The Unsolicited Review: Stereotypo
Before I begin, this is a new series of posts I want to give a shot at which will be game reviews with a twist. Game reviews, or reviews of any sort, generally tend to give a gist of the entire product and point out the good and bad of it. This is what I will not be doing as I want to approach it in a different way.
One of the most important parts of a game is the first time experience. It is the first impression that helps you in your retention numbers on D1. To understand this, I would be trying out a new game and noting down my day-to-day experiences with it. In addition to it, I want to make my suggestions on how to better my experience. This review period would end on D7 or the day I drop off from the game, whichever is earlier. And that would be my rating for that game, out of 7.
Thus starts ‘The Unsolicited Review’, that expert opinion no one asked me for. Let me start on my quest to find the perfect 5/7 game.
Here is the first game I try out, Stereotypo. [iOS, Android]
How did I find it?
It was one of the many games in the ‘Recommended for you’ section on Google Play Store. It already had 1 million+downloads and a 4.5 rating with 30k+ total reviews. The wordplay in the name of the game was quite intriguing and decided to give it a shot.
Day zero (D0)
The first thing that caught the eye was that it was a very nice and simple concept presented in a quirky way. The enjoyable sounds that welcome you to the game are a delight.
I did get to the level selection screen without any hassle. Yet, the double headed arrow shown for switching between the stages was misleading. It gave an impression that you can swipe to change stages but that is not the case. You need to tap on either sides to move across stages and swiping doesn’t work at all. It could have been better if there were 2 distinct arrows instead of that double headed arrow.
Having started the first level, the tutorial pop-ups were quite unhelpful as I didn’t really bother to read them. They also interrupted the experience as it didn’t let me see the pictures behind that dialog. Instead of the pop-up dialog, pointing out to the relevant section as an overlay would have been a better.
Moving on from the tutorial. As you select the pictures, they have a thin red outline to it. It took couple of taps the first time to realize that the image was already selected. A more prominent way to surface the selection would’ve been effective here.
Completed my first level and was breezing through a few more levels now. The image reveal at the end of the levels and the fun cheering sounds were delightful to keep me going. Until level 9.
Level 9 was the first place where I was stuck and tried to look for help through hints. I had 10 coins in my kitty and decided to use the text hint. Alas, I get a text hint which relates to an image which I have already selected. My first hint didn’t help me at all.
OK, I still have 5 coins with me so I decide to try for another hint. At this point, I realize that another text hint is not available and the next cheapest hint costs 10 coins. This is where I look for what other options I have to earn hints. A ‘share the game’ option gives you 10 coins while watching an ad gives you 2. I don’t see a reason to share the game with anyone right now. Watching an advertisement isn’t giving the value I need. If it was 5 coins instead of 2 for the first time I view an ad, I would have seen the value and clicked on it. I wasn’t convinced to buy coins either. Thus, this is where I decide to give up on the session.
Day 1 (D1)
Session 1
I came back to the game without any notification trigger the next day. My thought at this point is that the lack of notification could’ve been because the time duration between my sessions was less than 24 hours.
I resumed my game where I left it at level 9. I was still stuck and there was no help available. I was kind of expecting for some log-in bonus to come up and help me here but nothing happened. Having no option to proceed, I reluctantly shared the game to earn those 10 coins.
15 coins with me and I decide to go all out and use all 15 of them for the ‘Skip Task’ hint. Though it clearly mentioned that hint skips the task, I was a disappointed that the solution wasn’t shown. Moving to level 10 after this was a welcome change after having tried the previous level many times. I was stuck here as well though and ended my session again.
Session 2
I returned back to the game after a couple of hours. Was still stuck at level 10 now with no coins and without an urge to spend or watch an advertisement. Now that I had skipped the 9th level, I went back to it and luckily managed to solve it as well. Then I was on a roll for a few more levels until I got blocked again with not enough coins. I still didn’t find the value in watching advertisement or actually paying for the coins. This was when I decided to call it quits on the game and closed it.
Day 2 to Day 7 (D2 — D7)
I didn’t return. Neither did the game try to remind me of my absence in any way.
Conclusion
Stereotypo; a fun and quirky game about matching pictures to a theme presented in a very interesting way. However, it could improve quite a lot on engaging me for longer duration and making me care about it more.
My Rating: 1/7
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