From Lava Pits to Prize Chests: An Analysis of Royal Match’s Lava Quest
Dive into Royal Match’s fiery Lava Quest, where you and your rivals chase a grand prize amid volcanic challenges. Embark on this adventure with King Robert and crew, facing progressively more challenging levels. Watch foes fall away as you advance, increasing your share of the enticing grand prize. It’s not just a quest; it’s a race against time, skill, and the fiery unknown, with every level inching you closer to glorious victory or scorching defeat!
Royal Match recently introduced a new in-game event, Lava Quest, where the King and his companions embark on an adventure. Among Match3 games, the event resembles Candy Crush Saga's Candy Royale team event.
In the introduction pop-up, we see King Robert, his butler, and his pet at the cave entrance, ready to embark on an adventure. Once you tap the Start button, the event begins, and you are matched with 99 other players on the same level to start the challenge.
The prize will be distributed equally among the winners who reach the 7th stage of the competition. The event changes the gameplay background from the classic meta area to somewhere inside the volcano, emphasizing that you are playing in an event. If you manage to survive without losing, you will receive the prize along with the other survivors.
Let’s dive into the experience and analyze the in-game event from various perspectives.
Warm-Welcoming by King and Fellows
The name Lava Quest is chosen to convey the adventurous and challenging nature of the game. The word Quest implies a journey or challenge that users must undertake, which can inspire them to view it as a mission to complete. This can build engagement and motivate users to invest time in playing the game by overcoming the various obstacles presented in the gameplay.
The characters in the illustration are friendly and inviting, with unique expressions and personalities. The king holding a compass, the butler character with an extinguisher, and the cute dog that points to the grand prize in a hard hat appeal to different segments of players, creating a more inclusive gaming experience. Including these characters offers a greater level of narrative depth, which enhances the user's experience by making the game more immersive and relatable. As a result, this encourages users to become more engaged with the game.
The Grand Prize of 10,000 in-game currency is the main attraction of the challenge, motivating players to participate. Tangible rewards like this are more effective than intangible ones in encouraging action.
The text “Lava Quest has started! Beat seven levels to complete the challenge!” creates a sense of urgency and loss aversion. It triggers something to lose if not participated in or completed.
Highlighting the competitive aspect of the event
When we tap to start, we discover that the event is competitive and search for players at our level.
Indicating that 99 other players participate creates a sense that the challenge is a popular and challenging yet attainable objective. Also, by matching players based on skill level, the game makes a sense of balance and fairness. Players who are always matched against far superior opponents might get demotivated. Conversely, always playing against weaker opponents might not be challenging enough.
Displaying multiple avatars highlights the game’s social element, indicating that they represent real players who can interact and compete with each other.
Once you pursue the Grand Prize
The game introduces the how-to-play of the event when it completes finding a hundred players for the challenge.
- There are 100 players in the challenge,
- Beat levels on your first try to advance to the next steps,
- The Grand prize will be shared equally between winners,
The event starts at level 66, immediately following the completion of a difficult level at level 65. Upon seeing the event introduction popup, you enter it, still basking in the taste of victory.
When you commit to the Lava Quest, you are introduced to new information with every new event screen. This makes it easier to attend the event but more complicated to leave due to loss aversion once you've started. If you haven't closed the introduction pop-up, you've already begun participating in the event.
We play normal difficulty levels from level 66 to 68, and when we reach the middle of the game, we come across the super hard level at level 69. You've already made progress, and more than half the participants are eliminated, increasing your claim on the Grand Prize. At the Super Hard level, loss aversion behavior will be triggered, and you will spend your boosters and buy more if they are not enough to keep your success once again.
The event progress screen above shows that we reached the middle of the progress yet already eliminated more than half of the players.
The screenshot above shows two crucial pieces of information:
- The level we reach 🎯
- The remaining players 💰
- A hidden force that is helping us (King’s Luck) 💫
The level we reach indicates how close we are to getting the reward.
As we get closer to the end, the value of what we have increases, triggering loss-avoidance behavior and causing us to act to prevent this loss.
🛎🛎 Our efforts increase as we get closer to completing a task.
🛎🛎 We feel worse when we lose something than when we get something good.
The remaining players indicate the amount of the grand prize we will receive at the end of the game.
Initially, we knew we could get between 100 and 10,000 in-game currency, but we didn’t know how much we would earn at the journey's end. There will be uncertainty as the prize we receive changes with each passing level.
🛎🛎 Unknown rewards motivate us more than known rewards because of the uncertainty involved, but only if we focus on the journey to the reward, not just winning it.
A hidden force that helping us (King’s Luck).
At the beginning of the game, we will share the reward with 99 players and put in the effort to complete seven levels consecutively. Initially, it may feel like we are working hard for too little reward. However, as we progress through the stages, we will notice that many players have been eliminated, boosting our confidence in winning. We will then put forth our best effort to secure the victory.
The chart below displays the number of remaining players at each of the seven stages of this event, which has been held five times. The colored row (4) is super hard level.
Over half of the players who started are eliminated in the first three stages of the game. The number of eliminated players between sets gradually decreases. This indicates that equal player counts are not eliminated in each set.
Looking at the charts from a different perspective may provide more insight. 💫
The chart above indicates that 70% of players are eliminated throughout the three stages of every new play. This elimination changes our calculation of the risk we take to get the grand prize. We know that the next level will be super hard (Level 69), and the number of remaining players makes us spend boosters before starting and during the game to beat this level.
🛎🛎 We can achieve our objectives more efficiently with assistance in the beginning.
When we reach the end, the results are calculated right after the completion, without waiting for 24 hours, which suggests that it is probable that the player's performance is compared to recordings of other players' efforts.
I must say, Lava Quest in Royal Match is an absolute delight and stands out as one of my favorite events among match-3 games. Its level of engagement is unparalleled and keeps me hooked for hours.
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