Playtesting
July 5, 2024
How Emotional Feedback Boosted Retention Rates for Panoramik
Panoramik Games
+5%
RR Increase
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Designing game features for the subconscious mind is crucial for creating engaging and satisfying games. While game designers often focus on creating features for the conscious mind, the subconscious mind actually plays a more significant role in how players experience games. Additionally, while playtesting is essential and provides a lot of information on users’ emotions, traditional methods may fall short in capturing players' true emotions. Facial coding technology unveils more accurate insights, allowing developers to identify pain points, enhance successful elements, and increase engagement and retention rates by understanding emotional responses.
About Panoramik
Panoramik, a game development studio comprising 150+ skilled individuals, creates visually stunning and immersive games with exceptional player experiences. Their latest mid-core RPG in a unique sci-fi universe has intricate plotlines and philosophical questions. With 6M+ downloads and hit titles like Mighty Party and Auto Brawl Chess, Panoramik is a mobile gaming trailblazer. Notably, they secured investment from Playrix, expanding resources to deliver groundbreaking games worldwide.
Problem
Panoramik's UX researchers faced a challenge in creating a more immersive and satisfying gaming experience for their users. They struggled to understand the underlying motivators and points of frustration among users, despite using traditional playtesting methods. These methods had limitations, and the researchers needed to find a way to gain deeper insights. This led them to turn to Sensemitter's emotional feedback tool to better understand users' emotional responses to their games.
Methodology
Panoramik conducted 30 play-test interviews with their gameplay engagement. They recorded video footage and used the Sensemitter tool to analyze emotions of each player at a per-second level. Sensemitter's machine learning technology provided emotional response charts and recommendations for Panoramik's user research team to enhance user experience.
Audience
Geo:
EU
Gender:
M 50%, W 50%
Age:
25—30
Audience sample size:
30
Emotional Patterns Compared Across Gameplay Mechanics
Panoramik studied players' engagement for different gameplay mechanics by conducting 30 playtest interviews. We recorded video footage of the sessions and used the Sensemitter tool to analyze the emotions of each player at a per-second level. This helped them identify trends and patterns in 5 major emotional states and how players reacted to each gameplay mechanic.
Enjoyment
measures user happiness, determines attractiveness
Engagement
measures user interest and level of involvement
Irritation
measures user anger/frustration, important to monitor the level of irritation to prevent user disengagement
Focus
measures intentional gaze (longer than 200ms with diameter less than 50 pixels), shows user engagement
Heatmap
compares enjoyment, engagement, and focus to benchmark, informs content adjustments
Key outcomes:
Field battles are more effective than towers in attracting the audience based on four out of five important perception parameters.
Field battles offer greater challenges to players, leading to increased tension, concentration, and interest, resulting in higher overall emotional engagement.
Tower mechanics serve a critical hygienic role in gameplay by providing relief between difficult battles and a sense of easy victory
Towers help increase the game's attractiveness without making it too complicated.
Suggestions from Sensemitter’s analytics team
Use tension to create a constant challenge with rewarding benefits.
Vary inputs in battles in the field to maintain tension, such as expanding the battlefield, using new characters, and special abilities.
Tower battles can relieve tension and provide a change of pace, necessary for game balance.
Allow for customization, including different skins for weapons and items - this is a very engaging thing.
Improve the league scoring system and provide detailed explanations to avoid raising tension during non-combat scenes.
Modify tower mechanics based on user feedback to increase variability - make them a bit more complicated.
Offer character purchases during attractive moments.
Improve navigation in the Hall of Fame. Make communication of achievements in the Hall of Fame more attractive and engaging and highlight the exit from the hall.
Conclusion
Sensemitter's emotional feedback reports gave valuable insights into player engagement trends, enabling Panoramik to make targeted game mechanic improvements. The result? A 5% increase in retention rate, indicating a positive impact on user experience.
Sensemitter's data-driven approach to user emotions is a valuable tool for enhancing games and keeping players engaged.
Panoramik Games