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 Boss Fights Genre- Metroidvania, 2D platforming game Platform- PC, Linux, MacOS, Nintendo 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- Hack and Slash, 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 gamers 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-$10 approx. for all countries for a Video Ad • Typically an active gamer spends a 10$ 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. Metacritic, IGN, Gaming Blogs like Android Police, Social Media - Twitter, 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 level 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 Metroid and Combat System like Castlevania) style action-platformer available on PC, Xbox-One and 360 and soon to get a sequel.