Homescapes is a masterclass in creating an event framework

Lessons in live ops and monetization from one of mobile’s most successful casual games

Bring warmth and comfort back to a wonderful mansion! — Playrix Post

Homescapes is a F2P puzzle game, developed and published by Playrix, where players play match-3 levels to help Austin renovate his family’s mansion, decide how the furniture and decorations look, unlock story chapters and meet amusing characters along the way.

The game has built a robust event framework over the last few years in live ops, featuring a mix of recurring events with additional game content made available for a limited period of time.

Players can find out about upcoming events and their approximate dates in in the in-game news, the game’s social media posts and update descriptions where they are announced in advance. This event framework shines light on the strategy Playrix is doubling down on — supercharging the purchase of +5 moves, the game’s primary revenue generator.

Multiple events in one month

All events have their own timers and end once time runs out.

Before analyzing Playrix’s event framework, let’s take a brief look at the different events users were able to choose from in April 2020.

1. Flint’s Adventure is a streak event that rewards players for completing levels on their first try by granting boosters at the beginning of the next level. Flint, the parrot, jumps from jar to jar increasing the number of boosters. The penalty for breaking the streak by losing a level isn’t too high — Flint just jumps back on the previous jar and resets to the previous booster bonus.
2. Cake o’clock is a straightforward event where players complete levels to help Austin’s mother bake a beautiful cake. Playrix rewards users when they complete levels 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9, primarily with unlimited lives lasting 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 hours respectively. These rewards are granted irrespective of the number of attempts players take to complete the levels.
3. Paper Plane Generator is a streak event that activates a generator which can be charged by activating boosters in levels to release paper planes onto the board. By completing levels on their first try, players can make the generator more powerful, increasing the number of paper planes onto the field. The penalty for breaking the streak by losing a level is severe — the generator switches off and needs a level win just to start again.
4. Flying High is a competition event where players compete on a leaderboard by winning levels and creating as many paper planes as possible. Players in the top 10 receive rewards based on their league.
5. Team Chest is a collaboration event where teams get to open a reward chest after collecting a set number of crowns together. Players get a crown from every level they beat and if the team hits the goal, all team members receive rewards from the chest.

The Event Framework

The magic is in the details.

Homescapes event framework is built around one primary goal — increase the revenue from +5 moves purchases. This purchase represents a major portion of the game’s revenue and is driven by players who power through levels on their first attempt.

The two streak events that run through the week — Flint’s Adventures and the Paper Plane Generator — reinforce powering through levels on their first attempt. These events require players to continue winning levels on their first attempts to keep the streak bonuses going.

The first days of the week starting Monday are usually lower in engagement (level attempts per day), which grows over the course of the week and hits a peak on the weekend.

To push engagement for the first few sessions of the week, the simple Cake o’clock event rewards players with unlimited lives for just winning levels irrespective of the number of attempts.

As the weekend draws near, the focus on social events ensures competitive players find aggressive conflict on the leaderboards on these days of maximum engagement — a moving goal with a high effort ceiling. This time is also used to supercharge teamwork, with players activating other team members for crowns, and increase engagement by sending and requesting lives.

The Cherry on Top

The first battle pass in Homescapes reinforces a familiar goal.

The first season of Wonders, Homescapes’ take on the battle pass, ran during the month of April in 2020 in parallel with the recurring events. It provided a new layer of excitement and a whole host of exclusive rewards to collect — doubling down on the +5 moves purchases even further.

Players collect points to unlock rewards on the battle pass track by beating levels — the more difficult the level, the more the points. Some rewards are available to all players, but purchasing the Golden Ticket gives additional prizes and a new pet corgi. By winning levels on the first attempt, players score twice the number of points, making twice as fast progress on the rewards track.

Players strongly incline to avoiding a loss.

As the week draws to a close, events ramp up on making the +5 moves purchase almost mandatory — otherwise players risk completely losing the charged up Paper Plane Generator bonus, losing out on points for the Flying High event and dropping their position on the leaderboard, and not winning a crown for the team in Team Chest.

A robust event framework considers the audience’s engagement curve and the combined effect that the events in parallel have on player behaviour. By supercharging the game’s primary monetization driver, the +5 moves purchase, Homescapes has managed to create an event framework that ensures players never (opt to) run out of moves.

Originally published at Game Design Post.