeds, shortening cd time, speeding up energy regeneration, etc.
The party desires a high HP, fast healing, or protection when lacking recovering resources and defense powers.
The new character should be simple to control and outward appealing.
Evaluation – what I would look for after releasing her:
How often the character is being used? To which level is the character upgraded?
In what situation does the player put the new hero on a team? What is the most popular party with her in?
Until on which gameplay point does the player stop playing with her? Including player feedback and reviews
Tuning & Live ops: Before releasing, playtests can be facilitated to gain feedback for tuning purposes. She is designed as a beginner’s wish or a reward from a challenge progress/achievement in the events. Then, I will track the data for tuning.
Character 2
Value Positioning: Play very hard or pay to get this high-tier character for a long-term gameplay goal; will not regret upgrading him for months; the hero is super compatible with other strong characters.
Optimal Role: Main DPS (main damage dealer)
PVE: The goal is to enhance damage and reduce injury hugely to complete challenges faster. (To save more time)
PVP: Because this game does not have many PVP events, to avoid the unfairness due to level gaps (DPS, HP), activities should focus on movements (stamina, scope, distance) or supportive abilities that rely on control.
Element: Pyro
Attributes: a dramatically higher Max HP, ATK, DEF and Max Stamina
Weapons: Sword or other melee weapons with a higher CRIT Rate; when the character is up in an event, whose best weapon is also up (Gacha mechanics, the second round of stimulus)
Artifacts & Constellation: To empower damage, CRIT Rate, HP; to reduce stamina consumption
Talents:
Combat Talents:
Attack: Auto aims; single target; a higher elemental damage; more consecutive strikes
Elemental skill: Converts attack damage to pyro damage; regenerates HP and defense
Elemental burst: Increases energy regeneration and HP with a larger scope or chain reactions
Passive Talents: Increases CRIT rate; adds damage bonus; reduces cd time
Profile:
Appearances:
Gender: male (There have already been many female characters in Genshin Impact.)
Type: mature; passionate; long hair; mysterious; much more powerful
Reference:
Story & voice: Based on the type and intro, they can be specified in the future.
Story quests: mean more gameplay content, which motivates players to engage and pay.
Why do I design this high-tier hero?
Prerequisite: The character can have one of the three attributes (anemo, pyro, and cryo). If a player pays once in the first week, he/she is considered to continue the paying habits in the first month.
Goals:
To design a high-tier character – much more powerful to ease most challenges
To effectively be monetized – encourage players to play and pay for at least one month
This hero’s abilities are aligned with the long-term gameplay content (Liyue, Spiral Abyss).
Processes – how I did my work:
Besides the previous steps applied in the first design, other efforts include:
Dug deep into high-tier gameplay, combining with recent versions and present live-ops
Investigated TOP characters whom most players favor on the market (inspiration)
Why does the game not have many PVP events, and what PVP activities it had before? (inspiration)
Checked the ratio of female and male characters – 39:9 (inspiration)
Reasonings – considerations for why he will be desirable:
My reasonings are the same as what I did for character 1, and other factors are:
He will save a large amount of time with significant damage to enemies.
Adding CRIT Rate can make the combat more engaging.
Normal Attack can be converted to pyro damage.
Story quests bring more playable components.
His best weapon is hard to get through gameplay, but can be bought in-store, which will encourage payments.
His capabilities would be applied to more difficult challenges in the world (Liyue) or levels in the Spiral Abyss.
His best equipment is hard to obtain, so it provokes players to explore the world deeply or repeatedly.
Evaluation – what I would look for after releasing him:
Other than the same data previously, other data related to monetization can be:
During the live ops, compare the amount of payment to that of when other characters were released
How many players pay and get him?
How many of them try to get the best weapon?
How long is the average playing time compared to a previous version or period?
Do old/lost players come back to collect the new character?
What is the conversion rate after trying Test Run?
Tuning & Live ops: Before releasing, I should be more cautious about his attributes and matched equipment by conducting surveys and playtests for tuning purposes. If designed as a permanently desirable (or most players will crave) character for a long-term goal, he could be released in a version update coupled with more gameplay content (story quests), his weapon, challenges in the world (including live ops) and levels in the Spiral Abyss. This hero can be experienced in the Test Run. Afterwards, tracking events above will be analyzed regularly for future tuning.
Part 2 - Mobile Monetization
Core Motivations
Epic meaning: free lunch, narrative, elitism, humanity hero, beginners’ luck, …
Accomplishment: achievements, progress bar, quest lists, boss fight, status points…
Empowerment: milestone unlocks, real-time control, chain combos, dynamic feedback, boosters…
Ownership: collection sets, virtual goods, avatar, pet companion, Alfred Effect…
Social Influence: Brag button, friending, group quests, water cooler…
Scarcity: torture breaks, appointment dynamics, prize pacing, last mile drive, countdown timer…
Unpredictability: obvious wonder, random rewards, mini-quests, visual storytelling, rolling rewards…
Avoidance: sunk cost prison, progress loss, rightful heritage, streaking…
These motivations are thoroughly integrated into game features, gameplay mechanics and monetization policies.
Core Monetization Loop
Live Ops
Strategies:
Consider short-term and long-term retention and engagement
Add new gameplay, content and events to engage players
Facilitate consumption with event-exclusive characters and weapons
Encourage users to complete certain progressions to obtain new characters
Special events will be available for festivals or celebrations.
