Lessons in Analytics From Mobile Gaming — Rebel, Inc
A Chaotic Simulation
Rebel,inc came to Android less than a month a go. It is a simulation-styled game where the player is challenged to put down an insurgency while creating stability in their nation. The game is challenging and certainly captures the chaos of such a situation.
Like any strategy game, Rebel comes with development trees, prioritization challenges, and resource restrictions.
Like any simulation, it requires the player to balance competing feedback loops. Each has a secondary layer of complexity created by the balance of long term strategy and short term need.
Like any strategic simulation, the game is challenged by a final balance between player agency & enjoyment against the more engineered or mechanical functions of a simulation. In other words, strong simulations aren’t always fun — but then battling an insurgency probably isn’t either.
As a quick example, players must plan out a military strategy that is capable of controlling the insurgency, within budget, and without angering the locals. This is further complicated by two types of troops (visualized in blue and green). Outside support (blue) is cheaper and faster but is difficult to maintain longer term due to a negative impact on the players reputation. Basically — locals hate rebels, but sometimes they hate foreign troops even more.
So what does this have to do with analytics?
As usual — everything. Segments and progressions, feedback loops and visualization, even strategy and simulation are all hardcore components of analytics. Recognizing growth patterns and weights, determining probabilities and contingencies — there is a lot here for any analyst to sink their teeth into.
But it is the overall feel of this simulation that inspired this article. It is the way that all of these things integrate and interact that makes this game interesting. While not perfect and hampered by the “premium” leaning of this game, it does a laudable job of creating a highly varied and challenging game. And it does this specifically by presenting the player with challenges and tools across the analytic spectrum.
Rebel Inc can pivot from real-time to turn-based. It offers decision points that are binary, alternative, and free form. It has both set and random events. It has leveling adjustments, adaptive probabilities, and iterative calculations. Taken separately, all of these feel quite basic. But from the moment you start the game, each is delivered at dizzying speeds. Creating a very realistic and complicated experience.
A Lesson From The Imperfect and Inelegant
That might seem harsh… but it is quite real. Not every decision matters. Some decisions are quite formulaic. Sometimes — ignoring an issue seems to have little consequence. Sometimes outside help is your only solution and other times it is nightmare you never recover from. Am I talking about the game or analytics? … Yes.
While the gamer in me would really enjoy some additional tweaks to this simulation, the analyst in me recognizes how real-world this actually is. Of course, real-world is not always fun. It also rarely models a simulation completely. But then complete acts of chaos in a simulation normally ruin the enjoyment value completely (as anyone who has had Godzilla destroy their simcity can attest).
If you are an analytic leader struggling with the stress created by juggling the logistics of a large global enterprise — Rebel Inc may trigger you. But if you are a fan of analytics, simulations, and interesting strategy games — give it a try. It is free. Games are fast. And the experience is worth the download.
For more Lessons in Analytics from Mobile Gaming consider:
For those with a fondness for the good ole days:
