Long Neck Run: Mastering Physics and Stacking — Hit Story #2

Welcome to a new article in our “Hit Story” series.

In this series, we show you the development steps we went through when making our mobile games, as well as some anecdotes of the process. You’ll find exclusive backstage content, never-before-seen screenshots, parts of concepts, explanations for our decisions, and more.

Find the first article here ⇒ Spiral Craft 3D.

In this post, we’ll talk about Long Neck Run with the voice of Nicolas Leclercq, Game Developer & Project Manager of the project:

Long Neck Run is a top store game released by Dual Cat on May 25th, 2021 and downloaded more than 10 million times (available on Android and iOS).

In this wonderful game, your goal is to collect as many rings as possible and grow the longest neck ever. Be careful, though, as you’ll have to reach the finish line without knocking your head or drowning! At the end, your height is compared to different monuments and elements of pop culture!

Will you manage to grow a neck as tall as the Eiffel Tower?

This epic story answers 2 questions:

• How did we come up with the idea for Long Neck Run?
• How have we improved on the Long Neck Run concept to make it a Hit Game?

How did we come up with the idea for Long Neck Run?

To come up with the concept for the game, first we found an inspiring mechanic, and second, we used one of our creative processes to polish it and make it into a fun game.

Finding a mechanic that inspired us: “Stacking”

By studying users and the evolution of hyper casual gaming, we noticed the emergence of a very exciting mechanic: that of “Stacking”.

Here are a few examples:

Giant Rush by TapNation | Stack Colors! by Voodoo | Hair Challenge by Rollic Games | High Heels! by Rollic Games

In the case of Giant Rush ⇒ we have a character who grows bigger and bigger.
For Stack Colors! ⇒ it’s a stack which grows ever higher.
For Hair Challenge ⇒ it’s a haircut which progressively grows longer.
And lastly, for High Heels! ⇒ it’s a pair of heels which grows longer.

This mechanic, which is both very visual and easy to grasp, brings a lot of fun through its physics and allows for the creation of simple game rules. This fits perfectly well with the kind of hyper casual games that we like to create.

The process of turning inspiration into concept: Long Neck Run

To find the concept for Long Neck Run, our team went through this process:

1.Focus on the “Stacking” constraint.

2.As input for our reflection, we had our tools and experts that gave us reports about:

• Current trends
• The most popular types of games (Runner, Puzzle, Simulation, …)
• The most popular themes used (color, characters, …)
• Other popular mechanics used

3.Each member of the team did a “solo” brainstorm.

4.Then we organized a team brainstorm, sharing ideas from our solo brainstorms.

Here are the 4 important rules we followed for the team brainstorm:

These rules allow everyone to participate and avoid missing out on an idea that could work great.

Then, we move on to a constructive criticism phase based on these criteria:

• Feasibility
• Development time
• Efficiency
• Risks
• Innovation

At the end of this process, we get this fun and minimalist concept: A person who needs to collect the right colored rings to grow his/her neck longer.

Here is the first version of the concept on paper:

Choosing the right color | Right color = the neck grows | Color change | Wrong color = the neck shrinks

How have we improved on the Long Neck Run concept to make it a Hit Game?

Here are the 3 main improvements we made to turn the concept into a hit game.

Improving the Main Mechanic: the physics of the neck

First version of the neck: basic physics

Does the neck feel satisfying to play with?
The first version merely stacked the neck as a stick which would swing rigidly from left to right. We found it neither satisfying nor fun enough. Therefore, we added some physics elements for a more dynamic neck which sways like a snake. When the neck grows longer, this immediately makes the game more amusing and makes the player want to have more fun with their character.

New version of the neck with better physics

Adding Fun & Challenging Game Bricks

To improve on the fun and challenging aspects of the game, we selected the best bricks (obstacles, challenges) players could encounter.

One important thing we had to think about was to keep on adding additional elements while ensuring that they stay relevant to the main mechanic of the game (making the neck grow and shrink).

To make sure that players have the most fun for the longest time possible, we paid a lot of attention to level progression, difficulty and the appearance of new and varied bricks.

With the help of our marketing team, we managed to focus on specific elements in order to reach our objective and confirm the results of all the studies we performed beforehand.

As a result, we focused on:

• The element of “Stacking” in our game (so that we did not stray from the main mechanic).
• Some sufficiently “WTF” elements to attract players, surprise them and have some fun with them. We had to be careful, though: too much “WTF” in our game and players wouldn’t “get it” and would lose interest.

“WTF” elements

In this version of the game, you’ll find:

Rings | Color change and choice | Pool

• The main element of the game: ring collection. Depending on their color, rings will allow players to grow or shrink their character’s neck.
• Color change and choice forces players to change color and to make choices in relation to the rings which will appear afterwards.
• Pools will challenge players on the length of their neck. If their neck is too small, their head will be immersed underwater and they’ll lose.

Zipline | Wall | Propellers

• Ziplines add a “WTF” element by having players suspended in mid-air.
• Walls and propellers, which have different forms, are here to provide a challenge to the player. Take care not to touch them, or you’ll lose rings.

Take care not to touch walls!

Add incredible targets to reach with the neck length to increase Game retention

The first time we launched the game, we had a good retention rate but not enough to scale it. After analysis, we saw an opportunity to increase retention. We decided to change the way levels ended to improve the reward moment and have more fun with the neck length: before, the character would just go through a series of finish line ribbons and would have their score multiplied by certain amounts; now, the length is compared to fun and iconic elements (giraffe, Eiffel Tower…).

To trigger the player’s curiosity, the next elements are only represented as shapes and are unlocked when you reach them.

Incredible targets to reach

This improvement increased retention by 150%, and that allowed us to launch the game worldwide.

Conclusion

To create Long Neck Run, we had to:

• Come up with a fun main mechanic based on physics and “Stacking”, something that translates well to hyper casual gaming.
• Brainstorm to find ideas which work well with that main mechanic.

To turn the game into a Hit:

• We added more physics on top of the core mechanic to increase satisfaction and fun.
• We added additional bricks to increase challenge and fine-tune level progression.
• We improved the way levels ended to emphasize the main mechanics (the long neck), increase fun and trigger curiosity.

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