Deconstruyendo Nimblebit Bit City

La última versión de Nimblebit presenta a los Bitizens y esta vez han utilizado un idle/clicker/tapper cruzado con un constructor de ciudades en su nueva versión de Bit City ( iOS / Android ). Soy fanático del equipo Nimblebit desde hace mucho tiempo, fundado por los hermanos Dave e Ian Marsh en 2007, pero ampliado a otros miembros clave del personal. Mi juego favorito personal era Tiny Tower , pero también jugué y produje la mayoría de sus lanzamientos más recientes. Pocket Frogs merece una mención por el diseño, ya que todavía tiene una de las mejores mecánicas de colección/rareza de cualquier juego que haya jugado en dispositivos móviles. Nimblebit se especializa en crear una experiencia de recolección o simulación en torno a objetos cotidianos comunes.

La mecánica principal de Bit City es un juego de crecimiento económico sin fin y el objetivo del juego es progresar a través de 8 ciudades cada vez más extensas para generar la mayor cantidad de ingresos por segundo.

Clickers en general

El género clicker o inactivo es una de las mecánicas de juego gratuito más recientes pero extremadamente populares que hemos visto en dispositivos móviles. Hay algunas buenas razones por las que la mecánica en sí ha estado presente en muchos grandes éxitos como Adventure Capitalist, Tap Titans o Egg Inc. En esencia, el bucle de un clicker es muy simplista. Estás intentando mejorar tu tasa de ganancias para poder comprar artículos que aumenten tu tasa de ganancias.

La simplicidad del bucle central es a la vez una bendición y un obstáculo. El hecho de que todo lo que haces en el juego contribuya a mejorar en lo que haces (ganar dinero) resulta muy gratificante.

Cada acción es una acción positiva.

El obstáculo surge cuando finalmente encuentras que la interacción principal (hacer tapping lo más rápido que puedas) es repetitiva y aburrida. En algunos juegos de clicker, esto puede suceder muy rápido. Entonces, como diseñador de juegos, eventualmente cambias la motivación del jugador de hacer tapping a algo que durará mucho más. El género de los juegos clicker eventualmente se convierte en una estrategia de elegir qué actualizar a continuación. En Tap Titans 2, el jugador pasa estratégicamente de mejorar personajes a recolectar equipo, mascotas u objetos. Todos estos tienen caídas aleatorias y XP para brindar mucha más profundidad estratégica. Actualizar cualquier cosa se siente bien, pero el momento y la elección son importantes.

No se puede esperar que nadie esté activo en un juego para siempre, que es donde entra en juego el aspecto inactivo de la mayoría de los clickers. Mientras estás fuera, tu juego se juega solo, aumentando constantemente tus ganancias. De esa manera, cuando regrese, tendrá una reserva de efectivo para gastar rápidamente y mejorar para sentirse poderoso. Esto sucede cada vez que regresas, ya sean 10 minutos o 10 horas, el tamaño de la pila cambia pero la sensación de recompensa sigue siendo la misma.

El género en sí atrae a cierto tipo de jugador. Aquellos obsesionados con encontrar la forma más eficiente y eficaz en términos de tiempo para mejorar su progreso (en forma de tasa de ganancia). A veces denominado mínimo/máximo, encontrar una eficiencia del 1-2% en la elección de actualización es gratificante a medida que avanza. Sin embargo, incluso el jugador ocasional se siente bien, progresas constantemente pero a un ritmo menor. Si estás más interesado en la historia y el contexto, a menudo no te entusiasmarán tanto los juegos inactivos. Es un juego para fanáticos de las estadísticas y los números.

Bit City: el contexto proporciona contenido

Los juegos inactivos comenzaron en la web con títulos como Cookie Clicker o Cow Clicker lanzados alrededor de 2012-2014. Estos juegos eran increíblemente simples. Atrajeron a un gran número de usuarios que regresaban todos los días, ya que el objetivo de "tener el mayor número" es muy claro y poderoso para los jugadores.

