The Old Game Flow Design

The flow chart above shows one of the earlier designs we had for our native games from 2014. From a first glimpse, it seems like such a complicated flowchart. On a second glimpse, it still is (Click on the image above, and zoom in to understand the flow).

While the flow model above might have worked well for 2012, it's not relevant in 2015. Today's users demand so much more, and so quickly. Instant gratification loops are extremely ingrained into our daily lives. Here are a few real-life examples:

• Push a button, a cab comes (Uber) in a minute
• Push a button, and food gets delivered (ZeroCater)
• Push a button, and groceries get delivered within the day (Amazon Fresh, Instacart)

With gaming, the instant gratification loop is even tighter, given that everything is digital. Tap on an app icon, and the user expects to jump right into the game.

Users today don't have time to manually jump through the hoops that we developers produce. Especially on native games, we only have the first 30 seconds to impress the user. Or else her itchy fingers will minimize our game, and head over to Google Play/App Store to download the next best app or game.

We've moved to a new design now, which eliminates most of the waste. We call this 'Straight To The Point' Game Flow Design. Will be sharing this in our next blog post.