Designing Your Game
Here are the patterns and techniques we’ve noticed in the most commercially successful games on Dorian, and how to optimize your game to match! These aren’t hard rules, just what we’ve seen work already– so if you have a new idea, try it!
Completion Rate
Your completion rate is shown for any of your released episodes, and is the percentage of people who finished your episode. It’s your most important stat to tell if your game is meeting reader expectations– and your Episode 1’s completion rate is the most important of all! It’s a good sign if your game is getting 50-70% completion rate on your first episode. To optimize completion rate, click into the “Live” version of your episode, and look for any nodes where the dropoff rate (the percentage shown on a single node) is more than 5-10%! That means that percentage of players are stopping at that node of your game— is there any overlong or confusing narration there? Keep reading for other tips on improving completion rate.
Playthrough Count
The playthrough count is the number of players who have started that version of that episode of your game.
Generally, we recommend not making changes to optimize an episode until at least 100 players have tried it. If you’re having trouble consistently pulling at least 100 players, try the following:
Change the cover - Look at our Cover recommendations. Does your cover feature two characters in a romantic pose, no text, high contrast? Your cover needs to communicate what your game is about, and hook players to click on it
Title & Description - Is your title catchy and short? Does it describe the vibes of the game? Is your description a clear hook communicating the stakes and making players want to know what’s inside?
Many successful games regularly experiment with new covers and descriptions! Keep trying to learn what your audience prefers.
So you’ve launched an episode 1– how do you optimize?
You can check your analytics for each episode in Live Episodes to see dropoff percentages at every node. These are the moments where your players are losing interest or are frustrated. On the right— see the dropoff rate at the top, and the percentages of people choosing the premium option vs not.
Why do readers drop off?
Very long nodes without choices - this is an interactive medium, and players want to engage!
“Unfairness” in story or game– for example, if it’s unclear why a choice they made missed out on increasing LI bond
Reversal of expectations what they expected from the choice was not what happened
Long narration without character art
Lack of action - give the player main character energy!