How to add depth into your hyper casual mobile game

Published in

PlayX Games Blog

7 min readOct 4, 2019

Hyper Casual mobile games is a unique market in many ways, but one of its most interesting aspects is its ever changing nature. In order to find the next big concept that will gather millions of players, developers from all around the world are looking for the next trend that will define the market.

Those last few months, we’ve seen more and more hyper casual games with depth.

Games like, Mr Bullet, Battle Disc or Cool Goal require strategy and interesting decision-making while keeping crystal-clear interactivity controls.

At PlayX we believe in gameplay depth, and we have been trying to implement into our games. Here is what we learned.

1) What is depth?

Depth is a tricky concept to explain. You can ask 10 developers and you’ll probably get 10 different answers. In regards to hyper casual genre, our constraint is that we are looking for depth without adding complexity.

At PlayX, it means that :

A game that is easy to understand and hard to master. The game can be played within seconds without friction, but learning all its intricacies will require hours and hours of play. The more you play, the more layers become available and the deeper you can dive. A game like Clash Royale does this amazingly well. Sending units literally takes one touch, but establishing a good roster, finding the right strategy and anticipating opponents deck takes months of learning.
The gameplay offers interesting and viable options for any given situation. It can be characters, weapons, traversal options, how to solve a battle or a puzzle. One of my favorite examples is Zelda Breath Of the Wild. A goal is trivial as reaching the top of a mountain offers player half a dozen choices; walk the path, climbing, paragliding, powers, and each option is viable and has advantages and setbacks.
The depth equals more than the sum of its mechanics. Ideally, a deep mechanic makes the rest of the game better. Take as example jumping in Mario: behind a simple action, jumping does have lots of variations (jump length, midair control) and can be used to reach platforms, break bricks, defeat enemies. It also leads to more depth when combined with other mechanics (mario size, power-ups, riding Yoshi…). Jumping is the way Mario communicates with the world.

Which brings me to my last point: depth allows expression. It has nuances, and give players tools to play the way they deem the more interesting. Taking risks in order to finish faster? Go ahead! Take your time to weigh all the possible consequences and carefully prepare a plan? That’s possible too! Play and have mindless fun? Be my guest!

2) What are the depth caveats ?

We tend to think that we can combine as many game mechanics as we want with each other and TADAM, depth will magically appear from this.

It’s a trap we’ve fallen into with some early projects.

Too many mechanics, obscure rules, lack of feedback, we did it all. We thought that the new addition would correct the mistakes of the previous ones, and ended up with a cluster of theoretical good ideas that didn’t make a lot of sense, once in the game.
In the same way, early works we did nailed to “easy to understand part”, but failed to have a catch that keeps players engaged and interested in the game for the long-run.

There is also a tendency to think that depth is something lost on hyper casual players, hence not necessary, or worth the trouble. While it’s true that lots of successful games are very thin in their depth, I think that the more the market matures, the more having high retention and keeping players engaged for as long as possible will matter. And when it comes to retention, depth is one of your best friends.

So all of that brings us to the lessons we learned, and why this post has that title.

3) How to add more depth into the game

The first thing to understand is that there is no perfect solution as each game is unique.

But there are principles we try to follow and that has given good results:

A single tool should have several different uses. Depending of the level, context or enemies, an action as simple as jumping or running should be used in several ways. The now world-famous “Rocket Jump” is a great example of that.
All is connected: We love when systems interact with each other, when everything follows the same rules and when mechanisms are closely interconnected. In Zelda BOTW (mentioned above), a fire sword makes you warm, which means you can walk in snowy lands without winter clothes. Swinging that sword on grass make it burn, fire can propagate to the enemies and potential explosive items. A single mechanic (fire) is used in equipment, combat, environment and exploration.
Depth should solve several design problems at the same time. It does not equal complexity.
A deep system allows for several playstyles. Profile your players (strategist, rusher…) and make sure that there is a viable option for each of them. For the same problem (reaching Point B, beating an enemy), how many solutions do you have? Do taking risks provide any type of rewards, or change the way you play? On the other hand, does the playstyle change when you act with patience? If the answer is yes, then chances are your system is deep (has depth).
All the game, from content to visuals, sound and balancing — must work towards depth. It can be the level design that must make sure that you have several ways to complete a level. Or the FX artists that create visual feedback that make a difficult action feel extra satisfying. Or even sound design that can give hints about the presence of a hidden path. The mechanic can be as deep as possible and the whole game must be designed around it, or it will feel shallow and thus hurt retention.

4) How does depth impacts gameplay and retention?

Midcore and hardcore genres have long figured out that deep gameplay is KPI friendly. It leads to better retention, ARPU, virality and, of course, overall enjoyment of the game.

While hyper casual have different challenges and must remain easy to play and easy to understand above all else, depth can be very helpful to improve metrics.

When done well, depth leads to “emergent complexity”. The starting situation can be extremely simple but as you keep playing, your play leads to interesting decisions. That, combined with good pacing keeps the player focused and in a state of flow, when he is neither bored or frustrated. That process is very satisfying for the brain.
The feeling of improving at a skill and getting better is one of the most powerful positive feedback loops that exists. It’s like when you start getting good at playing an instrument or cooking. It motivates you to do even more.
A system with depth will make players think about it even when they’re not playing. They’ll think about it while they are eating, working, and come back often in order to test their last theories.
Word of mouth: People like to share with their friends what they’re good at and when they improve. That is why Facebook feeds are crowded with Runtastic pictures! The feeling of mastery is something you want to show to other people. You want to talk with your friends about it, post videos on YouTube and bring other people in the game so they can understand what you just achieved was incredible. With market saturation, word of mouth virality is more necessary than ever.

5) Closing Thoughts

Here are some guidelines we would advise:

Limitations leads to creativity. Put yourself some constraints, in time, tools or assets. It can be designing a game around a single action and no movements (like Mr Bullet). Take a single action (jump, shoot, move) and see how far you can push it without creating a new one.
Your feedback loop must be clear and concise. Players must understand what is going on, else you risk complexity overload, paradoxically leading to players not knowing what to do.
Provide players a space for experimentation without punishing them for being audacious. Creativity with the game mechanics must be rewarded — the reward can be a satisfying sound, additional visual effects or new content that can be unlocked quicker. If your game is about traversal, provide different paths that players can use depending on their skill. If it is a game about diving, more risks should lead to more points. Players must feel like their mastery makes sense and allow them to play the game to its fullest.
Try to put the depth towards what your players like to do in the game. In a FPS, the depth should be placed in the shooting, not the avatar customization system. Depth works when players interact with the system as often as possible.
Keep trying! Playtest and keep iterating! Listening to your player’s feedback as early as possible is one of the fastest ways to reach depth.

We hope that through our mistakes, you can learn more about how to add depth into your game. Comment below if you have learned something, or have something to share with us!