– Can Create/ Engage with 1 Post/ 24 hours. No Streaks, no perks. Can order as much but will be credited for 1 Order/ Booking / 24 hours. No points for viewed content
Enjoy the entertaining Talking Jerry and Tom Mouse Bros apps on iOS and Android. Featuring Talking Jerry Bros Virtual Pet, Talking Jerry and Tom Mouse, and Talking Jerry & Tom Mouse Bros, these interactive virtual pets mimic voices and react hilariously to user interactions. Download now and experience endless fun!
Download Talking Jerry and Tom Mouse Bros Now
For more such hilarious jokes and videos, download our App, Virtual Pet Talking Tom Bros.
Browse other Funny and Entertaining content
Get ready for a feline frenzy with Angry Cat Game! This HTML5 game is a fun and addictive way to spend your free time. With its engaging gameplay, intuitive controls, and colorful graphics, this game is sure to delight cat lovers and arcade game enthusiasts alike. Blast your way through 30 challenging levels, each with its own set of obstacles and enemies. With its compatibility on a wide range of mobile devices, you can play the game anytime, anywhere.
Feline Frenzy
If you love cats, you’ll love Angry Cat Game! This fun and engaging game features cats as the main characters and tasks you with blasting them through obstacles to reach their goal. The game is designed with cat lovers in mind and is sure to bring a smile to your face.
Addictive Gameplay
Angry Cat Game features addictive gameplay that will keep you coming back for more. The game is easy to learn but difficult to master, with each level presenting new challenges and obstacles to overcome. The more you play, the more you’ll want to play!
Intuitive Controls
The game features intuitive controls that are perfect for mobile devices. Simply drag your finger to aim and release to shoot. The controls are smooth and responsive, giving you complete control over your shots.
Colorful Graphics
Angry Cat Game features colorful graphics that are sure to catch your eye. The game is designed with attention to detail, from the cute and cuddly cats to the vibrant and playful backgrounds. The graphics are smooth and fluid, and the colors are bright and cheerful.
30 Challenging Levels
Angry Cat Game features 30 challenging levels, each with its own set of obstacles and enemies. From bouncing balls to moving platforms, each level is designed to test your skills and strategy.
Power-Ups and Upgrades
As you progress through the game, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock power-ups and upgrades that will help you complete levels faster and more efficiently. From extra shots to bigger and stronger cats, these upgrades will give you the edge you need to succeed.
Multiple Game Modes
Angry Cat Game offers multiple game modes, each with its own unique challenges and objectives. Choose from Classic, Time Attack, and Challenge modes, each with its own set of rules and rewards.
Global Leaderboards
Think you’re the best player out there? Prove it on the global leaderboards! See how you stack up against players from around the world and compete for the top spot.
Play for Free
Angry Cat Game is available to play for free on both iOS and Android devices. You don’t have to spend a dime to experience the excitement and challenge of this fun and addictive cat game.
In conclusion, Angry Cat Game is a fun and addictive HTML5 game that is sure to delight cat lovers and arcade game enthusiasts alike. With its engaging gameplay, intuitive controls, colorful graphics, 30 challenging levels, power-ups and upgrades, multiple game modes, global leaderboards, and the ability to play for free, this game has it all. Don’t wait – join the feline frenzy!
Angry Cat Game is available to play for free on both iOS and Android devices. You don’t have to spend a dime to experience the excitement and challenge of this fun and addictive cat game.
In conclusion, Angry Cat Game is a fun and addictive HTML5 game that is sure to delight cat lovers and arcade game enthusiasts alike. With its engaging gameplay, intuitive controls, colorful graphics, 30 challenging levels, power-ups and upgrades, multiple game modes, global leaderboards, and the ability to play for free, this game has it all. Don’t wait – join the feline frenzy!
Bonus, if you like casual and funny games, do try our App, Talking Jerry Bros from this link
Everything that I have mentioned in previous chapters, all the knowledge I have gained playing games ( and developing too ), boils down to explaining my thoughts about opportunities & trends in gaming Industry. I don’t need to tell you about the Market Size of Gaming. We all already have the idea. I will get down to “My Understanding” of opportunities within the gaming space.
But before I do, let’s have a quick recap of gaming history
A brief history of Gaming
Before we look at Trends in gaming Industry, let’s briefly examine its history. It took 50 years to understand where to fit in “gaming.” Once we did, the growth was enormous. What worked in the late nineties through the 2000s doesn’t work now.
In those times, secret “quests” & easter eggs were the significant hooks for studios. With the advent of information and its accessibility, that doesn’t work anymore.
Let’s look at exciting trends in gaming Industry in games, consoles, and their evolution.
January 1, 1983
NES launched, and the first game to become extremely popular was Super Mario Bros
January 1, 1983
December 3, 1994
PS 1 launched, and some of the initial successes were Raymond, Street Fighter, and Tekken.
December 3, 1994
June 29, 2007
iPhone launched, and the games which took Appstore by the storm were Angry Birds, Talking Tom, etc
June 29, 2007
What I am trying to get your attention to is the fact that the games which were launched when the hardware of gaming consoles/phones was in the nascent stage created an IP around in-game characters.
Don’t get me wrong, games that launch later, or games that launch now, create memorable characters too.
