Original author: NFTGo
1. Do you really understand Dookey Dash?
1.1 Simple mini-games
This is a small game, players need to do only one thing to get the highest score possible, the rules are as follows:
(1) Manipulate the aircraft to avoid obstacles in the sewer, the longer the survival time, the more points you will get.
(2) Increase game points by collecting debris types and destroying obstacles during the flight.
1.2 Stunning statistics
Different from the extremely simple game mechanism, the game data created by Dookey Dash in just three weeks is very simple:
25,525 Sewer Pass holders have played a total of 7,487,850 times. Each player spent an average of 27.7 hours on this "mini-game", and the cumulative game time was 706,436 hours. This value is converted into "years". It is 80.64 years, and most of these data are created by "NFT users" in the "non-professional game field".
In addition to game data, Sewer Pass, which is the entry ticket for Dookey Dash, has also achieved quite good results in the NFT market. After the release, the price rose from 0 ETH to a maximum of 2.89 ETH, and the cumulative transaction volume reached 55.39 k ETH. This makes the Sewer Pass NFT The market value exceeded 100 million US dollars in a short time. Many Flippers have also profited from this, and the chart below shows the specific profitability of the top 10.
1.3 Storytelling routines
Of course, we also inevitably mention Yuga Labs, the creator of the blue-chip project behind Dookey Dash. In this announcement and promotion of Dookey Dash, Yuga Labs once again showed us how to tell the story of the NFT project in a mysterious way. And vivid."
Proceed as follows:
1. Post fuzzy text, concept drawings and other materials on Twitter first, set up suspense to leave topic space for the community, and stimulate people's curiosity for discussion.
2. Release a short film telling the story of the little monkey Jimmy, tell the background of the story, explain the answers to the previous suspense, and use rewards and prizes to whet people's appetite again.
3. Launch the game, connect the previous suspense and details together in the game, piece together the fragments of details into a complete framework, and let people form a complete story chain.
This method of setting "storytelling" itself as a story and telling it again is called "pre-amplification method". By continuously nesting stories, users can strengthen the memory of the content plot.
When gradually revealing to users, the method from front to back is adopted to leave suspense again. At the same time, a lot of nonsensical plots are injected into it, such as the monkey Jimmy accidentally swallowing the key of the mysterious metal box, and the player's goal is to pull out the key stuck in the monkey's buttocks. Such interesting storylines enhance the player's sense of immersion in the game experience. This method of storytelling is exactly the same as that of Otherside (the monkey came to Otherside because of drinking a drink by mistake), and Dookey Dash has also successfully made NFT players have the same expectations as Otherside.
1.4 Another layout?
Aside from the data surface and speculation, Dookey Dash seems to be a reasonable case for the combination of NFT and games at this stage. Behind the design of the token economy system that people have been discussing, Dookey Dash, also under Yuga Labs, is particularly "mini".
This can't help but lead us to "guess": It seems that the purpose of Yuga Labs is to let Dookey Dash seize the market of NFT games. When all Web3 game manufacturers are constantly adding to their Metaverse, what will become the magic weapon for NFT games to "fight big with small"?
2. Addictive arcade games (Arcade)
2.1 Introduction to arcade games
Many players will have two feelings after experiencing Dookey Dash:simple, addictive,This feeling is not just the impact of NFT, but this feeling comes from the thrill of arcade games, and now the blessing of NFT has played a catalytic role in the whole thing.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, arcade games occupied most of the leisure time of teenagers in developed countries headed by the United States. This type of game is known for its horizontal version of clearance games and fighting games. In order to start the game, the player needs to invest a certain amount of game currency. When the life value of the game character is exhausted, the player generally has 10 seconds to decide whether to use the game currency to renew his life.
2.2 Features of arcade games
The above birth background and many elements make arcade games have:
1. Short time:
In order to satisfy a variety of players, arcade games are generally turn-based or fixed levels, players can start and stop at any time, and do not require a linear game experience.
2. Tension:
In order to make distributors profitable, arcade game designers will set time, points and other limited conditions in the game, which also makes the player's experience full of tension.
3. Growth:
Players will gradually master game skills in the process of continuously experiencing arcade games. As the difficulty of game levels increases, the player's operating proficiency will also increase.
