![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/6c738__Tetris-Battle-Logo.jpg\" "\\"Tetris"){kind=logo}
<\/a>If you’re a Facebook Developer working on games, at some point, you might ask yourself if you must include a multi-player mode in your game<\/strong>. You’re looking at your tight budget, your limited time and team and you ask yourself if that’s worth doing it. Using Tetris Battle<\/a> as an illustration, I’ll explain some of the benefits<\/strong> you can expect from a multiplayer mode, the requirements<\/strong> and important features<\/strong> to include in your game.<\/p>\nCore benefits of having a multiplayer mode<\/h2>\nBenefit #1: Improve your Retention \/ Lifetime duration<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/3709a__Tetris-Game-Modes-300x182.png\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nTetris Battle offers many Multiplayer Modes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a classic game with different levels or a simple leaderboard, what happens when players finish all levels and are the top of the leaderboard? Will they keep playing without a challenge?<\/strong> Of course, you, developer, can keep on adding more levels and create weekly leaderboards, that works pretty well. But with a multiplayer mode, players will always meet new exciting challenges that can create an infinite lifetime duration for the player and a level of competition you can’t meet without it<\/strong>.<\/p>\nBenefit #2: Improve Virality<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/d620d__Tetris-Battle-Online-Friends.png\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen you see an online friend, you can invite him easily = Retention +<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Players, at some point will want to play with their friends. By integrating an invite system that allow a 1-click access to a game<\/strong>, you will create a powerful viral machine. You can imagine sending a request or a newsfeed in which players friends could join them in seconds. Note that it’s not only good for virality but also good for retention.<\/strong><\/p>\nBenefit #3: Improve Monetization<\/h3>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/ccb99__Tetris-Battle-Tune-your-gameplay-300x296.png\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nTetris Battle – Tune your gameplay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The more you increase competition, the more you add the need for power-ups<\/strong>. Indeed, when players are facing opponents that are of the same rank, or are better than them, a little help from the shop could make them win a game.<\/strong> For example, in Tetris Battle, you can’t use power-ups during the game, but you can buy upgrades such as “Make my pieces go down faster” that can help players play faster than others and get a small advantage out of it.<\/p>\nOf course, the rewards players get from a victory must be valuable<\/strong>: it should increase their reputation, highscore, help them access exclusive features, modes or unlock weapons… In Tetris Battle<\/strong>, every time you win a game you increase your ranking<\/strong> (See more about the #Feature 2: The Ranking System below). You also unlock<\/strong> different game modes when you reach a certain level.<\/p>\n2 Core features to include in a multi-player mode<\/h2>\n
Feature #1: Add interactions between players<\/strong><\/p>\nThat sounds obvious but one thing where the Multi-Player mode loses half of his interest is when it’s not allowing players to interact with each others<\/strong>. Meaning: chatting with each other, being able to cooperate or compete with them in a meaningful way are core to the multiplayer experience.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/25323__Tetris-Battle-Aim-228x300.png\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nWho’s gonna be the target?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In Tetris Battle, for example, there is a chat but the core feature is that you can send lines to your opponents<\/strong> when doing a combo or destroying 2 or more lines to make them KOs. Interaction is a the center of the gameplay<\/strong>, so you will spend your whole game trying to send lines and you will also receive dozen of lines of games from them.<\/p>\nIn this context, players will really get the feeling that they’re not playing alone<\/strong>. They will receive and cause emotions to someone else that is playing a thousand miles away from them: that’s powerful! The pleasure of winning<\/strong>, alone or by team, is multiplied by the fact that they’ll be interacting with other players !<\/strong><\/p>\nFeature #2: Dynamic Ranking (ELO Style)<\/h3>\n
If you play chess online, you probably know ELO. The Elo rating system<\/strong> is “a method for calculating the relative skill levels<\/em> of players in two-player games”. (Source: Wikipedia<\/a>). <\/span>In a Casual \/ Social game, you don’t need to create a very complicated system like ELO, you can have a simple algorythm.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/254aa__Tetris-Battle-Rank-1-is-too-easy-300x174.png\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nRank 1 is too easy – Give me Competition!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In Tetris Battle for example, there is a basic system of ranking<\/strong>. During the 1st game, depending on the skill the player shows during the game, he is assigned to a defined ranking.<\/strong><\/p>\nThen, after each game,<\/strong> taking the example of the 6-Players Battle Mode, the player will receive Stars<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n- The 1st wins 1.5 Stars,<\/li>\n
