I had planned to write my thoughts on Boom Beach a couple of months ago, but then a bunch of blogs deconstructing Boom Beach came out and I didn't feel as compelled. Having read all those blogs now, I feel I've a few different opinions on many aspects than most have presented so far and that it would make for a good post. Interested folks can read other posts on Boom Beach here, here, here and here in the order they were published.
I begin with a summary of my thoughts on the Boom Beach:
First of all, I believe Boom Beach is a Winner - the game will rock 2014 and set new mobile F2P paradigms for the industry that Supercell has taken a lot of time to craft intricately (more on them below). We'll know very soon.
Second, Boom Beach is not similar to Clash of Clans, primarily because of the highly differentiated battle mechanic. Supercell has done an amazingly clever job at keeping the part that makes money as-is for the most part (base upgrades and training), and changing the battle (the part that matters) to a new and beautiful combination of tactical and strategic gameplay.
Third, Boom Beach will not cannibalize Supercell's revenues (not significantly, anyways) Having played for long, hard-core Clash of Clan players are ready to be ushered into a new gaming experience that offers different, even more engaging and sophisticated gameplay. In any case, it is always better to cannibalize one's own audience as opposed to have someone else come and take them away.
Fourth, One Builder Philosophy is great and will pay dividends in the long run. Supercell learned from Clash of Clans (as well as from Kixeye's subsequent titles to Backyard Monsters) that having two builders makes economy very hard to balance along the way and provides short-term monetization at the cost of sustained long-term monetization. Good call there!
Finally, and no one is saying this, Boom Beach is very much a casualized version of War Commander/Battle Pirates, both notable titles from Kixeye, just like Clash of Clans was a casualized version of Backyard Monsters (again from Kixeye). I say that not to rub Kixeye the wrong way (although they should take note), but to emphasize that simplification and being first-to-market are of paramount importance in the mobile gaming space.
I begin with a summary of my thoughts on the Boom Beach:
First of all, I believe Boom Beach is a Winner - the game will rock 2014 and set new mobile F2P paradigms for the industry that Supercell has taken a lot of time to craft intricately (more on them below). We'll know very soon.
Second, Boom Beach is not similar to Clash of Clans, primarily because of the highly differentiated battle mechanic. Supercell has done an amazingly clever job at keeping the part that makes money as-is for the most part (base upgrades and training), and changing the battle (the part that matters) to a new and beautiful combination of tactical and strategic gameplay.
Third, Boom Beach will not cannibalize Supercell's revenues (not significantly, anyways) Having played for long, hard-core Clash of Clan players are ready to be ushered into a new gaming experience that offers different, even more engaging and sophisticated gameplay. In any case, it is always better to cannibalize one's own audience as opposed to have someone else come and take them away.
Fourth, One Builder Philosophy is great and will pay dividends in the long run. Supercell learned from Clash of Clans (as well as from Kixeye's subsequent titles to Backyard Monsters) that having two builders makes economy very hard to balance along the way and provides short-term monetization at the cost of sustained long-term monetization. Good call there!
Finally, and no one is saying this, Boom Beach is very much a casualized version of War Commander/Battle Pirates, both notable titles from Kixeye, just like Clash of Clans was a casualized version of Backyard Monsters (again from Kixeye). I say that not to rub Kixeye the wrong way (although they should take note), but to emphasize that simplification and being first-to-market are of paramount importance in the mobile gaming space.
I decided to list the notable points that I discerned and cut the full-on deconstruction of the game as that is already done in-depth in the blog posts listed above. If you haven't played the game, I recommend playing it or reading the other blog posts to get a fuller picture. I focus on differentiating features only, which Boom Beach has many:
1. Rewarding Premium Currency: Boom Beach is quite liberal in giving premium currency to players. Among other sources, players get a variable amount of diamonds everyday by opening treasure chests scattered around the map.
It's a great lil' retention feature because I not only want to get premium currency everyday, I actually enjoy opening chests because of the variable rewards associated with them. On top of this, chests are strategically scattered all over the map and that makes me scout it carefully and remember the map over time.
Monetarily, a player gets about 8-15 cents of premium currency every day. Supercell pulls it elegantly by inflating the prices and currency with 100 diamonds/dollar exchange rate (as opposed to 100 diamonds for $5, like most other games out there). This also means the player gets ~$3 - $4 worth of premium currency from the game every month if she logs in every day - not bad for her loyalty, with the added bonus that she is more likely to become a payer because she already has some money in her wallet.
I'm quite confident that this feature will lead to a higher conversion rate and has the potential to set a new benchmark in the industry. I'm using it for my next game!
1. Rewarding Premium Currency: Boom Beach is quite liberal in giving premium currency to players. Among other sources, players get a variable amount of diamonds everyday by opening treasure chests scattered around the map.
It's a great lil' retention feature because I not only want to get premium currency everyday, I actually enjoy opening chests because of the variable rewards associated with them. On top of this, chests are strategically scattered all over the map and that makes me scout it carefully and remember the map over time.
