Hyper casual mobile games: addictive, fast and with lots of advertising
20.6.2019
Translation: machine translated
Whether on the toilet or before a doctor's appointment: The smartphone as a gaming device is always with you. Nothing works without mobile gaming. And hyper casual games are on the rise - thanks to clever gameplay and lots of advertising.
The meeting starts in a minute, the last two participants are still missing. Once again, it's time to wait. I quickly pull out my mobile and play a game of Helix Jump. After 23 seconds, the fun is already over, followed by an advert. Yuck, adverts. But: If I watch the 30-second clip, I get an extra life. Well then, why not? There's not enough time for another game, the session begins.
The genius lies in the simplicity
Successful mobile games make you want to play them over and over again. It's not primarily about how long you play, but how often you play. Neither PUBG Mobile nor Candy Crush Saga were the most downloaded mobile game last year, but Helix Jump.
In Helix Jump, you use your fingers to control a bouncing ball that makes its way across several platforms to the next level. The aim is to reach the ground - yes, it's as simple as it sounds. And it works: In the fourth quarter of 2018, an average of around 25.6 million people played the trendy mobile game from French startup Voodoo every day.
So it comes as no surprise that Goldman Sachs invested 200 million in the Paris-based games company last year. The French company's games seem to be popular: Voodoo's palmarès includes around 150 million regular gamers per month and over 300 million downloads in 2017. As soon as there is money to be made somewhere, the big fish bite. And hyper casual mobile games have now become the whale sharks of the mobile game genre.
Why the game principle is successful
Ultra-short mobile games target all those free slots in everyday life when you pick up your smartphone. Whether you're waiting for the bus, in a restaurant for a meal or in the toilet for a revelation - your mobile is your most loyal companion. As you usually don't know exactly how long you'll be waiting, it's an advantage if a game is short. It's better to play two or three more games instead of having to quit in the middle of a level.
Trey Smith, game developer and author of "Crushing Hyper Casual Games", says: "Everything from the controls to the graphics is designed to reach the widest possible audience with fast, addictive gameplay. In short, they are easy-to-learn, hard-to-master arcade games for a mass audience." The player often jumps straight into the game without an intro, tutorials or the like. The controls are kept as simple as possible - it's usually just a matter of clicking on something or swiping away. This is what makes these so-called "tap to play" games so popular.
Advertising sequences between the individual game sections ensure that such games are also financially lucrative. This is because there are no pricing models in the mobile business as there are for console or PC games. Many game manufacturers believed they could survive without advertising and only through in-game transactions. King, the industry leader in the mobile games sector, for example, dispensed with advertising from 2013, but then had to reintroduce it in 2017.
Game, fun and advertising
Hyper casual mobile games are proof that smartphone games can earn a lot of money without paid apps, but with clever advertising. The trick is not to present the adverts as such: If you get an extra life for watching a video, you actually want to watch the advert voluntarily. You may not even realise that it's an advert. Advertising in mobile games must never hinder the fun of the game or even lead to the game being cancelled. Because: Hyper casual mobile games are quickly played, but also quickly ended and deleted.
The developers' aim is also not for games like Helix Jump to be played for years. While the game has taken the throne of the most downloaded mobile games in 2018, three new games have already been released and more are in the pipeline. Even though no game manufacturer likes to be pigeonholed into the "casual gaming" category, hyper casual mobile games win various awards. The winners respond with a wink that this pigeonholing only means that their games are suitable for every person, every place and every mood.
In order to keep up with the boom and produce mobile games by the metre, programmers rarely rely on elaborate 3D technology. Such games have to be produced and published in the shortest possible time. According to Trey Smith, his "games are designed to be developed in a short space of time. I can't work on a project for that long because it's too risky."
A look into the future
Hyper-casual mobile games are currently springing up like mushrooms. Their developers will therefore have to keep coming up with new features to retain and attract players. As there is a lot of money to be made from advertising in this type of game, I can't imagine that the hype will die down any time soon. Hyper casual games will probably never replace other types of games either.
Ultra-short mobile games are another niche that will be mercilessly exploited and monetised once they are discovered. Only time will tell what other sub-forms mobile gaming on smartphones will produce. Because as fast as the gaming market is developing, the technology of smartphones is also changing rapidly.
Header image: Hyper casual mobile games are slowly but surely replacing classics like "Pokémon GO." Source: The Ascent
Raphael Knecht
Senior Editor
raphael.knecht@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I'm not stuffing my face with sweets, you'll catch me running around in the gym hall. I’m a passionate floorball player and coach. On rainy days, I tinker with my homebuilt PCs, robots or other gadgets. Music is always my trusted companion. I also enjoy tackling hilly terrain on my road bike and criss-crossing the country on my cross-country skis.
