Social gaming has become one of the fastest growing segments in today’s online gaming industry. The rapid growth of mobile devices has largely influenced it. Over one billion hours are spent daily by players around the world, with social games taking a significant percentage of that figure. Video game publishers are continuing to introduce more social games and making them attractive by introducing more interactive features. Here are four key developments in the social gaming industry:
Mashup of Genres
Think of titles such as Role Playing Games (RPG), Action games, Massively Multiplayer Online games and Adventure games, and you will realize that the definitions are becoming blurred. According to Gearscope, a gaming gear review site, there is no doubt that gaming developers are leaving the traditional way of gaming development and primarily adopting the use of sub-genres within the significant gaming genres. The upside is that the new mix meshes into combinations that are more intricate and focused on player engagement.
Special Events
It doesn’t matter the game the player is undertaking, but as a game developer, you do not want the player to feel unchallenged. However, adding more challenging levels is not always the best solution because this means you will need more time to design the game. Instead, you can opt for challenges that are event-driven. It is a better way of giving what players really want.
You can consider challenges such as:
- Gaming tournaments – In this case, you can reward the player who attains most points or meets specific targets for gamers.
- Time pressure gaming – Here, the player is time-bound to complete a particular gaming mission.
There are many gaming events to look forward to every year, including gaming trade shows and conventions where avid gamers can learn a thing or two on where the gaming industry is headed, as well as the latest gaming events that gamers at all levels can join, according to a 2018 gaming guide on Digital Trends.
Game Push Notifications
Mobile and social games are designed in a way that they can make a player come back to continue playing, whether they lost or not. However, with today’s busier lifestyle, a player may forget to log in and continue playing. But gaming developers have come with in-game push notifications and other innovative features that remind the users when it’s time to play.
These push notifications can be essential since they notify the user when it is time to either claim a reward or access new gaming features. This is helpful to the user if they don’t spend too much time on gaming devices. The good thing about push notifications is that they can be used to attract and interact with the users at a human level. However, gaming developers have to create a balance when it comes to the use of push notifications to avoid alienating users.
Gaming Developers are Opting for Micro-Transactions
Great progress has been made in the monetization of social games, and more focus has been on micro-transactions. These help put players in control because they can decide what they want to pay for and when they can pay. The use of micro-transactions opens up great opportunities when it comes to monetization. Gaming developers are responding by coming up with diverse ways of adding significant features that can attract players to stay in the game.
Conclusion
To predict what developments will have an impact on the gaming industry in a few weeks, months or even in the coming years, you have to look at what has been working. Gamers are expecting more from developers as social gaming becomes more popular. As an upstart industry with great potential, we can expect to see more developments in the social gaming segment as developers focus more on the mobile gaming platform.