Game development process: From idea to effective performance

Why do we play games in the first place? It’s all about getting that small yet satisfying dose of dopamine. As Satoru Iwata said, “Games are meant to be just one thing: Fun! Fun for everyone.” The same goes for games in email newsletters. In this guide, we’ll explore the key steps to creating game content that can make your email campaigns more engaging, thereby ensuring they will be remembered by your subscribers.

Step 1. Choose the goal

1. The first thing in developing any game is to define its purpose. Ask yourself:
   • what message or information do you want to convey to the audience through the game?
   • what does the game seek to achieve? Is it to educate, entertain, increase brand awareness, or promote a product?
   • what action do you want to provoke from the recipient (e.g., going to a website, subscribing, buying)?
2. Then analyze your target audience: Understand who the game is for — age group, preferences, whether the players should be familiar with your product or not, etc. This helps in designing a game that resonates and engages effectively.
3. Think about how you will measure the results. Clearly outline what success looks like for the game. Is it defined by the number of plays, the level of user engagement, direct revenue, or other metrics?
4. What will players gain? Define what motivates them to play. It may be a discount, a free ebook, learning something new, testing themselves, or just having fun. There’s a high chance that if the reward is only a 2% discount and the product costs less than $10, few people will play.

Example 1

Game theme: Discover our latest product by playing this game and unlock exclusive discounts!

Email purpose: Increase ROI.

Target audience: Current leads.

Measure: ROI of this campaign compared to regular promo emails.

Player rewards: Discount and fun.

(Source: email from MacPaw)

Example 2

Game theme: Play our eco-friendly game and learn how you can contribute to our sustainability efforts!

Email purpose: Brand awareness (raise awareness about a social cause or company initiative).

Target audience: All subscribers.

Measure: It is hard to measure awareness efficiently.

Player rewards: Learning new things, having fun, sharing with friends.

(Source: Puzzle quiz by Stripo)

Example 3

Game theme: Celebrate the holiday season with our festive game and win holiday-themed prizes!

Email purpose: Promotion of the company during the holidays.

Target audience: All subscribers.

Measure: OR, CTR and social media mentions compared to regular holiday promotions.

Player rewards: Discount and fun.

(Source: Email from Stripo)

Step 2. Work on game mechanics

Creating engaging game mechanics is essential for designing a compelling game for an email campaign. The process involves several key decisions and developments to ensure the game is enjoyable, aligns with campaign goals, and resonates with the target audience.

1. Choose the type of game

Deciding on the type of game is the foundational step. This choice should be guided by the campaign’s goals and the preferences of the audience. Popular game types for email campaigns include:

• luck and chance games: These games rely on randomness, like spinning a Wheel of Fortune or opening a gift box, where players can win prizes based on chance;
• educational games: Games that provide knowledge or skills, making the interaction both fun and informative;
• puzzle games: Games that challenge players with problems to solve and stimulate their thinking and problem-solving abilities;
• creative games: These games encourage players to create something, like drawing or coloring a card;
• challenge and competition games: Games that involve competing against others or overcoming obstacles, thereby fostering a sense of achievement;
• discovery games: Games that involve exploration and uncovering hidden elements to keep players intrigued.

2. Develop the core mechanics

After selecting the game type, the next step is to flesh out how players will engage with the game. This involves determining the core mechanics — the fundamental rules and procedures that dictate gameplay. For instance, in a luck and chance game, players might win a discount with a single click. In contrast, a puzzle game might require solving riddles to earn rewards.

Developing these core mechanics includes:

• establishing rules: Clearly define how players interact with the game and what actions they can take;
• creating challenges: Design challenges that are engaging but achievable to ensure that players remain motivated and interested;
• ensuring fun: The game should be enjoyable and offer a balance of difficulty and reward that keeps players coming back.

3. Plan a feedback system

An effective feedback system is crucial for keeping players informed and engaged. This system should provide immediate responses to player actions to enhance the gaming experience. Feedback can be given through various means, such as:

• points: Awarding points for successful actions;
• visual rewards: Using graphics or animations to celebrate achievements;
• progress indicators: Showing players how far they have advanced;
• test results: Providing immediate feedback on quiz or puzzle outcomes.

Step 3. From concept to live game

1. Rule development

Imagine a board game with no clear rules. It is unlikely to be fun for you to play it with your friends. Rules help players know what to do to win and keep things fair. By following the rules, you get to try different ways to win, thus making the game more fun and exciting for everyone. This way, everyone plays fairly and keeps having fun. So you have to create detailed rules that are easy to understand but allow for complex strategies and outcomes.

2. Explain the goal of the game

Ensure that the participants’ goal is clear, engaging, challenging, achievable, and resonant.

• clear: Explicitly inform participants of the game’s end goal, such as collecting a specific number of items to earn a reward;
• engaging: The game must captivate participants’ interest and compel them to participate actively;
• challenging yet achievable: Design the game to be moderately challenging without requiring profound scientific knowledge or advanced technical skills;
• resonant: The game’s core concept should align with participants’ interests or values to encourage involvement and engagement.

3. Character and story creation

Develop characters and a story that players can connect with. This makes the game more engaging and exciting as players follow along with the characters’ adventures. (This is optional and not needed for luck and chance games.)

4. Voluntary participation

We hope subscribers enjoy the game, but some may feel too busy or tired and prefer to bypass the game and directly proceed to the site or start shopping immediately. Make sure that participation in the game is a choice, so that the recipient can get to the site without any obstacles.

5. Security measures (anti-hack)

Implement security features to prevent cheating and hacking, thereby ensuring fair play and trustworthiness. This only applies to games where players receive bonuses. For example, when creating a luck and chance game, you can specify how many times people can play.