The difference is we all know who Super Mario Bros was, but only Call Of Duty fans would know who Simon “Ghost” Railey is.
We will examine why I discussed the characters and their popularity when discussing opportunities.
With this thought in mind, let’s get into opportunities and trends in gaming industry. There are primarily three opportunities within Gaming Industry, as I see it.
- Gaming Platform
- Blockchain & Gaming
- Developing Games
Let’s get into the details of each one
If you are good at something or have a unique skill set or experience you believe you can monetize, which mediums would you venture for exposure? If you are good at writing, you will turn to a blog. You will try your lunch with YouTube if you are good at creating audio/ visual content. If Micro entertainment is your game, TikTok/Reels would be the obvious choice.
Where do you go when you are good at playing video games? Let me illustrate how gamers, especially mobile gamers, try to get visibility.
Sometimes the most difficult thing is to be able to see the most obvious thing
Mehmet Murat ildan
100s of thousands of Mobile games, Millions of mobile players around the globe spend billions of hours on games every day, and yet, not one platform is designed for mobile gamers to connect -> socialize ->, create ->, share, -> engage, ->consume.
The only Mobile platform, which extends a few of the lifecycle traits mentioned above, enjoys the most loyalty with gamers ( a.k.a Discord )
Well, not really. In Chapter 1, I described Discord, and anonymity is provided to gamers. That is opposite to the nature of YouTube and Facebook. Discord not only understood this but nailed it.
Let’s look at some core differences between Discord and Facebook/Youtube.
| Facebook / YouTube | Discord ( or an ideal gaming platform) |
|---|---|
| Centralized control by platform | Decentralized, server owners lay down rules |
| Want you to use your real identity | Lets you create a virtual identity |
| 1 user, 1 identity | Create Multiple Identities |
| 1 user interface for all | Huge feature customizations |
| Communities limited as platform functions | Help build micro & macro communities |
Now that boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, is a great question. Discord does a great job of bringing gamers together to fulfill one need, “build community & relations.”
Unfortunately, what it doesn’t do is let that community have reach and visibility, which gamers can later monetize. That’s what’s most important to gamers who want to make a living out of gaming
With everything you have heard about games and Gaming, this must be extremely difficult to accept. Surely there must be some platform made for mobile gamers? Well, there is just one (but not for mobile gamers). Steam by Valve corporation.
But it’s only for PC gamers. And it’s a private company. There is no way to tell the revenue they make, but this link has some estimates.
Steam is also the developer of some of the most famous gamers, namely
- Counter-Strike
- DOTA
- Half-Life
And there is no way they have any plans to get into mobile Gaming. Not for the foreseeable future. Why do you ask? That’s a topic for another day.
Returning to Mobile gamers and Gaming, here is a thought for you to chew on.
- Call of Duty Mobile had more than 100 Million MAU at its peak.
- There are more than 2 million calls of duty mobile google searches globally every month.
- Youtube has endless videos if you search for them.
Guess how many Call of Duty Mobile creators has more than a million subscribers on youtube?
Only 1. Yup, that’s it. His channel is iFerg.
A game with gamers spending billions of hours every month has 1 content creator of substance.
Look, I told you, the problem is real.
There is an urgent and current need for someone to create a platform for mobile gamers. Someone will make it at some point in time. And whosoever will control the gaming landscape more than Apple, Google and Tencent.
There are so many things that would comprise an ideal platform for gamers. From steaming to content creation. From content distribution to consumption. These are the most obvious ones. Let me discuss the ones that aren’t as obvious.
There are two such non-obvious areas that a gaming platform must have.
Let me first explain what a “scrim” is. A scrim is a practice/ test match between 2 teams. Scrims are where boys and girls grow to be e-sports athletes.
- Like-minded players get together and create a Team or a Clan.
- Once they believe they are ready, they want to play against the best.
- The next step, e-sports, depends on how these players play in scrims.
E-sports is a fast-growing sub-segment within Gaming. It’s estimated to be $1.5 B Globally. And it’s growing at an astonishing pace. To understand the magnitude of e-sports, digest this
The peak concurrent view on Hotstar was 13 million
The final League of Legends world championship concurrent views ( across platforms ) was 73.8 million
And that’s why I cannot emphasize enough why any platform which has to be developed for Mobile gamers must incorporate Scrims and e-sports frameworks.
Teams should be able to schedule, record, rank, share, and coordinate their activities on the platform.
What if I told you that the most sought-after sub-community within Gaming is not of streamers or pro players?
The most sought-after guys are the stat guys. They regularly dissect the game and any associated changes and inform everyone else about them. For example
- Call of duty mobile releases a new season.
- Each season has “balance changes” associated with them.
- Balance changes are increasing or decreasing the capabilities of a gun within the game.
- Professional players and casual players alike seek the stat guys.
They are, in some sense, a “coach” to players.
Unfortunately, these guys don’t have a platform to monetize their skills. For them to be able to showcase their talent truly, they need a platform that can support numbers as input and translate them to “charts” ( extremely game-specific charts, though)
This pretty much wraps up a mobile gaming platform as an opportunity. Let’s now move to the next topic.
This section will probably be the shortest out of all the 4 chapters.
As we begin with this, let me first narrate a story.
