August 2024, pet project
Behavior Design in the World's Top-Grossing Hidden Objects Game
June's Journey is the world’s richest hidden objects game with over 50 Million downloads in the Play Store. This analysis is a dive into the behavior design behind the addictive game’s design.
Questions I'm asking
What are the behavior design aspects that keep the users hooked for years and years?
Why would a player spend so much of their time, effort, and, more often than not, their money in this game; and why do they continue to do so for years?
JUNE'S JOURNEY ?
June's Journey is a hidden objects game, It is fairly simple too - find objects, decorate the island, and follow an interesting fictional story of well-designed vintage characters set in the 1920s.
However, every step of the game is heavily designed to keep the user engaged and to enable the user to keep progressing in the game.
Millions of people worldwide are engaged in this game for years generating high profits for the game owners.
JUXTAPOSING THE GAME WITH BEHAVIOR DESIGN FRAMEWORKS
I used the Hook Model of Behavioral Design to break down the mobile game into elements of its behavioral units.
Brief of some of the handpicked elements from the game
Social Recognition and Influence
Social Interaction - Clubs, leaderboards, and leagues for the clubs to compete. Each club had power positions any club member could reach by performing well and impressing club owners.
Winning leagues provide generous rewards each step of the way and a larger reward at the end of a tournament. Additionally, each club member gets a stone decoration - a symbol of winning and the level of advancement at the end of each tournament.
Any player who visits your island can see that, and it becomes a symbol of social recognition among players.
Buy why would anyone visit my island?
Incentive for visiting of other islands - Sharing of decorations, Each player can gift each other decorations that provide rewards for both players, and in order to gift, the player has to Visit the other’s island.
Receiving and returning decorations is very easy and builds trust and rapport among the users.
High Tea
Users can text in a common screen chat. A dedicated cafe area for the club members to interact and buy a round of drinks for all the other club members gives everyone in the club rewards. The first drink that a player buys is always on the house. This feature is available any time, however each club can decide on a common tea time and meet up.
Decorations & Ownership
There is always a new season or set of decorations every 30 days (which behaves like collectibles to basic decorations always available for the player). These sets include a wide range of themes to hook players with different backgrounds, demography, and interests. It is worth mentioning that themes are often about social events such as weddings or festivals.
Tokens & Investment
Multiple tokens, yet easy to follow. Each main token is relatable to the user - coins for buying decorations, energy as life to play hidden objects scenes, diamonds for special benefits and rare decorations, and flowers to level up. Multiple minor tokens are made accessible and purchasable to the user throughout the game to gain access to special challenges, skip ads (by paying, of course), and unlock new land or constructed landmark decorations. Directions and tips are given all along the way until a player gets accustomed to understanding the use of tokens.