En tiempos más recientes, juegos como Adventure Capitalist, Tap Titans, Farm Away, Make it Rain han modificado la mecánica y le han dado un contexto al clic. El contexto ayuda con las decisiones de diseño a medida que agrega inmediatamente más profundidad. La profundidad le proporciona contenido y ese contenido puede enmascarar mejor la simple progresión de las estadísticas. Los jugadores deciden que su objetivo es "construir la ciudad más grande" en lugar de "obtener el mayor número" y esto crea un mejor argumento de venta si les cuentan a sus amigos sobre su juego. El contexto te ayuda a diseñar y te ayuda a vender, úsalo a tu favor y no lo descuides aplicándolo al final del desarrollo.

Bit City proporciona mucho más contexto a la experiencia de hacer clic al utilizar una ciudad y sus edificios para proporcionar más sustancia visual y referencia al bucle central. El contexto de la ciudad es bueno, se utiliza en múltiples géneros, es fácil de consultar, tiene gran profundidad y es aplicable a personas de todos los países. Bit City usa esto con gran efecto, pero agrega zonas de construcción, automóviles, aviones, ayuntamiento y molinos de viento, cada uno de los cuales contribuye a sus ganancias de moneda.

Hacer clic = construir

The core mechanic of tapping furiously on the screen has been removed in favour of the idea of building. One must purchase and classify lots so that buildings of specific type are built. Buildings then fill each lot and the large Build button upgrades and refreshes the building on each lot for a small increase in coins per second earning power. The upgrading of buildings is endless and rather than getting stuck in a content farm black hole, the buildings are upgraded at random. Every upgrade levels up the block and each subsequent upgrade adds 1 second to the total time required to build the next block, leading in the later game to upgrades take minutes. Choice of which block to upgrade is removed from the player through randomisation and the player is taught very quickly that every upgrade is beneficial.

This is a very strong mechanic for a number of reasons:

• Thematically it makes sense. Your city changes with time and you can position blocks in certain areas to make your city look beautiful
  • You may also lock in place any buildings you particularly like allowing the creatives build beautiful masterpieces of a modern renaissance!
• Choice paralysis is removed because you don’t need to choose what to upgrade and all upgrades are beneficial.
• Build timers slow down sessions giving people incentive to leave.

As a pacing mechanic, it continues to engage at all stages of the game. This is often one area that other clickers loose me on as in the mid-late game, I simply stop clicking…

City Planning

Simplicity and clarity are always key design decisions for mobile game developers. People spend a few minutes at a time with your game and so everything needs to be clear and make sense in an instant. The choices available to a player in Bit City always relate to upgrades. The most profitable upgrade you can do is buying a new building for your city as each building provides a larger base earning rate. A really nice design feature is the idea of city zoning. There are 3 zones, Residential, Industrial and Commercial. Within this feature is a lot of shallow depth, that is there are a very large number of options and possibilities but as a player, the way they affect the game is incredibly minor. They do not affect the core in any way, they simply provide a route to micro-optimisation, reinforcing the fun of clickers.

Each building zone is balanced by providing a 10% bonus or 10% deficit depending on the overall % of zones, this promotes people to build in an ordered manner. At certain times you may want to opt for larger investments in certain zones because both the Mission system and the City Bonus system provide bonus’ specifically based on type of building built. This is a good use of shallow depth again. Most people would not obsess over the minutiae of which building to build, but to really get the most optimisation at each minute of gameplay it might be valuable to invest in specific zones at specific times.

Missions with increasing reward

Another clever design decision is to reward ever increasing premium currency (Bux) by completing missions. Missions usually revolve around building, improving or owning some upgrade or building.

There is only one mission available at a time and they seem to be structured to appear in a specific order. Rather than having a small payout with lots of quick missions to teach people the mechanics, Nimblebit have used missions to give players a longer term goal. The cleverest of these is the ownership of 2 of the same building types i.e (2 Baseball Fields).

Mission systems are one of the classic mid-term progression systems. They provide a steadying hand and a focus for players when options of what to do open up. The best mission systems are usually curated or at least missions are grouped and then provided based on XP level.

