W hen it comes to gaming, numerous people only consider console or PC gaming as the only options. Let's be honest, the latest gaming trends also include mobile games. Games like Genshin Impact and even AAA gaming companies making their place in the market, like Riot Games with Wild rift or Nintendo with Pokémon unite.
When it comes to mobile games, a casual person only has like 15 to 20 mins to play them during their commute or in a break and those games are categorized in Hyper Casual Mobile games, and in 2021, you have to look out for their top 4 trends.
Snackability is a term that means to have a small amount of food between your meals, and it translates into the gaming terminology as the small amount of time you get in your day whether is on your commute or on the break with the option of continuing with you left off.
In modern hyper-casual games, you’ll usually be able to complete a level of the game in 15 to 45 seconds and that is all you need to tell whether the game is good and fits your liking. It gives you the satisfaction of overcoming the obstacle and then moving on to the next stage with a slightly higher difficulty. This allows shorter gameplay with each level stacked on top of longer gameplay. By the time you’ve reached level 20, you'll be able to see the progression power of the game.
Back in the early days of hyper-casual games, you might've witnessed how games like Flappy Bird used to have a high score system in which once you died you'd have to start all over again. But, now with time, that has changed to a stage-based system that keeps track of your progress, and you can go back to where you left off. It's interesting to see how the game development market has evolved in such 10 years or so.
The second thing that is very visible in all hyper-casual mobile games is the single finger/thumb function. Whether you are swiping, tapping, or just controlling an object, you'll never find yourself using two fingers. This function has grown over the years, and it has become very intuitive in terms of gameplay and the attainability of the game itself.
One of the best and simplest examples of this game machine are the games with the stop and go function, which allows the user to control the character’s movement on a predetermined course with a tap. This allows them to stop if any obstacle comes in the way. The reason why this mechanic is so dominating right now is because of its minimalism and its simplicity. The fewer finger use usually allows the player to focus more on the gameplay rather than how they are controlling the game.
The third on the list is the satisfaction that comes from playing these hyper-casual games. Whether it is some sort of confetti explosion, any sort of celebration, or the character becoming invincible at the end for completing your level, all of these give an extra level of satisfaction. It keeps the game more interesting and less boring.
Satisfaction adds excitement to the mundane. If you have a character moving down a waterslide or a trail, it gets boring eventually. However, if your character bumps another character off the slide or gets some sort of power-up, it gives you the satisfaction of doing that task or achieving that goal. Players want to be satisfied during and at the end of the level, which gives them the motivation to keep playing the game from one level to the next.
Players want to experience something that they have not experienced before when it comes to hyper-casual games. You might have seen games with a lot of copies of one game and once a player plays one of them, they've played the others too. The mobile game industry is full of clones whether it is MMORPGs, strategy, or hyper-casual games.
Everyone can copy an idea but taking two different ideas and putting them together to create a whole new game in a way that has never been seen before is what attracts players now. The innovation is what captures the player's attention and allows them to spend more time on your game, which is good for the CPI (Cost per Install) and the CPA (Cost per Acquisition).
So, this wraps up our post on the latest mobile gaming trends.
