Hey! I made a pretty good game called “Flappin’Blox!”. It’s a game inspired by Flappy Bird but it’s multiplayer and the goal is to survive for as long as you can. It’s not really a big game but I think it’s really fun and I often find myself actually liking it.
I showed this game to my friends, in multiple discord servers, groups, etc and all of them said it’s good, but players will almost never return to the game after leaving.
I think the problem is just that there’s almost no progression. There wasn’t any shop or player data, so the players didn’t really have a reason to return.
I tried solving this by adding points, which you can earn by playing and a character selection. You will unlock a new character after you’ve earned enough points.
I also added a lot of power-ups / collectables that will give you some perks like speed, health or a shield and it made the game much more fun.
My questions are:
Is it really because of not enough data/progression?
Or is it because of the simple gameplay?
If you’re really interested in the game, you can check it out here and give me your opinion: https://bit.ly/3JYkELJ
Hey, your game is really well-made and fun. You did an excellent job.
Your original question of how to make players return to the game may not be the correct one to ask. Your main problem is exposure - you’ve only had 600 visits. With only a few people who have played the game, only a fraction will return. As such, you have very few concurrent players.
How to fix this? You need a much bigger audience to rely on. Advertising and spreading word of the game will get you these players. Once you start getting more people into the game, then you start relying upon them to return.
Well I thought the game was pretty good but the entire concept is kind of simple. It’s sort of like jetpack joyride.
I feel like the reason people aren’t coming back might be because of a combination of the game just being kind of simple and that there’s no one else playing the game. I feel like the game would be more fun playing with others.
Also, there should probably be some sort of effect when you hit something. It just feels like you’re going right through it. Maybe your character should blink a couple times or something like that.
In my opinion the game isn’t really “front page” material but it does seem good enough to get a decent following, like upwards of 200 or something like that. That’s just the feeling I get from the game.
Yes, you’re right. I was a bit afraid to advertise the game before monetizing it, as I don’t have a lot of robux right now. Not that I’m poor, of course.
That’s totally understandable. It’s hard feeling like you are wasting robux.
Make sure to test your ads with a few thousand robux bids - you are aiming for a CTR > 1%. Once you start getting people, make sure they stay. If not, see what is going wrong.
Thanks!
How do you think I could fix that issue? What about adding a singleplayer mode, where, just like in the original flappy bird, you respawn right after you die or click a respawn button?
Alright, I’ll try that. May I ask you, how long have you played the game for? Did you leave the game when you died? Because I think that’s the main issue. It takes almost 30 seconds to start a new game.
I only get avg playtime of 1.5 min…
It takes a while to join queues (I don’t know if that is the best system). I suggest putting everyone in a larger server, then doing rounds, instead of a queue system.
When you first join the game, you don’t really know what the game is about. This might cause players to leave. After you do a round, you feel as though you have experienced the game. There isn’t something compelling you to play more.
You probably have a shop, but make sure the players know there are clear rewards and benefits for playing. Give the players more ways to play - different gamemodes, different ways to sabotage other players, etc, so it can’t get boring. Good luck!
Yeah… The floor/ceiling thing is not a bug, it’s just a bad implementation. When you have more health points, it will damage you but there’s a delay/debounce.
For the game over UI, I think I haven’t made it clear that the winner is the last player standing, not the person with the highest score. I should change that.
You mean the “issue” of the game being simple? I’m not sure, but I think it would be cool if you added some sort of pvp element to the game, like power ups you could shoot at each other.
If you want to know what the game looks like from the perspective of someone just joining, I kind of just joined the game, clicked the play button, waited 20 seconds, immediately jumped into the ceiling, joined again, died in a few seconds, joined again, realized you could actually get more hearts throughout the level, which I didn’t realize before that and thought you’d just die in 10 seconds each time. Basically, a lot of time just learning the game, which under other circumstances I wouldn’t have even bothered doing and would have just left.
I think I would have been more turned on to the game if it would have started with a proper tutorial where before you’re even shown the main menu, you’re put into this basic tutorial world with the game pausing occasionally to explain certain things when they appear on the screen, like click to jump, don’t hit the ceiling or floor, avoid obstacles, collect hearts, etc.
It’s funny because I also made a flappy bird type game at one point: Flappy Noob - Roblox
Both have easy fixes. I can make the floor instantly kill you.
And for the game over screen, I should make a new one with like a leaderboard and top 3 players, like the Match Analytics in games like Base Battles or Aqua Minigames.
Yes. Would something like a “Take out player” collectable be good? When you collect it, instead of clicking a player, it would randomly choose a player, which may even be you, and then make him fall to the ground. There would be a higher risk when you collect it.
A power up like that might be effective at knocking out other players but it probably wouldn’t be all that fun to use. I was thinking more along the lines of objects that you could throw at other players.
Your game is outstanding! The gameplay is awesome; works really well and looks great. I just played through it several times and will introduce my daughter and her friends tonight.
I had a similar reaction with my game – Skate City Simulator - With zero scripting and development experience, I dove in and tried to create a game based on my favorite retro arcade game, adding many of the complexities found in games like Bee Swarm Simulator in order to have a high sense of progression. I thought I might have erred in the opposite direction in having too much progression and not enough instant satisfaction.
A few thoughts about increasing players:
The game has a retro look in the fonts and other elements outside of the actual gameplay. I made a similar design choice in my game and found that players (younger) generally don’t gravitate toward it. Instead, its interpreted as unpolished; not an advanced game, and thereby not good.
Your game has a key element of a default character and the ability to customize or purchase modifications. One of the key attractions of Roblox is players’ personalization of their own custom avatar. I wonder if players would like to see ‘themselves’ flapping through your game instead.
The menus and queue mean it takes some time to begin playing, and on my first attempt I died very quickly, had to port back to the lobby, queue again, and wait to restart. I would have loved to have died and been able to continue playing right away – perhaps with a heath system, or # of lives within each round, so that you could play for a while. I might worry that new players try one time, die quickly, and quit because the gameplay phase doesn’t pick right up quickly.
I’d say you’ve got a winner on your hands. Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself; create an ad to get some traction.
