Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

1. List five of your favorite games with a brief description of why you believe them to be well designed (one sentence or keywords is enough). Please include at least two mobile games, and at least two core games in your list. Hollow Knight

Why – Unique Characters Design, Captivating Story-Telling, and Satisfying Fights

Genre- , 2D platforming game

Platform- PC, Linux, MacOS, Switch

Ori and the Blind Forest

Why – Soothing Background Music and Sound Effects, Rhythmic Combat System, Creative Open World Exploration, and Amazing Abilities

Genre- Metroidvania, 2D Platforming game

Platform- PC, X-Box One and 360

Devil May Cry 5 (2013)

Why – Fluid Combo-Combat System, Innovative Abilities, Amazing Voice over acting (especially Mundus)

Genre- , Action-Adventure

Platform- PC, Console

Temple Run 1

Why – Intuitive Design and Engaging Gameplay

Genre- Platforming

Platform- Mobile

Dan the Man

Why – Fluid Combat System, Varied Abilities and Challenging Boss Fights

Genre- Action Platforming

Platform- Mobile Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

2. Choose two of the games from your list and describe two things you would do differently to improve both games if you were the PM working on that title. Think about technical, gameplay, design, user experience, and be as detailed as possible.

Dan the Man - Action Platformer

Dan the Man is a 2-D action platformer available on Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon Apps. Currently, have more than 10 M app downloads combining all app stores. The game adopts retro brawl - punch style gameplay which my assumption is targeted at younger audience i.e. Millennials, Teens. The great aspect of the game is Challenging gameplay, Fluid Combat System and can be upgraded to make fights with enemies and bosses more fun.

Let's talk about the goal we want to achieve upon improving the game. Following goals should be sought after in order to improve.

- Increasing the Revenue - Making the game more Engaging - Enhancing the Gaming Experience

I think the goal should be to increase the revenue as there is a huge opportunity for revenue in this game. Let's talk about the revenue model that is distributed for now in the game.

Premium Upgrade – No-Ads • You can upgrade the game to premium with $2.99 and you don't have to see any 30sec. video ads. The Premium is also bundled with gold coins and character packages range from $5.99 - $59.99

IAP (In-App Purchases) • There is only one currency i.e. Gold Coins which can be used to buy immunities and weapons and can be purchased starting from $0.99 - $49.99 • You can purchase Characters, Special Suit Pack (i.e. XMAS suit pack or Valentine suit pack) and Costumes range from $0.99-$7.99 • Side Stories i.e. New Levels, New Enemies, Currently there are two and can be purchased at $4.99 each

Ads (Video Ads with 30s Duration) • The Ads are shown to non-premium and the ad placement is handled in two ways i.e. Saving Checkpoint and the Reward Statues

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

I have made few assumptions -

• Currently, we have more than 10M app downloads let’s assume we have a 5% Active User base i.e. 500K users • Ad revenue is currently based on CPM (Cost per Impression per 1000 view) and per CPM we get $5-$10 approx. for all countries for a Video Ad • Typically an active spends a 10$ on IAPs every week and sticks to the game for 2 Months - 8 Weeks i.e. 80$ LTV per user and at $80*500K = $40M of entire game LTV

I think the first most action for any product manager in gaming is to gather information about the game how's it doing in the market. Devoting ample time to gather feedback from all avid - gaming communities i.e. , IGN, Gaming Blogs like Android Police, Social Media - , Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and User Reviews on marketplaces.

Talking about the user personas for our game, I can visualize for 2 user personas and their 2 user cases each.

- Avid Gamers The Ones who give special attention to detail and the how is the gameplay, character or design goes with the story. As our game is content heavy and is challenging in nature. Below are the pain points for the user personas.

I think Avid Gamers would love to know the backstories for bosses the gamer defeats and how did they originated and what’s their objective behind fighting our main hero. Currently, there are two difficulty levels and I think avid gamers would love a new difficulty level, as the game is engaging in combat and gameplay. With that Addition Gamers can enjoy more playtime and can utilize their practiced combos.

Below are the user-cases -

- As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the bosses I defeat to understand more about the boss - As an avid gamer, I want a new difficulty level so that I can try on practiced combos and engage more in the game

- Casual Gamers The Ones who enjoy playing our game whenever they are traveling, feeling bored or may be trying to sleep. I think Casual Gamers are less likely to buy the premium upgrade so I see more opportunities for Ads and Currently, Ads are shown in two ways i.e. Smashing Reward Statues and getting to a save Checkpoint. Below are the paint points for the user personas.