Standard Offers
Strategies:
The offers revolve around the core monetization loop (characters, weapons, level-up) to match all eight categories of motivations.
“Gacha” mechanic is a balancing business model.
Beginners’ wish tries to cultivate players’ paying behaviours along with their motivations.
An exchange shop is fair for non-paying and monetizers as a balancing and consumption technique.
The merchandising is standard, although the two characters and one weapon are promoted in exclusive events (live ops). Both characters can equip the same weapon, which motivates players to pay for the equipment.
The weekly bundle is the same amount of the money as the minimum top-up package (live ops).
The offers cover new and old users and non-paying and monetizers (even whales) to meet their expectations (classifying target users).
Because the game does not have many PVP activities, the expensive outfits are sold as suits without too much combat influence, not highly customized. Despite that outfits seem not the main income, whales may buy some, and it balances the consumption requirements among players.
Part 3 - Roadmap Design
Goals:
Figure out the problems and make assumptions about possible causes
Identify target users and potential solutions
Design a roadmap for 2 months of releases
Constraints:
Cannot add code-heavy functionalities
Can reuse existing components in different ways
UCD Processes:
Understand context of use: adjust existing features to solve the fictional dilemma; analyze the causes from perspectives of products, users, markets, competitors, business models, etc.
Specify user requirements: conduct surveys, check reviews and research data to validate assumptions; think about how to motivate players; break down feasible requirements into staged tasks.
Design solutions: evaluate pros, cons and cost-effectiveness; define, categorize, and prioritize adjustable variables and features; trust my instincts with data proof.
Evaluate against requirements: facilitate playtests, investigations, and trials to receive feedback for iterations; track data performance to evaluate the other steps.
Creation processes of this roadmap:
Research past and recent versioning plans
Review game mechanics, player motivations, and live ops
Make assumptions about possible problems
Pick specific contexts to conceive solutions
Prioritize features and intentions
Assess feasibilities, resources, and costs
Re-prioritize the tasks
Allocate the tasks to weekly sprints with intentional plans
The problems with assumptions:
1. Engagement and retention - Old players are leaving this game with the possible causes below:
a. Functionality bugs – e.g. Some occasional bugs are hard to be detected.
b. Market policies – e.g. The game or payment is banned in specific areas.
c. Competitors – e.g. New games divert the old players who want to experience new content.
d. Difficulties - e.g. Accomplishing missions is too difficult without a gradual progression. (context)
e. Gap between level caps – e.g. There is no more content to play, or hitting caps require too much. Players go to instances repeatedly to gather materials for level-ups. (context)
2. Consumption – Because of the attrition issue, the revenue spikes can be influenced. If the retention of new players stays at the same level, new characters may not be desirable with potential reasons like:
a. They are like or worse than other existing characters.
b. They are hard to control/use in combats.
c. They cannot complement other popular characters that the players own.
d. The best equipment is hard to collect or level up. (context)
e. The new characters are not beneficial for challenges at this stage or are not aligned with other content. (context)
Problem 1 - target users: Old users who played the game for over [1 year] (from a definition of long-term engagement)
Problem 2 - target users: All or old players
Prerequisite: Pick contexts d and e from the assumptions above (I feel like I set design levels for myself)
Solutions: It is essential to first solve the retention issue by:
1. Reducing difficulties – Decrease opponents’ attributes
2. Increasing rewards – Increase or adjust odds and number of obtaining materials/resources
3. Innovating gameplay – Apply existing mechanics to mini-challenges or PVP events (based on mini-challenges). e.g. fishing, looting, farming, running, flying, hiking, swimming, etc.
4. Fixing bugs – Show responsive attitudes to the audience
Then, the design team addresses the monetization issue through:
5. Re-evaluating the character LTV (lifetime value) after the retention problem is solved properly
6. Identifying at which point the characters are attractive to players
7. Offering a Test Run of the new characters
8. Increasing the probability of obtaining equipment/level-up materials if the current odds are too low
9. Content matching
a. Environments – Adjust weather effects on maps that demand the characters’ talents
b. Opponents – Adjust opponents’ battle arrays in Spiral Abyss
Features & Priorities:
Character and Feature Roadmap: One-week sprint is agile, efficient and flexible.
Mitigation plan/assessment approach: The risk is low due to temporariness and flexibility with little coding.
1. Compare the data performance of the latest version with past versions
2. Juxtapose the new character data with the past
3. Learn from the failure – such as requirements, playtests, features, tuning, balancing and feedback, etc.
4. Terminate the new gameplay after trials and immediately adjust future roadmaps
5. Apply the experiences to future design
Reference - version highlights in 1 month:
Glossary
1. Main DPS: Main damage dealer. Fills rotation with normal or charged attacks
2. Sub DPS: Secondary damage dealer. Swapped in for skills and elemental reactions
3. Support: Primarily used for their control, buffs, or healing
4. CRIT rate: Critical rate is the probability that a strike will be a Critical Hit.
5. Liyue: is one of the seven regions in Teyvat. It is the city-state that worships Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon.
6. The Spiral Abyss is a special type of Domain unlocked at Adventure Rank 20 located in Musk Reef.