- The 2nd wins 1 star,<\/li>\n
- The 3rd wins 0.5 stars,<\/li>\n
- The 4th loses 0.5 stars,<\/li>\n
- The 5th loses 1 star and<\/li>\n
- The 6th loses 1.5 stars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
When the player reaches 5 stars, he climbs to the next ranking<\/strong> and starts with 2 stars. When he reaches 0 stars he loses a ranking<\/strong>.<\/p>\nWith this system, any time players climb a level, they will get the challenge of playing against stronger players. And anytime they lose a rank, they will play against players that are easier for them. This ensures that they always get a challenge they can face<\/strong>, beginner or advanced and that the learning curve will be progressive.<\/span><\/p>\nRequirements to have a successful Multiplayer game<\/h2>\n
I’ll repeat it but multiplayer games are not easy and here are the 2 main reasons:<\/p>\n
Requirement #1: You need to build an audience fast<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/af880__Tetris-Annoyed-to-Wait.jpeg\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nNobody likes to wait<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There’s nothing more annoying, in an ultra-connected world, than waiting for other players to start a game. You can’t just launch your game on Facebook and wait for players to come<\/strong>, because the Game Experience of first players will be bad if they’re alone, players won’t invite friends to come if they wait 10 minutes to play a game. In Tetris Battle, you never wait more than a few seconds and that’s something players appreciate.<\/p>\nSo you have different solutions:<\/p>\n
1. You already have another successful game in or out of Facebook<\/strong><\/p>\nLucky you! You are already eligible for the launch of a multi-player game on Facebook! Prepare a great promotion campaign on your other games to bring the maximum of players in the shortest amount of time. Ensure your servers are ready <\/strong>to accept thousands or players playing simultaneously, but wait, isn’t it what you’re aiming for after all?<\/p>\n2. You don’t have another game (or one with a small audience) and you have money!<\/strong><\/p>\nIf you have money, you can spend it in advertising or find partners <\/strong>to get traffic coming to your game. Be wise with the audience you target and the budgets you spend. I’m not an expert on advertising, but I would advise not to spend everything in one time<\/strong>, but to make sure you’re initially bringing enough players to guarantee a great User Experience for the 1st players.<\/p>\n3. You’re a brand new developer and you have no game and a few dollars available for Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\nSolution #1: Build an audience long before the launch<\/strong><\/p>\nDuring the development period, instead of watching over the developers shoulders and count days to the deadline, why not asking the Marketing Team and Community Managers to open a blog and create a community months before the launch<\/strong>. Like this, you’ll be able to give access to the beta before the launch and get great insights from it. You will also launch with an audience that is not null, a community of fans and will save thousands of dollars of advertising. Note that even if you have money, you can build an audience upfront. <\/strong><\/p>\nSolution 2: Build an AI \/ Bots<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nyfrenchgeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/86e7f__Tetris-Not-Robot.jpg\" "\\"Tetris")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe other solution I want to mention is to add bots when you can’t find a real player<\/strong>. In Tetris Battle, I suspect they have some bots, but if true, as they give them a name and a picture and that it allows to never wait too long<\/strong>, I don’t mind. And given the fact they have 6M MAU, it is possible that there are players of my level at any time. Downside is that if you have a limited budget, it will require some additional development costs to create a decent AI <\/strong>which can require a huge amount of time to parameter and balance.<\/p>\nRequirement #2: Be technically robust<\/h3>\n
