From hypercasual luck to hybrid expansion: The evolution of State Attach

• Azur Video games enthusiastic about evolving current hits as a substitute of launching from scratch.
• State Attach is returning to height efficiency after its highs in 2021 to 2022.
• A couple of adjustments helped double the percentage of in-app purchases as much as 15%.

Yuriy Tsoy is product supervisor at Azur Video games.

Nowadays, particularly in cellular recreation construction, and much more so in hypercasual, it’s extremely onerous to release a recreation from scratch and damage into the highest charts. 

It’s normally smarter to increase current tasks long-term, particularly if you have already got titles that carry out smartly and feature a devoted target audience. We’ve were given hypercasual tasks that’ve been acting regularly for over 5 years and nonetheless get common updates.

When State Attach, a hypercasual technique whose reputation peaked round 2021 to 2022, first introduced, it didn’t come with any hybrid mechanics. However its forged, retention-driven core gameplay made us assured sufficient to experiment – we would have liked so as to add a 2d gameplay layer, refresh the visuals, and introduce new methods to make stronger hybrid monetisation.

Spoiler: There have been a number of failed iterations and hypotheses that didn’t pan out. Sooner or later, we even thought to be shutting the undertaking down, however we couldn’t shake the sensation that the core nonetheless had untapped doable.

So we determined to check a couple of extra hypotheses, and it paid off. The undertaking is now regularly evolving in a hybrid course, and consistent with the metrics, State Attach is step by step returning to its 2022 height. On the similar time, the percentage of in-app purchases has reached the easiest point within the recreation’s historical past.

State Attach is a peaceful, delightful road-building supervisor. You may have a map of a rustic or a state, and your process is to attach towns with roads, making a shipping community. Vehicles power alongside those routes, producing in-game foreign money. The gameplay feels comfortable, there’s no rush or sense of operating out of time.

A couple of years in the past, that completely matched the hypercasual formulation: meditative pacing blended with a gentle problem. Upload some interesting visuals, and we were given forged metrics for that point.

Our first check confirmed a CPI of $0.30 within the U.S. (and handiest $0.03 globally), a median playtime of about 18 mins (which is superb for a hypercasual), and R1 round 36–37%.

The principle factor at release used to be content material scarcity. To stay gamers engaged longer, we adjusted the stability and development. Monetisation got here via interstitials and an easy in-app machine for upgrading automobile parameters with in-game foreign money.

In that shape, the undertaking carried out smartly each in person acquisition and earnings. In January, February, and March 2022, it generated over $1 million per 30 days.

Updating the sport for 2025

Over 3 years after release, the marketplace had modified considerably, and it become transparent that State Attach now not totally matched present expectancies, although it nonetheless had a devoted target audience.

We known a number of key bottlenecks to construct a roadmap for hypotheses and updates:

• The sport lacked intensity. Lengthy-time gamers had finished all the map and didn’t know what to do subsequent.
• The visuals felt old-fashioned.
• In-app monetisation used to be underdeveloped, without a mechanics to enlarge it.

We set to work in a majority of these instructions immediately. However when it comes to visuals, we briefly realised maximum comments used to be subjective. We consulted artists who shared skilled tips about making improvements to distinction, shading, and different small main points.

We spent sources sprucing those components, however checking out confirmed little to no impact on metrics. In easy video games like this, even primitive visuals can carry out higher than one thing overpolished. We realised that operating separate visible assessments for State Attach merely wasn’t price it. 

So we revised our workflow: as a substitute of spending time on standalone visible experiments, we enthusiastic about including new gameplay options and monetisation enhancements, and up to date visuals got here packaged inside of the ones larger updates. That means, gamers were given contemporary content material and a refreshed glance , and we used our sources extra successfully.

Updates that boosted the metrics

The primary replace that really moved the metrics used to be the auto improve merge mechanic.

Firstly, the sport had 3 buttons on the backside of the display screen – improve velocity, enjoy, and benefit. We changed that with a small merge-based development machine: gamers may just purchase automobiles and mix them. 

For instance, merging 3 level-1 automobiles produced a more potent level-2 style. This created a amusing “mini-merge recreation throughout the recreation,” and gamers liked it. 

All key metrics advanced noticeably, and rewarded commercials carried out a lot better since gamers may just get lacking automobiles for merges via commercials.

The following luck got here from monetisation. As we moved towards a hybrid monetisation style, we presented a starter be offering – a one-time in-app acquire proven early within the recreation.

It’s a low-priced be offering, only one buck, however with moderately nice worth for the participant. It’s to be had for twenty-four hours and carried out extraordinarily smartly. Gamers noticed an affordable however profitable deal and concept, “Why no longer?” After that first acquire, their loyalty and conversion into 2d and later purchases greater noticeably.

We additionally added tickets, which gamers should buy and use as a substitute of looking at rewarded commercials. They didn’t carry out as smartly on Android, however iOS purchases grew by means of about 5%. Now not large, however nonetheless a excellent signal.

Some other essential addition used to be stock – passive pieces that supply stat bonuses. Necessarily, it’s a mini-gacha: gamers open chests, get pieces of various rarities, and improve them. Chests may also be purchased with onerous foreign money or earned via commercials.

We additionally presented a number of excellent tweaks to decelerate development, since content material intake is at all times too rapid. Prior to now, when a brand new area used to be unlocked, gamers may just instantly get started constructing roads there. 

Now, an excavator icon seems with a countdown timer, which may also be skipped by means of looking at an advert. This easy mechanic successfully slowed development, lowered content material burnout, or even boosted monetisation.

Simply those few adjustments helped double the percentage of in-app purchases in comparison to 2022, as much as 15%. 

Rewarded advert perspectives additionally greater: from a median of 1 in keeping with person on day one to 3 or 4. It will no longer sound like a lot, however that distinction allowed us to kick off person acquisition and scale site visitors.

Some other sturdy replace that impacted each retention and monetisation used to be a large gold praise advert. Gamers steadily ran out of cash for constructing roads or upgrading homes, in order that they eagerly watched those commercials to immediately get a number of thousand cash.

In abstract, the most efficient strategic choice used to be to concentrate on strengthening the prevailing core as a substitute of drifting too a ways with further gameplay layers.

At one level, we attempted to construct “a recreation throughout the recreation,” although our core mechanic wasn’t all that advanced but. We added a city-building function, the place gamers may just transfer to a separate isometric view and assemble homes for bonuses. It gave the impression attention-grabbing on paper, however in observe, it didn’t ship a lot worth.

Listening – and in reality listening to – the gamers

Later, we determined to increase new options across the core mechanics, identical to with the auto merge machine. We additionally expanded the choice of metropolis improve ranges, from 3 to 6, and every building up confirmed a favorable impact on metrics.

By means of finding out our target audience, we realised that the most efficient course ahead is to fortify the principle gameplay loop with out overcomplicating it with further methods.

There used to be even a humorous case: gamers stored requesting an choice to take away already constructed roads. We added it, and instantly noticed a 5% to ten% drop throughout nearly all key metrics. Seems, regardless of the comments, maximum gamers in reality experience connecting towns in each conceivable means and growing intricate avenue networks.

So now, once we tweak the sport’s common sense, we do it step by step. For instance, we may introduce colour-coded roads, the place pink automobiles handiest commute to pink homes, inexperienced automobiles to inexperienced ones, and so forth.

Step-by-step, by means of making improvements to the core with out straying from the unique thought, and with out scattering sources, we controlled to reignite participant hobby and secured the room so as to add a number of a success monetisation updates.