The Premium Currency (Bux) are gifted in 10 bux increasing increments. This is risky, as it becomes a significant source of Bux in the mid game. I think the progression is a nice touch but the size of the progression is too high, it would have worked just as well say, 10,12,14 etc. At mission 13 I’m on 130 Bux which is equivalent to $0.13. Each mission can take an hour or more, but sometimes you might complete 2 or 3 in a few minutes. Although it might not seem a lot it lessens the requirement to spend. In the mid-game, it’s most profitable to focus on and perform the mission at hand. Balancing the rewards and spend of the premium currency is definitely one area that Bit City could improve on.

Progress, Profits, Prestige

Modern clickers increase the gameplay depth over time in a number of ways. These usually either increase the speed of clicks (Faster), the value of a click (More) or automating the clicking process entirely (auto). Each of these upgrades has a clear and tangible benefit, they help you gain more currency quicker, give your players a choice: do you invest in yourself being active in the game, or invest in the time you’re inactive?

Each city comes with a set number of plots. 4 for a level 1 city, 8 for a level 2 city etc. As you build more buildings you start to max out your plots. As soon as you have maxed your plots a new city unlocks and you sacrifice all of your upgrades and buildings to start again. This creates a clear goal for gamers and eases gamers into the game via small cities. As you progress the cost of each new building starts to become prohibitively expensive which encourages you to want to sacrifice everything in order to prestige to obtain Keys which will speed up everything in your game for the entirety of your play time.

System diagram of Nimblebit Bit City

What’s very pleasing compared to other clicker games is that the speed of progress is managed by a multiple limiting factors. Limits by multiple sources feel elegant rather than a strong single limiting factor. First, the coins themselves slow progress as you can’t build enough buildings, then the plots limit progress on one city as you max them out and finally the cities themselves become prohibitively expensive unless the global tap multiplier is improved by prestiging.

Prestige is very important as it adds ebbs and flows to an otherwise linear progression. Every time you do prestige you suddenly feel incredibly powerful as you race through early content, this is important as rather than having to create more complexity players are re-engaging with the game and reinforcing the simple systems of the game and progressing incredibly quickly. Bit City has created “mini- prestige’s” every time you upgrade to a new city once you have maxed out your plots. With every reset there is a sense of loss but also a sense of growth, getting your players used to this feeling helps them engage with the main Prestige mode.

In the mid to late game idle games, prestige currencies become the main goal in Bit City these are Keys. It’s very important to get the balance and the feel of Keys right. In Bit City, Keys feel underpowered as the quantity of keys provided when you prestige is too small. A user wants to feel progress at close to double the previous rate when they sacrifice all of their upgrades. Doubling up whilst keeping a logarithmic increase in the power curve of costs equates to half the time spent getting back to where you previously were. One you reach your old position the logarithmic power curve kicks back in and really winds back a player’s progress to a snail’s pace forcing them to prestige again.

A player chooses when to jump to the next prestige level and effectively picking at the right time can jump you onto a much more powerful curve. Great game design in this area wouldn’t use perfect logarithmic numbers but would add some randomness and inconsistencies to make it a guessing game for the player to find out if they are maxed out at an inefficient area of the curve.

Time taken to reach a city in bit city. Prestige levels and number of hours are representative and not factually correct.

UI / UX

It’s not mentioned in mobile how important the user interface is for a game. Especially in these management style games with large amounts of details, getting information across clearly and concisely is a challenge on a small screen. Nimblebit do a number of great reinforcements.

1. Your key measure of progress is represented as a large central number of coins per second present on every screen.
2. The build button (the button you click the most) is larger, more centralised and stands out from the rest.
3. The subtle nuances of the game such as plot size, or building type are reiterated to you when you need the information, such as the quest system (large service)
4. Before you make a large choice there is always a confirmation screen ensuring you are happy with your decision.

This attention to detail of the user’s journey removes frustration from the game. It allows you to choose where to focus your attention on to complete one or two of the tasks at a time and speed up your progress. A nice font and simple language make it enjoyable to read.

