Just about 2 days ago, we launched a project we’ve been working on for some time. Ran 10k Robux on ads and only made roughly 3k Robux back (meaning we were in 7k debt) and we’re not entirely sure. The project is was just put on the Featured tab earlier today, and we’ve only made 500 Robux so far.
In need of some advice/suggestions to improve in regards to the game play, monetization, and the overall feel from the game.
I feel that both the camera and interface tweening is inconveniently slow and almost gives an impression of network lag to the player. Other than that, the game itself is of very high quality. It would help to see what your current advertisements look like.
The logo is great, but the ingame captures (especially for the second and third advertisement) are definitely not optimal. You should use an image of something unique in your game, or something uncluttered and simple (even better, you could acquire GFX logos of NPCs featured in your game, such as the elves located around the map). The usage of codes and bright, yellow backgrounds are very tempting, but the logo on the first advertisement could be slightly enlarged as you have a convenient amount and shape of space.
They most definitely are cheap. However, I wouldn’t increase them by much to avoid seeming P2W, if you were even to increase them at all. It’s been only 2 days, so I would conserve my panic unless you don’t notice much increase in sales when the season is almost over.
The prices set on the monetization are very low. Something that is very necessary in-game should have a higher price as the demand for it is higher and people would be more willing to spend that cash to further their progression, such as the “+1 Box” - “+10 Boxes” and the 2.5k-50k presents which I’m guessing by the game title are quite usefull, but are very very low, and IMO should be increased 50-100%.
I think this article by RichOfPickles can help kinda give you an idea of prices and how to market it out better for the future as I’m not entirely sure the mechanics of what’s in the shop and couldn’t give a good idea of pricing.
I think that you aren’t getting many engaged or invested players. The drop off seems high based on my experience just trying to play the game.
So much is going on, I have no direction as a player. Lots of gamepasses, lots of currency types. I was able to find producers and build some, only because I am familiar with “tycoons”. The producers make snow? But snow is presents? Everything is visually noise, and any stillframe screenshot has enough information to overload a person’s brain. Let alone when things are moving, snow particles all over the place. Text, numbers, colors, everywhere. It’s noisy.
Presents are abbreviated to grands, so it doesn’t seem like I am producing anything.
Only after playing for 7 minutes, am I realizing that there is a tutorial. Going through the tutorial is just repeated blocks of text that explain things.
There are so many systems going on that any average player could easily get lost. I earn some presents over time, and I also have to step on a button to receive some presents. I also can click on a machine that produces presents. A tip in chat is telling me that a boss shows up once every 7 minutes. So much is going on and introduced to me all at once.
My own home in the game is a minefield. I have to be careful about every step I take, otherwise I get slapped with a purchase prompt.
The text on them is hard to read. The layout is also weird… The buttons are (seemingly) randomly placed and I accidentally touched one while walking around. Yikes.
The UI is okay, but it would be much better if it was all placed on the same side of the screen (or in less random positions). Information overload!
As for the game concept itself… I’ll just be honest. It’s boring. Tycoons like this were popular back in the day, but this is 2018 (almost 2019!). I expected something really cool like Theme Park Tycoon 2 where I could place items wherever I wanted, and maybe have elves or something working for me. Everything’s a preset.
As for the game passes, most of them are worthless. I have no incentive to buy any of them, and there’s like eight. Only keep one or two of your bestselling ones up for now.
I can tell you put a ton of work into this, but you should probably go back to the drawing board. It doesn’t seem like you tested it out before you submitted it to be featured which is a huge no-no. I have tested the same game 3 times, reworking it for literally years trying to get it perfect. It’s normal to have flops like this in the process, so don’t give up!
Ok he should absolutely not conserve his panic. There is no point in sugarcoating it, if you don’t even get a third back from ads on day one, there is something very wrong and he needs to fix it. Preferably while he is on featured sort if he wants to recoup losses.
Now to address OP, played your game for like 10 minutes and just from first glace I see two main issues. 1. Your robux to visit does not seem very good 2. You have the 2nd worst player count on featured sort at the moment.
Problem One: I was confused on what buying presents did and it took me over 3 minutes to figure that out. It might be just me, but having presents as your currency made me think they were some kind of lootbox I was buying. You may have explained this in the tutorial but I clicked through that without reading and that’s what most kids are going to do. Additionally, as someone mentioned before your gamepasses are on the cheaper side in relation to how quickly you are able to complete the game.
Problem Two: I would mention tycoons generally being on their way out, but you can’t change that and there is a lot more you can improve on to make the best of it. First impressions are everything and your thumbnail and icon are generic. It’s arguable that a lot of frontpage games have more generic icons but they reiterate game titles most of the time. EX: “Welcome to Bloxburg”, Guy in icon is waving to you like he is welcoming you. Santa holding a bag does not really emphasize “Winter Wonderland”. Also I’d assume there are people that did join but got confused because game mechanics are not very self explanatory. The presents think threw me off but after I got the hang of them it played like a tycoon usually does which is pretty good. I’d say do a better job of explaining things.
Note: Didn’t mention quality issues here because that’s an entirely different thing and gameplay is more important
That is one of the barriers of confusion that might be turning players away. I think it would be a good change. There is a tradeoff though, since after playing for 15 minutes, the mechanic of pressing the button to receive presents seemed like gameplay and somewhat rewarding. Pressing a button to collect money feels good. Players would not get to experience that sense of reward anymore.
I think that it’s biggest issue is the amount of upfront information. If you would see the largest retention improvements if you cut the game down to the basics at the beginning. Have new players only see the necessary elements, and introduce new systems of the game to them one at a time.