Monetarily, a player gets about 8-15 cents of premium currency every day. Supercell pulls it elegantly by inflating the prices and currency with 100 diamonds/dollar exchange rate (as opposed to 100 diamonds for $5, like most other games out there). This also means the player gets ~$3 - $4 worth of premium currency from the game every month if she logs in every day - not bad for her loyalty, with the added bonus that she is more likely to become a payer because she already has some money in her wallet.
I'm quite confident that this feature will lead to a higher conversion rate and has the potential to set a new benchmark in the industry. I'm using it for my next game!
Thoughtfully scattered treasure chests around the map reward a variable amount of diamonds
2. Minimal Narrative - gone are the days when hand-holding players via quests was considered a good idea for a mass-market game like Boom Beach. Game does an excellent job at giving me the story about saving villagers, and then getting out of my way by not having those annoying wobbly quest HUDs or in-your-face popups, but still subtly reinforcing the story every time I conquer a village - by showing freed up villagers and by increasing my reward from those villages.
Experienced gamers will appreciate the minimalist aesthetic that drives the point home and then gets out of their way, offering them agency to explore and learn on their own.
Minimal hand-holding offers agency to explore and learn
3. Polish: Supercell went all-out on polishing this game. Every single update (see update notes at the end) had major visual and interface changes including multiple changes to the overall art and UI style. UI is harmonious and I find those little green arrows, showing which item is upgrade-able at any given moment, quite an effective UI innovation.
All in all, the game looks stunning and is done with finesse. From swooping bird flights to asynchronous battle explosions, from wobbly speech bubbles to transient footprints, from pleasing resource collection animation to hastened troops' retreat to nicely choreographed victory fireworks - the game is a UX delight!
Harmonious lil' green arrows showing upgrade-able items is a cool UI innovation
4. Other notable features: I really liked how seamlessly the map combines PvE and PvP elements, that the game has dual-loop catering to different session-lengths on mobile, as eloquently explained by friend and fellow blogger Michail Katkoff here, that both time and space are effectively monetized (everything is upgrade-able, and for map expansion, you not only need to pay to expand piecemeal, but also need to pay to upgrade the radar to be able to expand), that the progression curve is not overwhelming even with 4 currencies (arguably one of Supercell's core strength is being able to simplify), and finally the solid battle mechanic offering multiple strategies to win and allowing expression via meta-gameplay.
My closing thought is on what Boom Beach could have done better?
I agree with all the other blog post authors here - the weakest element of Boom Beach is Social. Where my opinion differs with others is what could be done with it?
I believe Supercell has an opportunity to move beyond the simple sharing of gunboats or troops as the social element, and do a fully-fleshed Alliances and Factions feature similar to games like Battle Pirates. Battle Pirates has one of the most effective Guild structures where players at different levels are able to participate together and where game-elders effectively on-board the newcomers. Here is a brief bullet-ed summary of Guild structure in Battle Pirates:
- Elders can gift, chat and DM newbies
- Navigator +20% Speed
- Armors +10% Armor
- Defenders +20% Turret reload rate
- Rockeeters -20% Rocket build time (once per attack)
- Gunners (folks at highest levels) +10% Accuracy
this will not only usher in a fundamentally solid foundation for regularly scheduled Events, one of the best monetizing features in mobile gaming currently, but also makes PvP more meaningful (PvE events, which are the focus currently, can work but real dividends are in making PvP or GvG events more compelling)
Local leaderboards, like in upcoming game Burds, will be another delicious icing on the cake.
I agree with all the other blog post authors here - the weakest element of Boom Beach is Social. Where my opinion differs with others is what could be done with it?
I believe Supercell has an opportunity to move beyond the simple sharing of gunboats or troops as the social element, and do a fully-fleshed Alliances and Factions feature similar to games like Battle Pirates. Battle Pirates has one of the most effective Guild structures where players at different levels are able to participate together and where game-elders effectively on-board the newcomers. Here is a brief bullet-ed summary of Guild structure in Battle Pirates:
- Guild Roles are assigned based off players' level
- Each role provides a distinct and serious benefit
- Elders can gift, chat and DM newbies
- Navigator +20% Speed
- Armors +10% Armor
- Defenders +20% Turret reload rate
- Rockeeters -20% Rocket build time (once per attack)
- Gunners (folks at highest levels) +10% Accuracy
- Newbies provide the best benefit to all of the Guild members so everybody has a strong incentive to give them a red-carpet treatment
- Each tier has its own progress bar of activities to do; resets weekly
this will not only usher in a fundamentally solid foundation for regularly scheduled Events, one of the best monetizing features in mobile gaming currently, but also makes PvP more meaningful (PvE events, which are the focus currently, can work but real dividends are in making PvP or GvG events more compelling)
Local leaderboards, like in upcoming game Burds, will be another delicious icing on the cake.
Local leaderboards can be very effective in territory based PvP mechanics
PvE Events so far have not been very compelling. PvP and GvG is where the real dividends are
Release update history - polish, balance, repeat!