What I tried narrating through the story above is the experience of anyone who plays Call of Duty Mobile. The frame I mentioned is referred to as OG Legendary frame.
I have heard a lot of discussions lately about putting such digital assets on blockchain by creating games on the blockchain.
What’s important to understand is that the assets exist because of the “experience” within the game. An asset without such experience is just an asset without much of value.
Hence, the 1st step should be to develop great games with such experiences.
Game development requires such a different skill set, though. If you are someone who plans to develop a game, the following section could be of some help.
As much as I am fascinated by games, and developed a few myself, my suggestion to anyone who asks me for ideas for game development today is the same. Only for now, if you have lots and lots of money.
My intention is not to discourage, but let’s look at some of the facts
- As mentioned in Chapter 1, the biggest studios in the world are now releasing games for Mobile platforms.
- As mentioned in this article, the mobile platform is much more mature now.
- In turn, creating an IP over the game is extremely difficult. That time frame has now elapsed.
- All the AAA studies are now leveraging their IPs to attract new players or existing players from different platforms.
Let me share my journey of doing the same. In 2012, we released a casual game for children/teens ( we knew it would resonate even with adults) by the name of Talking Jerry bros. These mice did stupid things. Everyone loved those.
We wanted to create humor the way we had seen it while growing up, and we were going great.
- The game had garnered over 1 million downloads within the first year, with a grand total of $0 spent on marketing.
- 1-month retentions were above 30%, with an average engagement time of 20 mins / engaged user /day
- More importantly, users created videos from the App and uploaded them to Youtube. Last we checked, the combined view of user-generated Content on YouTube was close to 50 million.
It was going great, and then we made a blunder when glory seemed inevitable. We decided to shift from Jerry Bros to a hardcode gaming genre. And does that haunt us today?
If we had focused on Jerry Bros, they would have probably become a household name now.
Instead started working on an action game called “Guardian of the World.” and put all our energies into it.
- We planned to complete the game in 9 months; it took us 2 years.
- Even in. 2 years, we could only develop about 40% of all we wanted in the game.
- We had run out of Time & Money. Our beloved Jerry Bros, neglected for all this while, couldn’t help the game’s development any further.
- More and more AAA studios had started porting to Mobile, and the time to leverage any IP created through Gaming was over.
We made a mistake, and we learned our lesson. And hence I am sharing our experience with you to help you make a judgment accordingly.
Game development is a fiercely competitive landscape. Those who create IPs, add the most value over time.
If I were to develop an FPS like CODM, I would have to think hard about monthly updates.
All Activision has to do is go back to one of its many successful games, pick an element ( gun/character/skill), and add it as an update.
Well, no, but I have a much better proposition as a suggestion.
We are only a few years away from meaningful AR/MR/VR adoption. Hence I propose
- Wait and prepare for that time.
- When it comes, if it goes as every gaming platform in history has gone ( and as I described above ), there would be individuals/ independent studios who will develop casual games around IPs.
- Work on creating those IPs, and stay updated with what resonates with people globally and culturally.
- And when the time comes, release those games on AR/VR/MR platforms.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, brings me to the conclusion of this 4 part series.
In this four-part series, we were able to
- Understand gaming models
- Apply that knowledge to understand gamification.
- Create a sample gamification model for Zomato.
- Understand problem and opportunity areas for Mobile Gaming
I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. Until next time – Arpit
If you have made it this far, you will love this chapter. The article aims to showcase the gaming business models, specifically that Call of Duty Mobile’s. Equipped with information from this chapter and the previous one, you will gain a clear understanding of how to gamify your business. Without further ado
There are primarily three kinds of verticals within gaming businesses & industry.
- Game engines – software that helps developers build games. Some examples would be Unreal, Unity, and CryENGINE. AAA studies have their own proprietary gaming engines. Activision, for instance, uses the IW engine ( along with a few others).
- Publishing Houses – responsible for video game distribution to the public. These games could have been developed either internally by the publisher or by a video game developer. Sony Interactive Entertainment, Tencent Games, and Steam are two classic examples. Even the Apple App store & Google Play store can be considered two of the biggest publishing houses.
- Gaming Consoles – are devices that can be used to play games. PS5, Xbox, PC & Mobile Phones are some of the examples.
Digital games changed the way people buy and sell games by introducing free-to-play (also known as F2P) models. Today, we will look at Call of Duty’s F2P model & understand their gaming business.
The gaming business and its monetization models are fascinating. Call of duty Mobile (a.k.a CODM) makes money through four models.
- Battle Pass
- Bundles
- Creates
- Lucky draws
Let’s deep dive into each of these models, and learn how gaming business models can help us implement new monetization frameworks within our products & services.
Please take note of the following to be able to understand the rest of the topics.
As we start, I would like to show you something. Please take a few minutes of your time to watch it.
I introduce the Battle Pass to you, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. This, by far, is the biggest revenue driver for Call of Duty Mobile.
Ironically, this does not make a lot of money by itself. Let me explain
I showed you the trailer of 1 Battle pass above ( rust ). Let me show you “behind the scene” of the same Battle Pass. Gaming business is serious business .
The effective price of a Battle Pass is ₹ 999? Nope₹ 499? Still No₹ 0. Yup, all that effort for nothing?