6. Ethical norms for email gamification

• no manipulation: Ensure that games don’t influence recipients’ buying decisions or other choices;
• informed consent: Clearly explain how recipients’ data will be used and offer them the option to opt out;
• accessibility and inclusion: Strive for inclusivity by enhancing color contrast, designing with clear contrast between elements, limiting rapid flashes, and using legible fonts;
• keeping promises: Fulfill commitments without making games a prerequisite. If you’ve promised content or discounts, provide them as promised;
• copyright compliance: Design unique email games without infringing on others’ ideas. Use tools like our "Interactive Content Generator" to create games without coding expertise and avoid copyright concerns.

Step 4. Emotional tone of the game

How can you impress your subscribers and entice them to play the game? Here are some essential tips.

Types of game boosters

• leaderboards: Encourage competition and social recognition with global and personal leaderboards or thematic and time-limited leaderboards. Applicable to: Puzzles, educational, discovery, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Update regularly, showcase top performers, and provide clear criteria;
• badges and awards: Recognition and tangible rewards with virtual and physical rewards, achievement badges, and prizes for completing games. Applicable to: Puzzles, educational, discovery, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Create visually appealing badges, celebrate milestones, and offer valuable rewards;
• personalization: Appeals to individuality and control with custom game scenarios and customizable avatars. Applicable to: Discovery and creative games. Tips: Collect data on preferences, offer choices, and adapt in real-time;
• growth and development: Sense of accomplishment and continuous engagement through skill trees and level systems. Applicable to: Educational, puzzle, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Clearly display progress, offer rewards, and align skill paths with interests;
• countdown timers: Creates urgency and excitement with timed challenges. Applicable to: Puzzles, educational, discovery, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Communicate time limits clearly, ensure achievability, and provide rewards;
• storytelling/heroes: Creates an emotional connection through narrative progression and character development. Applicable to: Discovery, educational, puzzle, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Develop relatable characters, align tasks with the story, and end levels with cliffhangers;
• cause-driven engagement: Aligns with personal values and causes through environmental impact games and charity games. Applicable to: Puzzles, educational, discovery, and challenge and competition games. Tips: Choose relevant causes, highlight the impact, and encourage social sharing.

Step 5. Launch and iteration

Successfully launching and iterating a game within your email campaign involves meticulous planning and continual refinement. Here’s a step-by-step guide to ensure your game is not only well-received but also evolves based on user feedback and performance metrics.

1. Design development

• ensuring everyone can play the game: Each email client has its own rendering rules, making it crucial that all recipients can engage with the content. This maximizes reach and fosters inclusivity;
• mobile-friendly: Make sure your game is optimized for mobile devices. With the majority of players accessing emails on smartphones, it’s crucial that the game performs flawlessly across all screen sizes and devices.

You can manually code all those elements, which might take a few days and require a seasoned email coder or programmer. Alternatively, you can use the Stripo interactive module generator. It addresses all the points mentioned in this section, and you get:

• AMP version of the email: AMP for email allows the creation of interactive and dynamic emails that include features such as carousels, accordions, and live content updates directly within the email;
• interactive fallback: Not all email clients support AMP. Stripo provides fallback options, which are simpler versions of the email that ensure all recipients can still view and interact with the content, regardless of their email client’s capabilities;
• web version as another fallback: For recipients whose email clients support neither AMP HTML nor HTML5 & CSS3 — such as some Outlook apps — or if your ESP does not support these coding formats, there is a fallback web version. When these recipients interact with interactive elements, such as forms or ratings in the email, they are seamlessly redirected to an automatically generated web version, also known as a landing page. Thanks to personalization tags that you can easily add while designing the game, this preserves their pre-selected choices for easy submission and identification, thereby maintaining engagement.

You do not have to be a Stripo user to use the generator.

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Ensuring engagement for all: The essential norms of fallback in gamified email marketing

2. Testing and feedback

Before the full launch, conduct thorough testing with real players within your team to gather valuable feedback and identify any areas needing improvement. The entire team should test the game in real email clients to prevent technical issues and ensure a smooth user experience.

3. Launch strategy

• comprehensive plan: Develop a detailed launch plan that covers timing, platforms, and initial customer acquisition strategies;
• platforms: Assess whether your email service provider (ESP) is sufficient for tracking the game’s performance. Ensure it can handle the required data analytics and reporting. For those who design games with the Stripo generator, we have this covered. Our system tracks all user interactions, from email clicks to web version activities, by using personalization tags that you add when designing the game to monitor engagement and collect detailed data.

4. Post-launch support

Plan for ongoing maintenance, customer support, and regular updates based on player feedback and performance metrics.

• integration: Ensure your site can handle the use of promo codes obtained from the game during the payment process;
• customer support: Your support team should be well informed and ready to assist players with any issues.

5. Iterative improvement

Use data from game analytics to continuously refine and enhance the game. Make adjustments to mechanics, add new content, and tweak marketing strategies based on customer engagement and trends.

• data-driven refinement: Use game analytics to continually refine and enhance the game. This includes adjusting mechanics, adding new content, and tweaking marketing approaches based on customer engagement and trends;
• player feedback: Collect and analyze player feedback to make informed improvements to the current game and plan enhancements for future games;
• A/B testing: Conduct experiments with different game mechanics and rewards to identify what resonates best with your audience. This approach helps optimize engagement and satisfaction.

Wrapping up

In this article, we discussed the entire process of game development — from defining clear goals and understanding your audience to designing engaging game mechanics and ensuring fair play and ethical standards. By implementing thoughtful feedback systems, emotional boosters, and continual iteration based on user feedback, you can enhance the engagement and effectiveness of your email campaigns. With Stripo’s editor, you can build interactive emails quickly and easily. Start bringing your game ideas to life.