4. Competitiveness:
Arcade games are full of competition elements such as duel PK, leaderboards, and round checkpoints, which create an intense and exciting competitive environment for players.
3. The underlying similarities and differences between NFT and street games
Through the preliminary introduction to arcade games above, we can already see some characteristics that match NFT, such asThrough a simple game design and style of painting, it can capture the hearts of users in a short time and attract initial users.Arcade games all have a strong design style: whether it is the first generation of Pac-Man, which was popular in Europe and the United States, or the King of Fighters and Metal Slug produced by Japan's SNK in the late 1990s, these distinctive character designs have almost become popular impressions and symbols of the times.
3.1 Personality creates attractiveness
This point is also widely used in the NFT field: every successful blue-chip NFT project party pays special attention to the construction of IP. From the beginning, it has tried its best to create a unique and distinctive style of painting, except for Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant The NFT of the same series as Ape Yacht Club has a certain similar style of painting. Azuki, Doodles, CLONE X, Moonbirds and other NFT projects have all developed their own style concepts. The cross-validation of NFT and arcade games makes it hard for us not to admit that whether it is the old players of the last century or the players of the Z era today, they have natural aesthetic preferences.No one in the entertainment consumer space likes a mediocre product.
3.2 Loyalty and sense of meaning
The reason why street game users continue to play for a long time is not only because of the personality of "painting style", but also "growth" is the main reason. Recall that when you were playing Tetris, a fixed and simple game rule " Make the cubes disappear” will make you extremely engaged and addicted. This kind of “under a fixed game mode, improve your game ability through multiple attempts”It can quickly bring people a sense of growth and accomplishment, meet the highest psychological needs of users, and often make them the most loyal defenders of the game.
Compared with street games, the loyalty of NFT users is somewhat different.The loyalty of the vast majority of NFT users lies in their common beliefs,Most of the premise of this belief is "the value will increase in the future." The connection between users and NFT is more like a transaction relationship bound by "ownership of buying and selling goods", and does not establish a deep link through the "growth mechanism".In other words, the reason why users are loyal to the community is actually loyal to the products they spend money on.
The fan economy caused by different user loyalty is completely different. For example, many players are very willing to buy game peripherals. They buy them purely for entertainment, but few people buy NFT peripherals. Most holders buy Peripheral products are for display to others. This is the difference in user consumption demand brought about by the different loyalty levels built. (not expanded here)
If we go one level deeper, arcade players are pursuing the "sense of meaning" in constant challenges, at least in the short ten minutes of life, pursuing the "sense of meaning" of the game characters they are manipulating, and the emotional link established in the process , virtuallyIt affects the emotions, attitudes and even values of the players, which is also the root cause of the high user stickiness.
Of course, Dookey Dash has not been able to allow users to continuously establish emotional links and bring growth to users like the legendary arcade games. However, combined with the current situation of the Web3 industry, we can get some interesting revelations.
4. How to make Web3 marketing addictive
From the above-mentioned data panel of Dookey Dash, we can see the long playing time of a single user, which is a very enviable achievement for any Web3 project party. These in-game data have a lot to do with the mechanism design of arcade games. Dookey Dash's mini-game "Find Keys in the Sewer" is also the same as arcade games. After a lot of repeated game behaviors, people will become proficient and addictive. We alsoDesign an "addictive" Web3 marketing method based on its characteristics.
4.1 Simple and repetitive
People don't like to read long texts and don't like complicated ways to interact. If marketing with words is unavoidable, make sure to keep it as simple as possible. Of course, the text is not simple enough, so try to use pictures and videos to tell relatively complex stories, which is also a technique used repeatedly by Yuga Labs. Designing a simple and repetitive interaction mechanism is often addictive. Like the sewer game of Dookey Dash, players can restart unlimitedly and quickly after death in the game.It's also possible to find an arcade game mechanic that fits your own brand.
