Deconstructing Pokemon Go’s fun
Pokemon Go teardown: how can Pokemon Go sustain its fun?
I used to build and ship top grossing freemium mobile games. Having analyzed so many games while on the job, I am rarely pleasantly surprised by new games. But Pokemon Go is a different story. Its ability to make treasure hunting feel so real with AR got me into the game. But what kept me playing is the seemingly simple but rich game design. In this post, I will touch on a few observations on why Pokemon Go is fun. I’ll also talk about a few ideas on how to improve the longevity of the game. If you haven’t played it, check out the game mechanics tear downs here and here first.
Core game loop
Pokemon Go is a collectible card game (CCG) at its heart. The core loop of the game is collect Pokemon → level up → collect / evolve more Pokemon. The meta game is very simple: collect all the Pokemon, in their evolved forms, collect the strongest of them. A few people have already analyzed the core game loops extensively. Here’s a good sketch of the loop:
Then, on top of the simple collector loop, there are also a PvP battle loop (i.e. gym battles) and egg hatching loop, etc.
Now I’ve covered the basics, let’s talk about some of the observations I have.
The game is deeper than you think
Many of my friends have expressed how Pokemon Go feels very shallow as a game. I both agree and disagree with this point. I agree that the game feels shallow but I disagree that the game actually is shallow. Here’s why:
1. Every Pokemon you catch has value
You’ve probably already noticed that you keep on catching the same Pokemon over and over again. It’s not only because the act of catching is fun, but also that each catch in turn allows you to 1) evolve; 2) strengthen your Pokemons, 3) level up as a trainer, and 4) become a stronger battler. As you level up, you’re exposed to stronger and stronger Pokemons. So if you’re an overachiever collector like me, chances are you’re going to keep on evolving those Jigglypuffs to stronger and stronger Wigglypuffs. And now repeat for the other 100+ Pokemons you want to collect. This progression design sets the basic depth of the game.
There’s one additional twist to this: some Pokemons have multiple evolution trajectories. You likely won’t be bored of catching Eevees, for instance, for a while. The dopamine hit with each Eevee evolution remains high as you anticipate which Pokemon you’re getting and how much stronger it will be.
Though, Niantic / Nintendo used to give us a cheat on Eevee evolution. You once could determine which evolution you want by renaming your Eevee. The cheat reduced player frustration over uncertainty. Though, the trade-off is making it easier for players to collect all Pokemons and lose interest in the game faster when they run out of things to do. It’d be interesting to conduct an a/b test here to see differences in player retention and engagement with and without cheat.
On top of collecting single Pokemons, you also would benefit from collecting Pokemons by their types. This is especially useful in battles because certain types of Pokemon are stronger against other types. To be a master at battling, you’ll need to collect strong Pokemons in every type.
If you’re even more hardcore, you’d also be collecting Pokemons with the best moves / skills. Each Pokemon can have 2 out of several possible skills; some of the skills are better in battle than others. Some Pokemon have strong skills; some don’t.
2. Gym battles are not just about overpowering others
Gym battles are designed for you to win. Once you’ve leveled up a bit more and collected a decent number of Pokemon, you’re ready for gym battles. There are a few tricks Niantic / Nintendo designed that makes gym battles competitive no matter how strong you are:
a) Gym owners are encouraged to defend the gym with their weaker Pokemons first
In order to raise the level of the gym up, gym owners usually need to put up their weaker Pokemons in the gym first. The reason is that gym owners need to defeat their own Pokemon in the gym to raise the prestige of the gym.
b) The more people play, the easier it is to win
One interesting thing about the PvP battle is that it’s asynchronous. You’re always the challenger but you don’t lose anything even if you fail in the challenge. On top of that, the more people at a gym, the easier it is to defeat a strong Pokemon in a gym because it’s many against one. Challenging gyms gives you 5–10X more XP than training in gyms. So chances are, you can find crowds of fellow challengers easily.
c) CP is only 1 indicator of whether your Pokemon is stronger
As I mentioned above, Pokemon type and skills / moves all matter. Although it is pretty hard to learn how each skill and type affects the battle if you don’t ask Google beforehand. Once you do though, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how some of your weaker Pokemons can defeat much stronger ones just because of their type and/or moves.
The game is also shallow to play
Now I’ve talked about the strengths of the game design. It’s time to talk about areas for improvement. Why does the game still feel so shallow even with all those ways you can enjoy it? Here are my thoughts:
1. The progression is not well explained to players
The CP and properties of Pokemons you find are spun somewhat randomly. When you first start playing, it’s not easy to tell how you can get stronger Pokemons. I’d venture to say a lot of early game players churn because it feels like a mindless “throw-a-ball-and-hit-a-pokemon” game.
One suggestion is to reward players with a “challenge” Pokemon at each level up. If successful, this would reduce the churn rate of players in their early game. Trade-off is that this makes players finish catching Pokemons sooner (i.e. churn sooner).
2. Battle design is not easily understood by casual players
When I first started playing, I barely managed to learn about dodging and using special attack skills. The “most effective” to “not very effective” feedbacks on my Pokemon’s attacks were just making battles more frustrating.
My suggestion is to give players hint about how Pokemon types affect battle. If successful, more players would engage in battles and eventually lead to higher retention.
3. You get stuck at around level 20
By stuck, I mean you are stuck in trying to make more progress in the game. By the time you reach level 20, the XP requirement for leveling up significantly increases. You also won’t catch many more new Pokemon since you’ve already built a good collection by level 20. So the game feels stale and you feel stuck.
The best way for Niantic to solve this problem is by creating more game content to play. This could mean new Pokemon, new mechanics, new game loop, etc. What Niantic seems to have done in the last release is the complete opposite. They made the game more difficult to play so players will take longer to level up. Perhaps Niantic’s hypothesis is that users will retain longer if the game is harder to beat. However, my guess is that Niantic lost engaged late game players because of frustration.
How can we make the fun last longer?
I have a few fun suggestions that will require some work to build. One of them is releasing new ultra-rare Pokemon through event dungeons. Well designed player vs. server dungeon fights can be really engaging especially if the rewards are rare Pokemons. A feature like this can easily boost player engagement and monetization at the same time.
Another idea is to let players send Pokemons on daily adventures on their own. This idea would allow players to get something new every day without having to walk around town. When players are really frustrated with the game, making them feel rewarded each time they open the app is important. Here’s a moonshot idea in addition: expand daily adventures to let players explore exotic parts of the world and battle / catch exotic Pokemons without having to fly around the world. Maybe in VR?
Before I get too carried away with moonshot ideas, let’s try somethings within reach. How about letting players browse friends’ Pokemon collection? Players are already checking out friends’ collections now. A bit of curiosity and a bit of competitiveness go a long way for retention and engagement. Players also already message and shout out to each other about new catches, tips and tricks. Building social features within the game app will give communication context.
Thanks for reading my ideas! If you enjoyed them, please share & 💚 ! Also, don’t be shy, let me hear your ideas too!