Multiplayers games are hard for the many reasons mentioned previously but there is something else. Imagine<\/strong>: you built the game, you have spend thousands of dollars in advertising, you blogged during 3 months and the day of the launch : players are kicked off of games, the server is slow, game is not loading etc. You have 1 chance to make a 1st good impression. So be technically ready: eyes and lights are on you, you can’t do a bad launch!<\/strong> So, testing a lot and including many players in the beta<\/strong> are good ways to do it (it will also solve many other problems in terms of User Experience, so you really want to include players during your development phase!).<\/p>\nConclusion<\/strong><\/p>\nTetris Battle<\/a> gets an AAA in terms of Game Experience thanks to its powerful multiplayer modes, and this is not completely a surprise as the game has been created by Tetris Online Inc.<\/a> which is co-founded by Alexei Pajitnov<\/a>, the creator of the first Tetris.<\/p>\nWhen perfectly executed, a multi-player mode can be a great way to have a successful viral, engaging and monetized game. Great example like Draw My Thing<\/a> by OMGPOP<\/a>, Belote Multijoueur<\/a> by Is Cool Entertainment<\/a> (In French Only) or the famous Texas Hold’em Poker<\/a> by Zynga<\/a> are all example of games that are fun, addictive, technically robust and integrate most of the features described in this article.<\/p>\nSo, after reading this article, do you want to include a multiplayer mode in your game? Why?<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTetris Battle offers many Multiplayer Modes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a classic game with different levels or a simple leaderboard, what happens when players finish all levels and are the top of the leaderboard? Will they keep playing without a challenge?<\/strong> Of course, you, developer, can keep on adding more levels and create weekly leaderboards, that works pretty well. But with a multiplayer mode, players will always meet new exciting challenges that can create an infinite lifetime duration for the player and a level of competition you can’t meet without it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When you see an online friend, you can invite him easily = Retention +<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Players, at some point will want to play with their friends. By integrating an invite system that allow a 1-click access to a game<\/strong>, you will create a powerful viral machine. You can imagine sending a request or a newsfeed in which players friends could join them in seconds. Note that it’s not only good for virality but also good for retention.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Tetris Battle – Tune your gameplay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The more you increase competition, the more you add the need for power-ups<\/strong>. Indeed, when players are facing opponents that are of the same rank, or are better than them, a little help from the shop could make them win a game.<\/strong> For example, in Tetris Battle, you can’t use power-ups during the game, but you can buy upgrades such as “Make my pieces go down faster” that can help players play faster than others and get a small advantage out of it.<\/p>\n Of course, the rewards players get from a victory must be valuable<\/strong>: it should increase their reputation, highscore, help them access exclusive features, modes or unlock weapons… In Tetris Battle<\/strong>, every time you win a game you increase your ranking<\/strong> (See more about the #Feature 2: The Ranking System below). You also unlock<\/strong> different game modes when you reach a certain level.<\/p>\n Feature #1: Add interactions between players<\/strong><\/p>\n That sounds obvious but one thing where the Multi-Player mode loses half of his interest is when it’s not allowing players to interact with each others<\/strong>. Meaning: chatting with each other, being able to cooperate or compete with them in a meaningful way are core to the multiplayer experience.<\/p>\n Who’s gonna be the target?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Tetris Battle, for example, there is a chat but the core feature is that you can send lines to your opponents<\/strong> when doing a combo or destroying 2 or more lines to make them KOs. Interaction is a the center of the gameplay<\/strong>, so you will spend your whole game trying to send lines and you will also receive dozen of lines of games from them.<\/p>\n In this context, players will really get the feeling that they’re not playing alone<\/strong>. They will receive and cause emotions to someone else that is playing a thousand miles away from them: that’s powerful! The pleasure of winning<\/strong>, alone or by team, is multiplied by the fact that they’ll be interacting with other players !<\/strong><\/p>\n If you play chess online, you probably know ELO. The Elo rating system<\/strong> is “a method for calculating the relative skill levels<\/em> of players in two-player games”. (Source: Wikipedia<\/a>). <\/span>In a Casual \/ Social game, you don’t need to create a very complicated system like ELO, you can have a simple algorythm.<\/p>\n Rank 1 is too easy – Give me Competition!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Tetris Battle for example, there is a basic system of ranking<\/strong>. During the 1st game, depending on the skill the player shows during the game, he is assigned to a defined ranking.<\/strong><\/p>\n Then, after each game,<\/strong> taking the example of the 6-Players Battle Mode, the player will receive Stars<\/strong>:<\/p>\n When the player reaches 5 stars, he climbs to the next ranking<\/strong> and starts with 2 stars. When he reaches 0 stars he loses a ranking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n With this system, any time players climb a level, they will get the challenge of playing against stronger players. And anytime they lose a rank, they will play against players that are easier for them. This ensures that they always get a challenge they can face<\/strong>, beginner or advanced and that the learning curve will be progressive.