Let’s have a closer look at Battle Pass & its impact on CODM gaming business.
- A new “season” is introduced and released In Game every month. Each season launches a new Battle Pass.
- A Battle Pass, has new items, and new skins.
- As you have seen above from the trailer of Rust Battle Pass from Season 6, an enormous time and effort go into developing a battle pass.
- The battle pass has 50 items/ skins. They are all locked.
- A player purchases it for 220 CP.
- They then need to play games to earn Battle Pass points
- As they achieve points, they unlock items within the Battle Pass
- As the players are unlocking BP levels, the money they spend on BP is credited back to them.
- By the time they complete all 50 levels, all 220 CP is returned to the player.
“Bring me a bucket, and I’ll show you a bucket!”
Psycho, Borderlands 2
Considering life, death, and what lies in between, this seems like insanity. That is, if you don’t go down the rabbit hole to eventually understand why it costs what it costs. Below, I will illustrate my journey of CODM and spending money within the Game.
January 1, 2020
Installed the Game sometime in Jan 2020.
January 1, 2020
February 1, 2020
Played the Game off and on. The gameplay made me feel like JOD.
February 1, 2020
March 1, 2020
It was getting serious now; I was eligible to play ranked. But was convinced not to spend.
March 1, 2020
April 1, 2020
Corona & Lockdowns, doubling down on Game.
April 1, 2020
May 1, 2020
Rust Battle Pass released. I spent money for the first time, convinced it was practically free.
May 1, 2020
And that’s how the Call of Duty monetization journey starts. As I mentioned earlier, gaming business is fascinating. Let’s continue with the other pieces.
After Battle Pass, bundles are the lowest-hanging fruit for players to consider.
Bundles are a set of in-game item skins which have a fixed price. If you look at the images above, each bundle has 10 items. And each bundle costs 960 CP.
Pay 960 CP, and get all items. Players cannot choose some or a few items. It’s all or nothing for the price listed. This is the primary gaming business model.
Few interesting facts about Call of duty mobile bundles
- Collaboration Bundles – If you notice, one of the bundles is of John McClain. CODM released a John Mclain & John Rambo bundle, with game modes dedicated to those characters
- Creator Bundle – The 1st bundle in the image above is named Bobby Plays bundle
- Bobby is one of the most famous content creators and caster of Call of duty mobile
- CODM released 3 bundles themed on 4 of the most famous creators in the North American region.
- They even created an emote based on a real-life onstream incident for Bobby plays
But bundles aren’t “game enough.” They aren’t “real” gaming business models. There must be a monetization model, which is a game itself, right? Well, there is, and it’s called “Crates.”
This is where it starts to get real. You know what you want to buy, but don’t know how much you would spend to get it.
If you have played other games or understood some of the Casino frameworks, it would be easy to understand crates. If you haven’t, let me take a shot at explaining how crates work.
- You spin the wheel, and you draw a reward based on the probability of drawing that item ( illustrated in the image above)
- With each pull, you also progress toward a Milestone.
- Once you reach a Milestone ( assume Tier 1 milestone), you are guaranteed an item from that Milestone tier when you make the next pull.
- There is no duplicate protection ( barring a few exceptions). If you need a particular item, you need to keep drawing till you receive that item. You will keep receiving duplicates as you draw.
- The best rewards/items have the lowest probability.
To give you context, the only time I pulled from a crate, I spent ₹ 6000 to get what I wanted 😩
It is impossible for me to know the breakdown of Activision revenue by different models. However, in the circle of a few hundred people I know, players generally don’t pull crates due to 2 reasons.
- The uncertainty around the crates draws mechanics.
- Availability of a much better option within the Game. It’s time to explore the last possibility, then.
Activision hit the jackpot with lucky draws. Few games have implemented this ( even Pubg doesn’t have Lucky Draws). This monetization method is so smooth; it has kept me up at night thinking about all the possibilities.
“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”
If you had one shot, or one opportunity, To seize this gun for Rs 10, Would you capture it or just let it slip? ( Original lines by yours truly )
Call of Duty’s gaming business model is top-notch, and so is its design team. They create some of the best weapon skins. They do an even better job of selling them. This is how Lucky Draw works
- There are 10 items within a draw, and the best item has the smallest probability of being drawn.
- The first pull is only 10 CP, which translated to ₹ 5 – ₹ 10 ( depending on how to buy them)
- Following is the cost of each draw/ pull
- 0->30->50->120->200->320->520->960->1300->2300
- You are guaranteed an item with each pull ( unlike crates )
This gaming business model of Call of Duty is Mobile is absolute genius. Remember Battle Pass? The fact that Call Of Duty Mobile credits back all the CP you spent on Battle Pass? Turns out, that’s their secret sauce. We are now reaching the peak gaming business model.
They only need a trigger for a player to like one particular Draw and bam. The player is sucked into making a couple of draws; there is no turning back.
But that is not all. Waiting for players to “like” a specific skin to trigger is a slippery slope. CODM & Activision make their own luck.
The primary driver of motivating players to make Lucky Draw pulls, is a phenomenon called “Balance Changes.”
Balance changes are a phenomenon of making changes primarily to the properties of a gun through “buffs” & “nerfs.” A significant buff will turn a gun into “meta.”
