Serendipity as a game mechanic

3 min read

Serendipity as a game mechanic

People like surprises, especially when they’re pleasant. Before jumping too quickly to a “reward”-based mechanic, let’s brainstorm for more options.

As game designers, we can trigger serendipitous moments (let’s call them moments for brevity’s sake) at any time. Invoking them at preset locations, such as end game loops, unlocking of an object, etc make a lot of sense, but I’d like to push this idea further. What if, we trigger moments when the player least expects it?

Take, for example an RPG game. Instead of triggering a moment when our character unlocks the cave entrance, why not do it while the character is running across the green fields? Or when the character tries to circle a large building, trying to find the entrance. Or when the character is taking a stroll along the river.

I believe serendipitous moments are most effective when the user least expects it. Mundane tasks are the best focal points for triggering them. Tasks involving wood-chopping, harvesting, travelling from point A to B, conversing with another NPC have great potential of being integrated with moments.

Now that we’ve established the timing aspect, what about the defining the moments? Should they be rewards tied directly to the player’s performance, or should they be non-rewards? Since the entire world is very keen on the rewards concept, let’s go the other way for argument’s sake: let’s trigger non-rewarding moments.

Back to the RPG example. What if, when our hero character walks along the river, a boat comes sailing alongside, giving a little teaser/information to what’s coming up ahead? As designers, we can trigger it to only run once, throughout the course of the game.

Another example: what if, when our character is roaming the green fields, a clearing suddenly emerges with a pleasant statue, which serves as purely aesthetical value?

I think there’s some potential for designers to pursue this even further. Let’s experiment in the near future.

To recap:

  • find a least expected point in the game, to trigger the moment
  • define a moment to reward, that preferrably isn’t tied to in-game achievements


Design

About the blog


MarketJS is a company that leverages HTML5 to provide cross-platform solutions to clients. We have been serving clients since 2012.



About MarketJS


MarketJS offers a variety of products and services:

  1. We operate a B2B Marketplace for other companies and brands to license high quality games.
  2. We help companies reskin existing games from our portfolio.
  3. We operate game feed for clients.
  4. We partner with high traffic channels to engage and monetize their users.
  5. We design and develop custom games for brands.
  6. We develop game solutions for taxis, airlines, hospitals, schools and more.
  7. We build playable ads for app and gaming companies.


How to reach us

We can be reached at support at marketjs dot com.

What our clients say about us


"We found MarketJS very easy to work with, and were impressed with how quickly they delivered and responded to our questions."

Rebecca MacDonald, VP of Marketing, Active Navigation

"MarketJS was very easy to work with, and they were always responsive to our questions and requests"

Jeff Robertson, Vice President of Technology & Operations, Carbon8

"MarketJS consistently delivers quality games on time and on budget. They are a great partner."

Scott Sheppard, President and CTO, MoZeus

"We had a great experience working with MarketJS. They were able to move fast on a tight timeline project and deliver exactly what we required with record time and quality. Definitely will be working with them on future projects to help bring our client’s digital needs to life."

Lauren Boutette, Account Director, Lumency

"MarketJS went above and beyond to deliver our projects tailored to our needs. Very swift and quick response and turnaround time. Highly recommended."

Yazan Al Tamimi, Account Manager, Socialize Agency

"Thanks so much for the work your team did. MarketJS was able to work with us to create a custom solution that exceeded our expectations."

Mike Davis, Sales Manager, ComQi

"We are really satisfied with MarketJS. They are quick to help with any troubleshooting and implementation."

Liliya H., Content Specialist, Telecoming

"It was a great pleasure working with MarketJS, they really helped thinking along with our needs. The delivery of the content was always quick and every custom request we had was possible to develop."

Willem van Ditzhuijzen, Business Development, CreativeClicks

"We are extremely happy with the content and service which MarketJS has provided us."

Matt McPherson, Director / Strategic Accounts , Wildtangent

"MarketJS provided excellent support and responded well to ad-hoc requests."

Seah Li-Wei, Project Manager, Spoon Creative

"MarketJS collaborated with our team really well and delivered quality work."

Kevin MacDonald, CTO, TeachTown

"MarketJS has been outstanding; they were patient and very helpful in delivering quality service that matches our custom game requirements."

Marlon Santos, Researcher and Senior Software Engineer, University of Sydney

"We've worked with MarketJS on a number of games now and always find them to be easy and efficient to work with."

Ben Gilbert, Project Manager, Ichi Worldwide

"We are very pleased working with MarketJS, it was far above our expectations in terms of deliverables."

Didier Seevraz, Digital Media Specialist, Lottotech

"MarketJS was fast, responsive and very customer focused. It was a pleasure to work with them."

Bryan Wursten, Senior Digital Editor, Boy Scouts of America


Interested? Request a free consultation

Our team shall be in touch within 12 hours.





Note: Please use your corporate email address. We currently do not accept inquiries from gmail.com/yahoo.com/free email providers.



     In order for MarketJS to respond to my inquiry, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of this website.
     I would like to subscribe to the MarketJS newsletter, for the latest games, case studies and products
Why subscribe to our newsletter? Thousands of executives and key decision-makers rely on our monthly newsletter for game ideas to boost their business.

  • - One of our subscribers (and client) captured over 500k USD worth of business from one game idea alone.
  • - Another subscriber (later turned long-term client) generated an ROI of 300% on their monthly ad spend. They spend 8 figures US dollars each month on paid user acquisition, hence new game ideas matter to them.
  • - Another subscriber (and also loyal customer), a publicly listed company with over 30,000 employees is using our monthly game ideas to motivate and encourage positive behavior throughout their organization.