<\/span><\/p>\n I’ll repeat it but multiplayer games are not easy and here are the 2 main reasons:<\/p>\n Requirement #1: You need to build an audience fast<\/strong><\/p>\n Nobody likes to wait<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There’s nothing more annoying, in an ultra-connected world, than waiting for other players to start a game. You can’t just launch your game on Facebook and wait for players to come<\/strong>, because the Game Experience of first players will be bad if they’re alone, players won’t invite friends to come if they wait 10 minutes to play a game. In Tetris Battle, you never wait more than a few seconds and that’s something players appreciate.<\/p>\n So you have different solutions:<\/p>\n 1. You already have another successful game in or out of Facebook<\/strong><\/p>\n Lucky you! You are already eligible for the launch of a multi-player game on Facebook! Prepare a great promotion campaign on your other games to bring the maximum of players in the shortest amount of time. Ensure your servers are ready <\/strong>to accept thousands or players playing simultaneously, but wait, isn’t it what you’re aiming for after all?<\/p>\n 2. You don’t have another game (or one with a small audience) and you have money!<\/strong><\/p>\n If you have money, you can spend it in advertising or find partners <\/strong>to get traffic coming to your game. Be wise with the audience you target and the budgets you spend. I’m not an expert on advertising, but I would advise not to spend everything in one time<\/strong>, but to make sure you’re initially bringing enough players to guarantee a great User Experience for the 1st players.<\/p>\n 3. You’re a brand new developer and you have no game and a few dollars available for Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n Solution #1: Build an audience long before the launch<\/strong><\/p>\n During the development period, instead of watching over the developers shoulders and count days to the deadline, why not asking the Marketing Team and Community Managers to open a blog and create a community months before the launch<\/strong>. Like this, you’ll be able to give access to the beta before the launch and get great insights from it. You will also launch with an audience that is not null, a community of fans and will save thousands of dollars of advertising. Note that even if you have money, you can build an audience upfront. <\/strong><\/p>\n Solution 2: Build an AI \/ Bots<\/strong><\/p>\n The other solution I want to mention is to add bots when you can’t find a real player<\/strong>. In Tetris Battle, I suspect they have some bots, but if true, as they give them a name and a picture and that it allows to never wait too long<\/strong>, I don’t mind. And given the fact they have 6M MAU, it is possible that there are players of my level at any time. Downside is that if you have a limited budget, it will require some additional development costs to create a decent AI <\/strong>which can require a huge amount of time to parameter and balance.<\/p>\n Multiplayers games are hard for the many reasons mentioned previously but there is something else. Imagine<\/strong>: you built the game, you have spend thousands of dollars in advertising, you blogged during 3 months and the day of the launch : players are kicked off of games, the server is slow, game is not loading etc. You have 1 chance to make a 1st good impression. So be technically ready: eyes and lights are on you, you can’t do a bad launch!<\/strong> So, testing a lot and including many players in the beta<\/strong> are good ways to do it (it will also solve many other problems in terms of User Experience, so you really want to include players during your development phase!).<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n Tetris Battle<\/a> gets an AAA in terms of Game Experience thanks to its powerful multiplayer modes, and this is not completely a surprise as the game has been created by Tetris Online Inc.<\/a> which is co-founded by Alexei Pajitnov<\/a>, the creator of the first Tetris.<\/p>\n When perfectly executed, a multi-player mode can be a great way to have a successful viral, engaging and monetized game. Great example like Draw My Thing<\/a> by OMGPOP<\/a>, Belote Multijoueur<\/a> by Is Cool Entertainment<\/a> (In French Only) or the famous Texas Hold’em Poker<\/a> by Zynga<\/a> are all example of games that are fun, addictive, technically robust and integrate most of the features described in this article.<\/p>\n So, after reading this article, do you want to include a multiplayer mode in your game? Why?<\/p>\nBenefit #2: Improve Virality<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBenefit #3: Improve Monetization<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n2 Core features to include in a multi-player mode<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nFeature #2: Dynamic Ranking (ELO Style)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Requirements to have a successful Multiplayer game<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nRequirement #2: Be technically robust<\/h3>\n