- Buff – When gun characteristics are changed in a way that it performs better after applied balance change, its called a buff
- Nerf – The opposite of buff, i.e., when the gun performs worse than before post applied balance change, its called a nerf
- Meta – The undisputed best gun in the game.
CODM decides which gun will be meta and close to meta; it then releases a Legendary Lucky Draw skin for that meta.
Players rush to try their luck, as they want to compete for the leaderboard.
As an entrepreneur, I have heard so much about the potential of microtransactions, especially in an economy like India. No one has pulled it off like Activision and its gaming business, though.
Their Lucky Draw mechanism isn’t just dependent on “Whales” ( high spenders). Instead, they want to make money from many “fishes” in the sea. 1% of whales spending up to Rs 4000/ draw, and 10% spending upto Rs 100 / draw.
The possibilities of microtransactions through gamification of Apps and products are exhilarating. With that thought, let’s complete the gamification of Zomato we started in the previous chapter.
Chapter 2 covered the gamification of Zomato to great lengths; this section concludes its gamification.
In the previous chapter, we looked at gaming elements like Core & Meta Gaming & Character Progression of Zomato.
If you would notice, all the efforts CODM puts into Core Gaming, Meta Gaming, and Character Progression are finally monetized through Personalisation & Customization. We did the same for Zomato.
In this chapter, we built a monetization loop over those gaming characteristics.
This concludes our exercise to gamify Zomato. As the product manager for your own product, you can now easily gamify your App/ Website/ Platform.
I hope you like reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. The final chapter left will cover topics I am most excited about. It will cover my understanding of the gaming business, its outlook & opportunities within & outside the gaming industry.
Genuinely appreciate it if you went through Chapter 1. In this chapter, I intend to share my experience playing the game and understand why it’s extremely engaging.
To begin with, let’s quickly see the description of the 2 products we will be discussing at length.
But what is Gamification?
Simply put, gamification uses game-like elements in non-game contexts (i.e., Apps/Platforms, etc.) to engage and motivate users. It does not necessarily mean retention. Great Gamification models help you filter out users efficiently.
If you don’t play games, I am sure this will be difficult to understand. Many references/frameworks/models help you with the “gamification” of products/services. Unfortunately, there aren’t any which explain the dynamics of a game through its length and breadth.
To make it easier, I will explain Call Of Duty’s model and draw a parallel gamification model for Zomato based on CODM ( abbreviation for Call Of Duty Mobile). Why Zomato? Because that’s the app I use most ( other than CODM 😎)
Before we start with Gamification, let’s understand the basic Characteristics of games.
Characteristics of a game
There are primarily 4 components of a successful game. They are
1. Core Gameplay
Core Gameplay is basically what the game is about. In call of duty Mobile, the core gameplay is “killing” opponents. The core gameplay of Candy Crush is Tile-Matching, i.e., you match the tiles so that they disappear ( for Boomer like me, Tetris is a good comparison)
2. Character Progression
Character Progression is how your character grows as you play the game more. In Call of Duty Mobile, as you win the game more, you Rank higher and get access to more in-game items. You start as a beginner with 5 guns and a handful of other items. As you win more, you reach Legendary Rank and unlock many different firearms.
3. Meta Gaming
“Meta” is a prefix that means “above or beyond.” When you see the word “metagaming,” it is typically one of two meanings: either referring to secondary game elements outside the actual, tangible game itself or trying to gain an advantage by using outside information.
In CODM, for example, one of the metagaming elements would be upgrading your guns.
4. Personalization / Customization
Well, as the name describes, it’s about personalizing the game through various customizations. In CODM, I can confidently say that no two players have the same interfaces if they have been playing for more than three months. Please keep in mind that at its Peak, the game had 100 million MAU.
Core Gameplay, Call of Duty Mobile: Explained
To understand the core gameplay of CODM, let’s look at the photo below.
As someone who had led & delivered a few large-scale projects, applying the Golden Circle Model to the core gameplay is fascinating
The “Why” and “How” almost always define the outcome of the game, that is, “What.” If you are playing a Game Mode where the winner is decided by how many “Flag” (“WHY”) a team collects, but the team is more focused on killing opponents (“HOW”) rather than Collecting flags, that team would probably lose ( WHAT)
Now that is out of the way, let’s look at the core gameplay of Zomato
Zomato Core Game-play
A core of a game is the one thing that game is about. The feature set is a list of the things you might see on the back of a game box or an ad for a game.
And by that definition, every product or service has core gaming characteristics. If you are Canva, your core gaming characteristics help users create designs. If you are Amazon, it is to connect buyers and sellers to enable commerce.
Amazon’s seller platform has the best gamification design I have ever seen on the topic of Amazon. I will do a separate post for it when I understand the model at least 70%-80%.
These are Zomato’s core gameplay characteristics.
- Ordering Food: That’s a no-brainer. And this is Zomato’s core gameplay with probably maximum user engagement.
- Booking Restaurant: Booking of a table at a restaurant.
- Ordering Grocery: With the acquisition of blinkit, it seems grocery delivery is exclusive to Blinkit App
- Restaurant Discovery: Find your favorite cuisine or dish.