Currently, the reward statue once smashed will reward you 1 item and it is random after viewing an ad I.e. a knife, sniper, shotgun or a health. I think if we try to make the reward system too obvious to try on by the gamers will be more motivated to view an ad. I.e. if we show an options menu after the ad is closed the gamer will have more option to choose from and will engage more with the enemies. Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

Since the nature of the game being challenging there are situations where you feel helpless to fight back as you get inundated with enemies in the game more often. I think there should be an instant peers- help attack option where all your supporter will bombard all the enemies with weapons and punches.

Below are the use-cases -

- As a casual gamer, I want the reward statue to give me options to choose my rewards so that I choose what to need so that I engage more with game - As a casual gamer, I want an instant peers-help attack option so that when I am in need of help I can easily defeat my enemies

Prioritization Matrix –

Implementation Overall Use - Cases Gamer Wow Complexity Priority As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the bosses I defeat to understand more about the boss Impressed High High As an avid gamer, I want a new difficulty level so that I can try on practiced combos and engage more in the game Impressed High Low As a casual gamer, I want the reward statue to give me options to choose my rewards so that I choose what to need so that I engage more with game Not - so - much Low Low As a casual gamer, I want an instant peers-help attack option so that when I am in need of help I can easily defeat my enemies Impressed High High

I think story point 1 and 4 can have more impact and can help us in achieving our goal of increasing the revenue. Let’s deep dive in technical and in designs for these use cases.

As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the bosses I defeat to understand more about the boss

I think we would have to work with the game development team, animation team, sound engineers, and music composers to understand the technical complexity, character development and story scope for the bosses in the game. Currently, there are 4 bosses in the main stories and 1 bosses in each side stories and if we sell each boss storyline with a baseline price of $1.5 each i.e. 1.5*6= $9 and I see an opportunity for more than 9$*500K = $4.5M excluding the newer downloads. Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

As a casual gamer, I want an instant peers-help attack option so that when I am in need of help I can easily defeat my enemies

I think the following addition will prove to add more value to the engaging nature of the game. I think the button should come to view when our player is in lowest of health and want to get out of the situation, i.e. below 10% of health and should be used only once and be recharge can be purchased by gold coins at the gun and health shop in any level. It will add more utility to buy more gold coins and increase more engagement of playtime with the game.

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

I think if we can implement these two feature it will not only accomplish our goal but also following objectives will be met –

• Engagement i.e. Playtime will increase • Game Experience will increase • More IAP Opportunities for upcoming stories in the game • More IAP Opportunities for Side Characters

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the blind forest is a Metroidvania (i.e. adventure and exploration like and Combat System like Castlevania) style action-platformer available on PC, Xbox-One and 360 and soon to get a sequel. The game got more than 30 Awards and was managed to be profitable in just a week with a budget of $6M and on steam was sold more 700,000 Copies including the definitive edition (More side stories, abilities, and areas to explore in the original game). Music, Immersive , and Experience of the game make it a treat to all gamers.

Let's talk about the goal we want to achieve upon improving the game.

Following goals should be sought after-

- Increasing the Playtime i.e. Engagement - Increasing the Revenue - Enhancing the gaming experience

Let’s consider the goal to be increasing the playtime i.e. Engagement of the game.

Currently, on an average user spend approx. to complete the whole game including hidden elements, all abilities, and achievements in 9 Hrs. There are 10 areas in the latest release with one boss. The Story revolves around 8 Characters of which 5 are NPCs (Non-Playable Character).

I think the first most action for any product manager in gaming is to gather information about the game how's it doing in the market. Devoting ample time to gather feedback from all avid - gaming communities i.e. Metacritic, IGN Gaming News, Gaming Blogs, Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and User Reviews on Microsoft Marketplace and Steam.

Talking about the user personas for our game, I can visualize for 2 user personas and their 2 user cases each.

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

- Avid Gamers

I think Avid Gamers would love to know the origins of pivotal characters like Gumo, Spirit Tree or Kuro. There is little information given in the game about these characters and I think they do contain enough content to sustain their own mentions in the game, maybe backstories or notes for their existence and their role in the forest. Since the nature of the game is about providing best gaming experience, I think we can include more NPCs to explain more about the forest and the creatures who live as no content exists to provide more information about the forest only the Spirit Tree do sustain the natural habitat through light and when it’s gone all the creatures started to kill Ori (Main Playable Character) i.e. The Lightning Leave of Spirit Tree.