Monetising – Keep a tight grip

I’ve spent $10 so far in Bit City. For that, I got 10,000 bux. Bux are the only premium currency and are used to speedup progress, buy city upgrades that persist through prestige mode as well as unlocking certain famous buildings that provide enhanced bonus’. I feel that this was the point where the game design suffered.

1. Bux are not a rare currency within the game. You can get 10s if not 100s of bux by completing missions or taping on vehicles that randomly drop bux, as a free player you can often buy a few persistent upgrades. When purchasing these upgrades there is no delight, magic or drama and as a player, all you see is your bux amount slowly draining. Purchasing the unlock of rare buildings was also much the same with a simple UI transition from locked to unlocked within the building card screen.
2. No early conversion purchase. The Builder in Clash of Clans or World Multipliers in Adventure Capitalist, which immediately are the best bang for your bux! *pun intended…
3. Gauging the value of upgrades is difficult. For instance, Market Gains for 1000+ bux increases your Bank Savings rate by 1%. This feels minor but would have a huge effect on the earning power itself. Rather than so clearly affecting such a powerful rate, investing in 20% cheaper bank upgrades would have had a similar effect to the player but would be immediately noticeable.
4. No sense of mystery or delight when spending bux at any point. All bux are spent with a simple click and a UI change.
5. No random drops. With it’s huge array of buildings creating a clear building rarity scale and then having a random drop element would make every bux much more exciting to spend. Random rewards have spikes of joy, rather than a focussed

I suspect the number of people purchasing bux will be low, simply because the number given out in-game is very high and people can immediately get a sense of what it would be like to have 1000s of them by spending a few hundred that they got for free. Games with great conversion rates keep the pressure on players to want to spend by constantly showing the value of having premium currency to progress. Bit City treats bux too loosely and as such the pressure to get my wallet out is low.

Video Ads – Double Time

I suspect that the game’s primary monetization route would be video ads. There is currently only one method to engage with a video ad through the opt-in button called “Double Time”. The value proposition here is strong, for a short period of time, double everything. Directly doubling the speed of progression is the best feeling for a player because it directly contributes to that core loop. Things that feel great in-game are strongest when they contribute to your progression directly. Clickers, by their very nature, are all about progress and so the reward is clear and easy to feel.

Unlocks happen more regularly I can build more buildings and progress shows a real gain. The upgrade itself is time limited to 10 minutes but with bux can be upgraded to 15 or more minutes. This again is a clever gamble as by getting people to potentially invest in an IAP they then encourage more video views, which if you remember is a key KPI for increasing monetization from video ads.

The major issue here is that there are not more ways to engage with video to improve those views per DAU that lead to more revenue. The 10-minute bonus is strong, but what about a 4h increase in the Bank Savings rate? Watch a video ad to upgrade a building directly would provide so many more places that a user could click the Watch button, increasing its adoption. The classic Double Up bonus for all returning players could be run once every 24 hours in order to highly incentivize at least one valuable video view per day. There is huge scope for expanding video ads integration.

Conclusion – Great Core, Monetization need Tightening

Bit City is a great example of expanding clicker mechanics into new genres. City Building and Clickers make a great match because of the depth in buildings and environment that are available to the team. Nimblebit have done a really good job of pacing the game across multiple cities causing you to have clear evolutions in your progress as well as allowing you to prestige at any time, making it your own decision. The type of upgrades and the thematic choice of upgrades fit nicely, all contributing to a busy and bustling city experience. The UI and UX of the game itself is also neat, simple and clear making playing the game an enjoyable experience.

La mayor debilidad del juego será su monetización. Es un uso muy flexible de Bux como moneda de recompensa y el hecho de que los jugadores solo pueden interactuar con el video una vez por sesión sin suficientes señales de la interfaz de usuario. El valor de esa visualización de video es alto, por lo que debería tener un buen uso, pero brindarles a los jugadores más comprometidos y activos más formas de verlo generaría muchas más vistas por DAU.

¡Los juegos son una gran adición para los Bitizens y vale la pena jugarlos!