To better understand Zomato’s Gaming Characteristics, let’s compare them to Call of Duty Mobile.
| Game Characteristics | CODM | Zomato |
|---|---|---|
| Core Gameplay | Kill Opponents | Order “stuff” |
| Character Progression | Legendary Rank | User Ratings? |
| Meta Gaming | Upgrading of guns/ perks/ Operators | Posting reviews/photos, following the account |
| Personalization | UI/UX/ Characters | None |
Perfect, Zomato’s game characteristics ( & Core Gaming characteristics ) should now be more relatable.
As explained earlier, every product or service has a Core Gameplay. They typically don’t have the rest of the gaming attributes & characteristics to create a gamification experience.
Hence, let’s expand on Meta Gaming, Character Progression and Personalisation attributes for Call of Duty Mobile.
We will then incorporate them within Zomato (hypothetically).
Meta Gaming: Call of Duty Mobile: Explained
Character Progression: Call of Duty Mobile: Explained
Personalization: Call of Duty Mobile: Explained
Every time a player wants to play a game, they must fill 8 assigned slots.
All the Slots mentioned above
The number denotes the variety of options within the game. For example, there are 100 guns. The player needs to select one in The Primary Weapon slot.
Let me provide 1 line explanations of non-obvious ones.
- Character: These are the avatars you play as.
- Tactical: These are items that can be used once / life ( example Smoke Grenade)
- Lethal: Almost similar to Tactical, an example would be an explosive grenade
- Operator Skills: Special powers can be activated 2-3 times in a match. For example, a grenade launcher.
- ScoreStreak: Special abilities you achieve when you kill and score “x” points without dying within a match. For example, you will be rewarded with a missile that will fall from the sky and kill enemies if you score 500 points without dying.
- Perks: These are characteristics of a player which remain throughout the match. For example, “Dead Silence” gives the ability to move within the game without footstep noise.
While the game has numerous Character Progression elements, not everything is unlocked when you start playing.
The more you play, the more items are unlocked ( You CANNOT BUY unlocks)
Only “Casual” matches are unlocked initially.
- The game matches you against bots and similar casual players to increase your chances of winning.
- It never feels like that, though. GodL Minho, one of the top players of Call of Duty Mobile in India, did not know he was playing against bots for the first 3 months.
- After a few obstacles, the hardcode Mode is unlocked, which is Ranked.
- In Ranked, all humans are battling for the top spot on the Leaderboard. The more matches you win, the higher you rank on Leaderboard.
- A small subset of all players is eligible/ play Rank. Even smaller reach Legendary.
- The Leaderboard is reset every 2 months.
- This section is pretty much self-explanatory from the image above. As I mentioned earlier, these micro customizations mean no 2 players who have played the game for a bit will have the same experience.
Let’s now work on Zomato gamification, shall we?
If you have followed me this far, you have a fair sense of how the Call of Duty Mobile Game Model works. As promised, I will create a Model for Zomato gamification. Let’s Go!!!!
As we create a gamification model for Zomato, there are a few essential things to remember if you plan to incorporate one within your product.
- Don't stop what's working: The gamification model is only for users/ customers who want to "compete". The gamification model should help you in filtering "casual" from "ranked" users. Therefore, there is no need to make the model for all users.
- It's Not a Game: Hence, a user's motivation won't be that of a game. The user expectation would be tangible. After all, we are working towards the gamification of a product, not turning the product into a game.
- User Expectation, business opportunity. To complete our gamification cycle, we need a leaderboard. A leaderboard that users want to be a part of.
- Customization: There are hundreds of studies that say the same thing. User sticks longer and engages more with products they can personalize. Firebase builds a complete solution to help Developers achieve it on the fly.
Core Game-play: Zomato (Extended)
You have already seen the Core Gameplay of Zomato. I am going to add 1 more Core Gameplay to Zomato. And that is social elements, primarily for 3 reasons.
- Food, as a category, has been in the Top 10 categories on Instagram for years. This is the lowest-hanging fruit for Zomato. I am surprised they haven’t done anything about it yet.
- The current Zomato workflow doesn’t have enough elements for gamification.
- It’s my blog. I can do whatever I want 😎
Meta Gaming Model: Zomato
Let’s closely look at the Meta Gaming Model of CODM and create a parallel experience for Zomato.
| Meta Gaming Component | Component Description |
|---|---|
| Homepage Categories (Primary Weapon) | – Let users decide which restaurants and categories they want to see on the homepage. – Let users decide the UI for the Menu Screen. – Users, based on Rank, unlock special formats to post content (i.e., Stories unlocked for certain Ranked Users) |
| App Layout ( Seconday Weapon) | Tabbed, hamburger, extra tabs. |
| Skins ( Characters) | Multiple UI skins ( different colours, different fonts) |
| Content Creation ( Tactical ) | Based on the level of user. If they are a beginner, they can create only “x” pieces of content in a day. |
| Content Engagement ( Lethal ) | Based on the level of user. If they are a beginner, they can engage with only “x” pieces of content daily. |
| ( Operator / Superpower ) | A small time frame-based activity which provides more “points.” For example, when the user receives a notification, they can create/engage with as much content as they want for a certain time duration. |
| Score Streak | If a user places X orders and Y days, he gets 100 points. If it’s X+1, they get 200 points, X+10, and “Z%” off on a dish. |
| Perks | Different abilities, for example, a user can remain anonymous, or they can create a pseudo name. |
This is awesome, but only if tied with something tangible, transparent, and competitive. There must be an achievement/accomplishment/empowerment system for gamification to work effectively. In other words, a progression-based leaderboard.