Below are the user-stories -

- As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the pivotal characters to understand more about those characters and their role in the forest so that I can engage more with the game - As an avid gamer, I want new NPCs who can explain more about the forest so that I can look for more information about the surroundings in the game and can explore more areas

- Casual Gamers

To gamers who enjoyed the unique combat system and rhythmic fight with all these creatures, I think all the casual gamers would love a battle mode like mode where Ori can fight all the different creatures in a limited time so that casual gamers can practice the combo systems and leverage that in the main story. Since music was a widely appreciated aspect of the game, I think if we can incorporate a side menu to list all the soundtracks in the game. So that all users can easily access the amazing soundtrack by .

Below are the user-stories -

- As a casual gamer, I want a battle mode to practice my combos and combat style so that I engage more with the game - As a casual gamer, I want the soundtracks to be listed in the game so that I can listen to all the tracks so that I stay in the game more

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

Prioritization Matrix –

Gamer Implementation Overall Use Cases Wow Complexity Priority

As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the pivotal characters to understand more about those Impressed High High characters and their role in the forest so that I can engage more with the game As an avid gamer, I want new NPCs who can explain more about the forest so that I can look for more Impressed Low High information about the surroundings in the game and can explore more areas As a casual gamer, I want a battle mode to practice my combos and combat style so that I engage more Impressed High High with the game As a casual gamer, I want the soundtracks to be listed Not - so - in the game so that I can listen to all the tracks so that Low Low much I stay in game more

I think story point 1 and 3 can have more impact and can help us in achieving our goal of increasing the playtime. Let’s deep dive in technical and in designs for these use cases.

As an avid gamer, I want a backstory for the pivotal characters to understand more about those characters and their role in the forest so that I can engage more with the game

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

I think we can introduce IAP to this game through this as there is no IAP available to this game and there are 4 Major Pivotal Roles whose backstories are not covered in the latest editions. If we update the backstories for all these characters and price it approx. $7 each i.e. 7*4=$28 and according to steam there are more than 60% of an active member of this game i.e. 700K*.6= 420K*28= $12M along with that if each story can be covered in 30 mins. The average playtime will also be increased from 9 Hrs to 11 Hrs. But the resources and budget should also view for creating that sort of content as I anticipate heavy resource utilization of Game Developers, Animators, Music Compositions, Sound Effects and Voice over Artists. As a casual gamer, I want a battle mode to practice my combos and combat style so that I engage more with the game

Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

If we can introduce a battle mode in an update, I think people will like it as the current abilities and choreographed like fight sequences are widely appreciated. And giving the gamer a new mode to practice all the move, abilities and attacks and coming with their own combo system can help us in increasing more playtime i.e. engaging. I think if we introduce a new 30 mins of maximum battle mode for free with an extension pack I think we will be able to increase the playtime from 11hrs to 11.30 Hrs.

I think if we can implement these two feature it will meet our goal along with that we can anticipate–

• IAP opportunity of $12M • Game Experience will increase • More Scope for Further Games

3. Choose one game from your list. Describe what aspects of the game you think distinguishes it from other games in the genre.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania, 2D Action Platformer available on steam priced at 14.99$ along with two free DLCs. Hollow Knight did a great job in offering –

• Challenging and Satisfying Boss Fights • Nice Level Progression • Engaging Gameplay • Amazing Music

But it stand out alone among other games in Metroidvania genre for the following -

• Enormous Open World Exploration • Captivating Story-Telling • Innovative Charms System • Gorgeous Environment • Intelligent Combat and Damage-Reactions • Background Music and Sound Effects Manish Soni http://www.manishsoni.co

• Dynamic NPC Interaction • End Boss Battle - Emotional and Unique Touch to it

It perfectly blends the Metroidvania aspects of Adventure Exploration with challenging fights and level progression. Hollow Knight is one those games who have found that right kind of difficulty in fighting a frightening boss at first but as you unravel the pattern the experience becomes so satisfying.

On an average, anyone can complete the game in 40-45Hrs, I have spent more than 60Hrs and bested the final boss, but still able to complete 93% of the hidden items and DLCs. I think the new DLC Gods and Glory will be a huge hit.