4.2 Distinctive style
This is also the reason why text marketing is not advocated. In expressing the style of the brand, sound and pictures are particularly important for forming a distinctive style. Therefore, NFT teams that are good at using pictures for marketing usually have good traffic.In the entertainment consumer space, no one likes a standard product, and the same applies to Web3.NFT itself is visual, and most NFT users still prefer visual works, so if you want to attract NFT users, you have to capture the pleasure of users from the screen, which is why we have seen many times like pixel style, retro The more distinctive and unique styles such as wind and two-dimensional elements, the more appealing they feel.
4.3 Using Game Mechanisms for Reference
We can also imitate arcade games and design a participation mechanism that "makes progress with a little effort". The specific methods can be various game types such as competition, confrontation, and cooperation, and can also be classified according to user preferences:
Sociability: play, manage, cooperate, operate
Exploratory: coloring, randomization, building, creating
Confrontation: Competitive, Parkour, Combat, Survival
Cultivation: growth, collection, exchange, narrative
In addition to the type, we should also learn from the "increasing difficulty mechanism" of arcade games,People get addicted precisely because: in constant challenge, people can get"Sense of achievement",available hereSeveral reference principles:
1. Let users enter the role through several specific steps, and give the role meaning, such as awarding medals to your users.
2. The difficulty of tasks is predictable to users, making users feel confident, such as a linearly increasing difficulty curve.
3. The difficulty is increasing, and the rewards are also increasing to ensure that each link has a sense of freshness and suspense, so as to continuously stimulate users.
4.4 Building Faith
1. Open the door of the mind
The digital marketing prevailing on the mobile Internet is "inductive". After users are attracted by various marketing methods, they participate in the click interaction, which of course will increase the data, but it does notIt will not have a profound impact on the user's mental level.Through gamified marketing, this problem can be solved very well. Why shouldAssign a user a "role", In fact, it is to let the role mission into oneself, generate the desire to actively explore, instead of resisting psychology, so as to open the door to the mind of Web3 users, and it is also more convenient for the next story told by the project party to be accepted by users.
2. Create shared experiences
You can use the above mechanism to design a few simple tasks, initially let users have a common experience, a common topic, and form a group awareness; then create a "group task" for this user group, and the key to completing the task lies in the efforts of the group , through these two steps, the relationship between users and projects, and between users and users is closely combined. This is not uncommon in Web3 projects, and it is also true in Dookey Dash.
5. Expectations and concerns about NFT arcade games
5.1 Big game and small game
Is a small but elegant Web3 arcade game necessary when thousands of Metaverse games are being built? Of course it is necessary. The first successful NFT game model must be the first to verify the mechanism in small games, because the development of Web3 arcade games is less difficult, and it is easier to make a bold combination of mechanism design and gameplay design with NFT, and from an investment perspective The cost of trial and error is small and the odds are high, which is a good choice for users and studios. Secondly, even large-scale MMORPG games need countless small games similar to arcade games to fill in. This is especially true in Web3, which advocates decentralized social interaction. The open world also needs to provide players with something to do. After all, who would say no to playing a gwent card in The Witcher 3?
Therefore, we also have to suspect that Dookey Dash may appear in the open world of Otherside in another form and become a collection of small arcade games. In this way, Yuga Labs not only meets the needs of users for NFT entertainment games during the long development cycle of large-scale Metaverse, but also seizes users' minds in advance in the form of "small and fast", just like the water droplets launched by the Trisolaran fleet before reaching the earth.
5.2 Intermediate state of Web3 games
The fast food culture characterized by "short, flat, and fast" is spreading more and more widely, and NFT arcade games will also have the same problem: From the level of game production, the content presentation of arcade games is far less complete and rich than that of large-scale games. Spiritual values also lack depth. As an intermediate state of Web3 games, we may gradually see the emergence of NFT arcade games with more game mechanics than the 21-year GameFi project and smaller than future RPGs.
Judging from the current situation of Web3, although NFT arcade games are far more progressive than "DeFi with a game shell", when it comes to realizing the smallest model of "NFT+ arcade games", the project team can use "Game" It is not easy to be consistent with the importance of "Fi". In terms of "designing game mechanics" and "storytelling", the two most "arcade game-style" things are not enough. The result is that the game and NFT have become In addition to props and commodities, the story and fun of NFT are also very homogeneous. In this regard, except for projects like Dookey Dash that have the brand blessing behind Yuga Labs, other projects may face more challenges.
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