Please keep in mind that the points below are only suggestive. It’s impossible to give near-accurate points structure without the source data.
Character Progression Model: Zomato
Let’s create a point-based model where
- A user activity directly related to the product KPIs is rewarded.
- We then tie those rewards with Character Progression and Personalization.
Almost every product which tries to implement gamification ignores the 2nd step. When that happens, the end product is a "Rewards & Recognition" model, not gamification. That, in turn, leads to meta gaming becoming core gameplay (i.e., Buy X, get Y points). As soon as rewards are scaled back, the engagement starts to drop significantly.
With that in mind, let’s proceed with Progression Model.
| Activity | Points |
|---|---|
| App Launch ( For 1st Launch in a Day) | 2 Points |
| Create Content | 5 Points |
| Order Food | 50 Points |
| Order Grocery | 50 Points |
| Booked a Table | 100 Points |
| Engaged with Content | 2 / Engagement |
| Their content viewed | .01 Points |
| Their content engaged with | .05 Points |
| Streak ( based on a defined streak) | .5 to 25 points |
Excellent, so we have the Meta Gaming figured out and know the motivations for Character Progression. That’s half of the gamification of Zomato.
But we can’t stop here, can we? A user who works hard needs bragging rights. One of the last things left in the gamification of Zomato is the definition and abilities of Rank.
Character Progression: Zomato: Leaderboard
The Zomato gamification model described in the Article is only about 10%-15% of what the final outcome may look like. Describing the complete model is out of the scope of this article.
There are a lot of micro-functions that go into making a successful gamification-enabled Leaderboard. I will list a few of them.
- The Bragging Rights: If you are legendary, everyone needs to know
- It’s a Rank, not a commodity: The leaderboard loses its significance if every 3rd or 4th user is in the top Rank.
- Change is the only constant: The leaderboard needs to reset, at specific intervals, to give the “new” entrants a chance.
- Quality & Quantity: The leaderboard should reflect both the quality of a user’s contribution and the quantity of their contribution.
Personalization / Customization Model: Zomato
Well, as it turns out, we aren’t ready for it yet. For our exercise on Zomato gamification, personalization is the most important piece. I say that because Personalisation and customization, done right, will unlock a new revenue stream altogether.
Hence, we will need to cover Chapter 3 to completely understand the personalization Model of Call Of Duty & Zomato.
Conclusion
And this, ladies & gentlemen, brings us to a close for this topic. Having said that, the gamification of Zomato is not quite done yet. We shall look at a couple more aspects when we cover Call of Duty Monetization in Chapter 3
Here are some recommendations if you intend to incorporate gamification within your product.
- Gamification is expensive. There are no two ways about it. It’s a continuous stream of understanding your target user psychology and spending on developing game mechanics around that understanding.
- Gamification It’s binary: Unfortunately, it’s not feasible to implement gamification in batches. The core of gamification has to be ready from day 1. The customizations and options can be built with time, but not Meta-Gaming
Stay tuned for the Next Chapter/ Article, in which we shall discuss the monetization model of Call of Duty Mobile.
Intro
My name is Arpit, and I am a wannabe gamer, a novice drummer, and an entrepreneur. It seems that covid is finally behind us. While it was as strenuous as it was for individuals and collective, it did provide opportunities. Personally, it was going back to playing games. Mobile gaming options were the most accessible and logical at the time.
Hence, I want to share my mobile gaming research while playing one of the most popular games in the world, Call Of Duty Mobile. I shall be writing 4 different posts/ articles describing my learning and journey.
A gaming behemoth, and its experiment
According to an official Activision statement, the Call of Duty franchise has generated $30B in revenue over the course of its lifetime. This is why Microsoft is willing to pay a premium for it. It seems to be worth it.
As a gamer, the story and history of Activision and Blizzard, which later merged to become Activision Blizzard, is fascinating. As much as I would be delighted to talk about it, this article is probably not the place,
Prior to the acquisition of Kings and Candy Crush for $5.9B, Activision did not have any serious presence on the Mobile platform. But boy, did that Change with the release of Call of Duty Mobile
According to many murmurs and insider scoops, Activision wasn’t exactly convinced about Mobile Gaming. That was one of the main reasons to partner with Tencent for Game Development.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The game has generated over $1.5 Billion of revenue from its release. It’s important to remember that this is just an estimate from third-party analytics tools.
CODM has partnerships with various companies that allow gamers to purchase in-game currency. (e.g., Codashop ). These 3rd party suppliers can’t be accounted for.
The COVID Lockdowns have been great for Mobile Games and the mobile gaming industry. The growth has been unprecedented. Every major AAA studio has announced a Mobile release. Mobile gaming was already successful; we are about to see that success increase manifold.
Some of the games which are announced and planned for release on the Mobile platform are. Apex Legends & Call of Duty Warzone are already mobile gaming ready!
WarZone
Volarant Mobile
An overview of my experience with gaming and Call of Duty Mobile
A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.
