With many similar products on the market, how do we innovate to increase retention against market leaders?
Our answer, was to add social "clans" + fast, fun social features.
We fully built all UI, from concept to completion.
We wanted to make all actions quick and fast to do, especially while waiting for your turn. We included tabs that could be pulled onto screen, while still watching play, to check stats / throw in an emoji to taunt.
By adding a clans element we centralised a social experience in game for a sticky audience. If the company had secured further funding, this clans element could have quickly helped them compete against the market leader.
The entire User Journey was kept tight.
We used tabs and notifications to make the social experience the best part of the app, as this would increase the retention in ways the competitors were not currently exploring (but where market leaders in gaming like clash of clans were winning)
Our clans elements took reference heavily from clash. You could send friend requests, chat in lobby's, invite friends to watch you live, and compete amongst each other. While also using gems to provide gifts / cooldown boosts.
The poker game itself was fast, tight animation action.
It used simple gameplay with familiar positioning players were used to in competitors games.
The emoji chat, which at first concerned our client, went onto become a key feature that all testers loved and interacted with.
Simple and quick social reactions increased the emotions felt from playing our game. Supercell's Clash Royale discovered this around the same time we did.