Product Teardown 01 — Clash of Clans
Clash of Clans has been around for almost 2 years and it’s still top 3 grossing games in App Store and Google Play.
There are many good elements of this game, but I want to cover five things that I believe make this game a hit.
First Impression
The first impression is very good. Things that are common today were very impression two years ago, such as zooming in, zooming out, and you don’t lose graphic quality when you zoom in.
The UI is very clean! Instead giving frightening arrows and popups to teach you how to play the game, Clash of Clans give users freedom to play the game themselves. As an example, most of games today require users to spend gems(in-game currency) during the tutorial, but CoC lets you choose spend or not, which really helps users experience the game. As a result, players progress through the first few battles and learn quicly how to build, how to speed up, and how to battle. Very intuitive.
The key is: focus on how users walk through tasks and optimizing the presentation of information to those users.
Core Loop
There are three elements of the core loop: collecting resources, building and training troops, and battling. These three parts create different game play styles
Collecting resources
Coins and Elixir are the two soft currencies in Clash of Clans. In order to produce these resources, players need to build Elixir Collectors and Gold Mines. All the production is automatic and stops when stored resources reach the cap. This mechanism works really really well on mobile device: (1) it creates the experience of playing on-the-go. players can produce resources all the time and prepare for battles. (2) it encourages users coming back to games frequently: you have to collect resources when they reach the cap, and spend those resources to build and train your troops, which is second element of core loop.
Building and training troops
Once players have the resources, the game does an excellent job of leading players to spend those resources: building, training and upgrading troops.At this stage, players really feel the progression: the base gradually looks different, the troops becomes more powerful. The time gate and two builders restriction in turn reinforce you the experience of progressing.
Battling
This is the most fun part of the game! Now you have troops, the only thing to do is to go into battles, destroy opponent’s base, rob coins and elixir, and come back to build, train and upgrade your troops. It really captures the “one more time” feeling that make the game really addictive.
The Key here: core loop is very very strong and intuitive to encourage players to play and come back. Sessions are short, only 3 mins for battle, rewarding players to play at any time and under any situation. The other parts of gameplay doesn’t require uninterrupted attention. Players feel progression after each session. As a result, after players spend a few days with the game, they form the habits of playing multiple times during the day. No wonder Clash of Clans has that freaking retetion number.
Meta Game
Michail Katkoff, product manager of Clash of Clans, defines metagame as “the invisible part of the core loop that you have to experience. The part where players don’t actually earn or consume any resources but simply stay engaged in the game with a simple goal to optimize their progress.”
I would define metagame as the meanning, the purpose that you give to yourself when playing the games. The goal outside the goals in games.
The metagame for Clash of Clans is offense and defense strategies. Players spend a lot of time wathcing replay, studying best troops combination, creating optimial defense layout, etc. The goal goes beyond game goals: battleing and upgrading, and becomes how can I form a strategy to become competitive in battles.
Social Mechanics
After player pass 30~30 single play model, the game guided players to heavy PvP sesssion. There is a guild system, which works OK but not excellent. I would argue that social Mechanics in Clash of Clans has done excellent jobs about competition, but not very good at collaboration, on which Kings’ Candy Crush Saga does an excellent job.
Content
Clash of Clans does a good job on content creation. Troops are organized in tiers. Players upgrade levels and unlock new content. Not only this creates progression, but also retention. Players always want to come back and see what’s new.
Reference:
[1]http://www.deconstructoroffun.com/2012/09/clash-of-clans-winning-formula.html
[2]http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MichailKatkoff/20131024/203142/MidCore_Success_Part_1_Core_Loops.php