Jane McGonigal
COVID, like for so many people out there, couldn’t have come at a worse time. I had just launched a new venture ( invitekaro ). In a geography dominated by Amazon & Flipkart, we were selling Digital Goods worth ₹ 4000 from our App.
It was an exception, as 53% of our purchasers were women. We were truly flying. And then, there was this unexpected and unfortunate hard stop. That’s when I found refuge in games; after almost a decade.
- I was Alice, going down the rabbit hole, experiencing first-hand how far along mobile gaming has come.
- I not only played the game; I became semi-pro. I participated in the CODM world championship, and we reached the Last 32 in Stage 3. Being in the top 500 players around the globe is a flex like no other, especially at my age
- My IGN ( In game name ) is MaiTrivediHun, inspired by you know who. I am also known as the famous “uncle” of CODM in India.
Now that we are talking about my time with the Championship team and the friends I made during that time, I need to introduce them ( calling them “friends” is a privilege, considering they are almost half my age )
Leader of the pack in the game and our Objective player. He recently completed his masters in AI/ML algorithms and is working in a company doing the same.
Our Main Sniper (couldn’t snipe if his life depended on it ). He moved to Canada recently, where he is completing his Master’s.
Our entry fragger, who won many games for us single-handedly. “.glitch” is pursuing Master’s from UCLA.
Ironically, nothing like his name. He was our stats guru. Every gun, every attachment, every perk, he knew it all. Currently working as a software engineer, he has created a brand for himself. His tribe goes by the name of Stats on Duty.
Our Slayer was supposed to be one of the 1st ones to get into the action. He worked for Hotstar’s content team and built quite an audience for himself on IG. Somehow, contrary to his role, he would inevitably be the last man standing.
Our supposed-to-be sniper never came off to the reserve bench. He is preparing for his civil services exams. Mobile gaming has been his only exposure to digital games.
Our manager. He arranged our practice games, recorded our sessions, and coordinated all the pieces. He is 15 years old. He was our manager because he was persistent, like any other 15-year-old. No was not an option for him. As with Mamba, his only exposure to gaming has been mobile gaming.
I don’t know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.
Banksy
As you would have already noticed, all the names I mentioned above are IGNs / Pseudo Identities. Not that any of my team members had any problem with revealing their identities, but Anonymity within games and the gaming community is a fascinating topic. I shall write a blog about it soon enough.
Growth hack, without trying!
We know a bit more about my team, but how did we get here? We all have varied backgrounds, and still, we managed to come together, create a bond, and form a team. Let me try explaining the process through an image.
April 2020, early evening, I hopped into a ranked lobby (mobile gaming to the rescue 😎). I had reached Master 4 and needed 700 more points to get to legendary. In ranked, I was presented with a match on Domination on the Standoff map. I, along with random teammates, was killing it.
The victory was inevitable, and that’s when two boys activated their mic to let random teammates know how good we all were. Those boys were Overachiever and Kreed. Next thing, they were talking about their love for FC Barcelona. As a long time ‘Culé, I had to get involved. We immediately got onto Discord, and these were the first two photos I shared with them.
The real journey of growth and engagement starts once you find like-minded people.
journey
title Growth & Engagement
section Discord
Create Private Groups: 5: Me, In Game Friends
Join Public Servers: 3: Me
section Whatsapp
Create Groups: 5: Me, In Game FriendsWe will cover Discord/ Youtube/ Instagram and their roles in details, when we get to “Potential Opportunities in the ever growing gaming world” post and section. However, let me quickly get into why discord works, and works great for gamers and mobile gaming.
Anonymity
As you would have noticed by now, gamers tend to be anonymous (this holds true for mobile gaming users and console/pc gamers). They prefer being known for their IGN vs Real Name. Discord understands this exceptionally well.
- Gamers usually use their IGN to sign-up and use that as their username.
- It is probably the only main-steam “Chat” App that doesn’t have read receipts in any shape/ way or form.
Made for Gamers, soooo EZ
Discord is made for gamers. Although there are different use cases, those are edge cases as far as adoption is concerned.
- Gamers can have more than 1 username. If their IGN is different in different games, and they are subscribing to a channel/ server/ group of that particular game, they can ( and do ) change their username to reflect the same.
- When the general practice is to have a username the same as IGN, flow from the game to Discord is easy. No need to share a phone number. You need to just search for the username you were playing with in-game.
Feeling over Features, Oh the Feels!!!
Once you create a Discord Server that drives traffic, managing it becomes a game. My teammate Doomsday has successfully created a vibrant Discord Server.
- He looks for volunteers to create mobile gaming-specific content and, more importantly, act as “moderators.”
- There are 250 roles in Discord. Those roles can be any permutation of 29 permissions discord provides. The moderators are assigned roles.
- These “moderators” are typically aged between 14-17 years. They do it because it makes them feel they belong. A feeling that they have made it.
Conclusion, for now
The devil is in the details
And this brings up a conclusion for this topic. Mobile gaming has grown exponentially, and there is still massive scope. Not just to build games, but with the knowledge of how games work, you can create some fascinating products. In the next Chapter, I intend to tell you more with specifics.
This is an open ended collection of funny tweets! Browse and enjoy, or add your own
If you thought cats aren’t funny, then you must watch this video