Where to find ideas? Top publishers to watch. №1 Kingdom Guard.
No surprises that a lot of UAs are either responsible for creatives idea generation, task management and process controlling. Sometimes it’s hard to understand which apps are good to observe for these purposes. I let out my knowledges to ease your duty.
I’m going to start a cavalcade of articles to share my experience on how to deal with this issue. Let’s start with first representative. Apptica.com will assist us as usual. Let’s go!
Kingdom Guard
Chinese studio tap4fun was established in 2010. Since then it’s a huge game publisher with strong expertise in creatives. Surely you may pay attention to another titles like Brutal Age, Age of Apes or Kiss of War. But this game is awesome in terms of how they develop creative strategy.
Through the magnifier we can see in details what’s under the hood. Let’s go!
First example: develop environment.
Description is: we achieve same goals with the same ways but in another environment. It could be accomplished in different ways.
On the first video we see zombies that protect house:
On the second video there’s a brighter environment and zombies turned into rivals mot defenders. The rest of nodes are the same: we protect our base from rivals.
Second example: develop realization.
In this case we strive to get same result but we choose another way to do this. Look at the example below. Harvesting mechanics (more about it — below) is realized through 2 different approaches: in the 1st case it’s water filling, in the 2nd freeing from stone.
And, as usual for KG, they made it really tasty and simple to understand. Watch:
Water:
Stone:
Third example: improving aim
Sometimes you can ask the question: “is it possible to achieve different goals with the same realization?”. Answer YES! That’s one of the best ways to develop creative strategy.
Both videos implement staking (more about it — below) but it leads to different goals. On the first video goal is to defend from hordes of monsters. Second video is about to expand and build base. Look:
First (defend):
Second (build & expand):
Fourth example: improving beginning.
This hook is aimed to increase creative attraction from the first frames. It’s a common iteration which you may face in a lot of games. Let’s see how KG realized it in their creative strategy. Compare 2 videos:
First one has “normal” start.
Second one is iterated:
Fifth example: implementing setting from another games.
Huge work was made to transfer mechanics from different games to make them more casual and simple. It’s a great way to test different approaches and find most performing one. So let’s observe how they gather a bunch of games in their own!
№1. Counter-Strike
№2. Clash of Clans
№3. Plants vs Zombies
№4. Hole.io
№5. Ants: Underground Kingdom
№6. Woodturning
These examples are the tip of the iceberg! There is a variety of mechanics.
Fifth example: variety of mechanics.
One of the proven ways to decrease cpi is to take mechanic from cheaper game and fuse with your own game. I will show you how they did it below.
№1. Stacking (also mixed).
This one came from Bridge Race by Supersonic Studios. Huge advantage is that stacking is simple to understand and manage — pile of resources is obvious and correlated with its amount.
In first video territory conquest is realized through stacking.
Video below demonstrates how you can beat the boss and ruin enemy’s base. Fortunately, stacking is in the core of action.
№2. Puzzle (also mixed).
It’s an example how to attract thoughtful audience. It’s quite harder than stacking but this type of people always put more into game, stay longer and demonstrate more loyalty.
Here’s a task: how to build path to both survive and defeat enemies? Try to solve this puzzle!
№3. Labyrinth (also mixed).
This mechanic is more hardcorish but gameplay is simplified (compare from more detailed graphic from previous videos). This one is for thinkers either.
№4. Multiply (also mixed).
Simplicity and obviosity is in the forefront. This one stayed the same but initial game is quite more simple. Multiply is about to reach users with cheaper cpi.
№5. Merge & Tower defense (also mixed).
I brought them together because they are core for this game. Below we see a creative that clearly illustrates it. Mechanics itself are not among simple ones so it’s not surprise they try to implement competitors’ solutions.
№6. Card (also mixed).
Kingdom Guard is actively looking for audience to scale! Searches led it to card mechanics. Surely, they combined it with merge and tower defense =)
Here’s an example of concept aimed to attract thoughtful audience. But once again — look how tasty and casual they reforged it!
№7. Harvesting.
Maybe it’s first you hear about this mechanic. Let me explain: you explore the map to find a members in your team and fight with another teams at the same time or in the end (depends on realization).
No exceeded elements but I’m not sure this one would succeed for Kingdom Guard.
№8. Survival (+Labyrinth).
Survival is a great mechanic. I really love it! It’s possible to upgrade it any way you like. And in example below they did clear setting — man vs zombies — as well as understandable plot with calm background (green tiles). Looks great!
AND MUCH MORE!
Conclusion
It’s essential for UA to move forward and always test something new. In terms of creative strategy Kingdom Guard is an excellent example.
I highly recommend you to use Facebook Ads Library or competitor analysis tool (like Apptica.com) to explore dozens of hooks they use! You won’t be sorry about it.
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