Why Super Auto Pets is so good and what is still to come

What makes a good game? Actually, there is only one rule: Easy to learn, hard to master. Hardly any current smartphone game could describe this better than Super Auto Pets. The mini-game is perfect for a quick round in between, but it also quickly triggers a real addiction.

What other factors make the game so good besides the gameplay and why Super Auto Pets has earned the insanely positive ratings in the App Stores, you can find out below — and also what’s next on the developers’ agenda.

Gameplay

The game is divided into two phases: the preparation and the battle. Only in the preparation can active decisions be made, the battle, in which the Pets gradually compete against each other, is fully automated. Each player has five slots to fill from a growing pool of animals. These have abilities, an attack value and life points.

If you buy the same animal three times, it can be leveled up, improving abilities and status values. Ten coins can be spent in each round, with each animal costing three coins, items for permanent or temporary effects as well. A refresh button, somewhat reminiscent of slot machines, for the price of one coin brings up a new selection of animals and bonuses.

So far, so simple — but even in the first few rounds you are quickly taught the depth that lurks in this game that seems so child-friendly. Of course, the goal is to combine the animals as effectively as possible, which requires not only strategy, but also a fair amount of luck. The better you know the game and the different pets, the more likely you are to react to the set on offer and build your deck from it.

Each player starts a tournament with ten life points. As the number of rounds increases, each defeat also costs more hearts. The goal is to emerge victorious for a total of ten rounds — but that will take several hundred tournament attempts. After all, you make some progress even if you win fewer than ten rounds.

Monetization

Software may and even must cost money. At the very least, it must be clear how an app earns its money. Be it through a subscription, advertising, or even the unloved microtransactions that have flooded the mobile games market in recent years. Super Auto Pets has solved this extremely well.

The basic version of the game is completely free and also ad-free. However, if you want to have access to a larger set of characters, you will be asked to pay once (in the meantime, there are two expansions for 4.99 Euros for 22 animals and 9.99 Euros for 57 animals).

These do not bring any gameplay advantage, but merely increase the complexity of the game. As a user of the basic package, you have the choice of competing only against other players with the basic package. This ensures that only players who spend a lot of time with the game anyway reach for their wallets.

And: Unlike many other representatives of the industry, most of the cosmetics, i.e. a different look for figures and game board, is paid for with hard-earned victory currency.

How many players Super Auto Pets has, and especially how many of them pay, the developers do not reveal.

“I don’t know. Seems like a lot. Probably more than 10,” the reply says. In any case, the Google Play Store has more than a million downloads. According to Sensor Tower’s database, Super Auto Pets has reportedly racked up 90,000 downloads and $80,000 in revenue in the Apple App Store.

Cross-Platform

Think of Rocket League, Call of Duty or PUBG — big names from the gaming industry have made it to the small smartphone screens at first glance, but only with completely detached versions. Real, cross-platform gaming experience is only found in a few blockbusters, apart from Hearthstone, TFT or Fortnite.

Due to the simple mechanics of Super Auto Pets, however, the experience is always the same, whether on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop in the client or web browser. If you’re logged in, you can even jump from one device to another between rounds without much delay — what more could you want?

The fact that Super Auto Pets is available on many different platforms was taken into account early on during development. After the launch of the first beta on the PC in April 2021, the launch in the Google Play Store for Android smartphones and tablets followed shortly after. iOS players had to wait until early 2022. It took a long time, for reasons that had nothing to do with development or Apple. Just purely bureaucratic business stuff that nobody cares about.”

Community

The community plays a big role in Super Auto Pets’ success. “Because popular streamers play our game regularly,” Super Auto Pets creators explain to their growing fanbase. “We like to think they play Super Auto Pets because it’s very viewer-friendly and delivers good streaming content that everyone can get excited about.”

Team Wood is also good at involving its players in the development. On a Discord server that now has more than 35,000 members, there is direct exchange with other players and also the creators.

But the best suggestion from the community has nothing directly to do with the game: “To take a break and not stress ourselves out.”

After all, only two developers have been working on Super Auto Pets for about 1.5 years, and now there are three full-time employees and two freelancers.

The players thank the creators with consistently positive reviews in the Google Play Store and App Store, to an average of 4.3 stars on Android and a whopping 4.9 stars on iOS. The poorer ratings in the Play Store are mainly due to the allegedly too high difficulty level, and some complain about technical errors.

But the tenor is the same everywhere: “One of the best games I’ve played here in the store and still play. True to the motto: Easy to learn, hard to master, the player has to face increasingly difficult combinations of opponents, which creates a downright addictive spiral,” writes one person, for example. “Good mix of board game mechanics and gambling,” another.

What’s next?

If you’ve read the article up to this point, you probably agree that Super Auto Pets is already pretty good as it is now. But there is always room for improvement. What’s on the developers’ agenda now? “Translations. Next expansion. More vanity stuff,” is the laconic answer.

A ranked mode is probably not on the docket yet. “We’re still trying to figure out how we want to do it.” That in particular could once again generate additional long-term motivation. So far, you’ve only collected coins with victories, which provided visual changes to the animals and your own half of the playing field.

As you can see, after a few tries, I still haven’t won a single round. But Super Auto Pets is perhaps the best game to realize: The journey is the destination. Maybe I’ll win the next one?

This article was already published in German on SmartDroid.de some time ago. The translation was supported by machine through DeepL.com.