For years, hyper-casual was the go-to style for a lot of cell sport builders and entrepreneurs. With easy interfaces and easy-to-understand gameplay mechanics, hyper-casual titles—resembling Helix Leap, Jelly Shift, and Flappy Chook (the OG hyper-casual sport)—appealed to gamers of various ages and demographics.
The recognition of hyper-casual video games, nonetheless, is beginning to wane. New privateness rules have made person acquisition (UA) tougher for hyper-casual video games, which had been already battling to face out in an more and more saturated market. The already-narrow revenue margins for the style continued to fall as market rates of interest rose, and the style noticed a 20% fall in set up share.
To outlive in a altering market, many hyper-casual video games are incorporating deeper gameplay mechanics from midcore video games to widen their enchantment, ensuing within the rise of a brand new style often known as “hybrid-casual.” As these hybrid video games proceed to develop, cell entrepreneurs could also be questioning the place to take a position their advert spend and the best way to showcase the brand new style in impactful advert artistic.
What are hybrid-casual video games?
Hybrid-casual video games mix components of the hyper-casual style with extra advanced gameplay mechanics from the midcore style. Anybody can take pleasure in hybrid-casual video games, however they’ve extra depth to the gameplay mechanics, which means they will have interaction gamers for longer. Hybrid-casual video games at the moment are some of the profitable examples of hybridization, with over 5 billion downloads final yr.
A very good instance is Archero by Habby. Its core gameplay solely has two controls, transfer and shoot, however it provides gamers depth by means of extra RPG meta layers that allow character and weapon upgrades. This combine appeals to a broader viewers, however the gameplay has sufficient depth to encourage customers to stay round.
Hybrid-casual video games are additionally half of a bigger development of hybridization. Cellular video games from varied genres have been integrating components from different genres into their video games to spice up participant engagement—often within the type of easy minigames that differ from core gameplay. For instance, the idle RPG character collector X-Hero launched a minigame referred to as “SaveDoge,” the place gamers draw a protecting barrier round a picture of a canine. It even constructed a playable advert round these mechanics, which helped to launch itself to the highest of the US iOS obtain charts.
How hybrid-casual video games faucet into participant motivations
Hybrid-casual video games, and hybridization extra typically, have confirmed profitable as a result of assorted gameplay mechanics enchantment to the motivations of a broad vary of gamers slightly than a choose few. By motivations, we imply why a person is drawn to a selected sort of sport. GameRefinery’s Motivational Driver Framework makes this simpler to know by breaking down cell players throughout the market into eight distinct archetypes comprising 12 motivational drivers.
For instance, a person that falls into the “King of the Hill” participant archetype enjoys taking part in video games that supply a excessive diploma of competitors with different gamers, resembling Roblox or Fortnite. In the meantime, a “Thrill Seeker” person desires to expertise an adrenaline rush and prefers video games that demand quick response occasions, resembling within the racing style. There are additionally “Ability Grasp” customers who need to enhance and luxuriate in being challenged—qualities usually present in RPG video games.
When you apply this framework to a hybrid-casual sport, resembling Stumble Guys, you may see how a variety of motivations come into play. This standard sport is constructed round a easy hyper-casual racing core, the place gamers rush to the end line throughout completely different programs to unlock rewards and beat varied challenges. It additionally incorporates first-person shooter and platforming components by means of extra gameplay modes. This mixture appeals to the Thrill Seeker, the King of the Hill, and the Ability Grasp concurrently.
Why hybrid components in UA can enhance acquisition
The broad enchantment of hybrid-casual video games could be a boon for cell entrepreneurs. By highlighting hybrid components inside playable adverts, advertisers can faucet into new audiences who may not in any other case have been —boosting person acquisition.
Take Voodoo’s Mob Management for example. This hybrid-casual sport encompasses a tactical-battler core that lets gamers assault different gamers’ bases by steering cannons that launch mobs onto enemies and multiplier gates (a trending hyper-casual mechanic). It combines this with a personality card-collecting meta specializing in mob, cannon, and champion card amassing and upgrading (RPG improve components).
This mix offers Mob Management with two completely different choices for its adverts. By highlighting its RPG components, the sport can enchantment to extra skilled players whereas showcasing its hyper-casual options enabling it to take care of its extra mainstream enchantment. Simply do not forget that advert playables must be a sensible illustration of the sport they’re selling, or newly acquired customers could find yourself deleting it additional down the highway.
Which genres are the best to hybridize?
In response to our Informal Video games Report, adverts in hyper-casual video games nonetheless drive probably the most installs at 32.3%, regardless of the style’s decline in recognition. Subsequent is puzzle at 31.3%, adopted by simulation and life-style video games, every at round 9%. When you’re not sure which style matches your sport, these 4 informal sport genres aren’t a nasty place to begin.
The report additionally discovered that cell sport adverts displayed in different titles from the identical (or related) genres usually drove probably the most installs as a result of these fulfilled related motivational drivers for gamers. For instance, the most important set up drivers for match 3 video games had been adverts in different puzzle video games (43.9%). Nevertheless, there was additionally a big crossover with stunning subgenres resembling phrase (11.2%) and life-style (13.1%) video games.
For hybrid video games, the findings recommend that experimenting with advert placements in various genres may result in large wins. By selling their hybrid playables in these areas, cell entrepreneurs can enhance their person acquisition additional and maximize the return on their advert spend.
Key issues to think about
Hybrid-casual video games supply loads of alternatives for cell entrepreneurs to enhance the effectiveness of their advert campaigns, from widening their potential demographic to paving the way in which for elevated experimentation. However to achieve success, there are just a few key issues advertisers want to think about earlier than leaping on the development:
- Make sure that your hybrid playables authentically signify your cell sport, otherwise you threat alienating newly acquired gamers as soon as they start to play your title.
- Don’t restrict your audience to 1 sort of participant. Create a motivational profile primarily based on what you realize about your gamers, and use this to information the artistic route of your adverts.
- The identical guidelines apply when constructing hybrid playables as when crafting another—they need to captivate your viewers and showcase the most effective points of your sport whereas maintaining issues easy.