Rune is a platform to get your games played by 1000s of players a day. When you’re rolling out games for this large of a player base, rather than a small focused target group, it’s really important to understand who you’re writing games for.
The community of developers around Rune are already getting a handle on what works for the players. Going with your gut is always a good start but more data is better, right? Let’s look at some of the statistics from the player base who are actively playing multiplayer games.
We should remember the data below is specific to the Rune platform but is also representative of a large number of players (millions in fact) in the real world.
Age Group
Player’s age affects many aspects of targeting games from attention span to what’s appropriate to show. While games used to be the domain of teens there are now gamers from all age groups, which means you either need to satisfy both ends of the spectrum or accept that you’re targeting your game at a specific group without knowing if you’re reaching them.
More specifically to the Rune platform however we know that players are largely in the 13-21 age bracket. They’re young adults who have played lots of online games but appreciate the chill atmosphere of Rune - hanging out with their friends on voice chat and playing a variety of session based mini-games.
This means that games need to be fast to get into, fast to understand, fast to win and play again. The enjoyment and reward is in sharing the experience with their friends so any feature targeted at bringing more friends in is a bonus!
Top Languages (other than English)
A really interesting factor in the Rune player landscape is the primary language players speak. As you can see the top 3 primary languages (other than English) are Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. Now of course many of these players also speak English because they’ve played so many games before, but appealing to these groups can be key to game success.
But that means internationalization, and that’s a lot of work! Well yes and no. Players on the Rune platform generally don’t want to read so avoiding text all together is a better design than translating it all. If you absolutely must have text, keep it short and simple so that either the players know enough English to understand or it can be translated very simply.
Interests
As mentioned above, the average player on Rune is a teenager and you can see that in their interests. No surprise gaming is #1 in the activities chart but I found it particularly interesting to see the mix after that, Drawing - Football - Math. How about a game where you draw footballs and calculate their volumes?! Ok, maybe not, but it does show quite how wide ranging the games can be.
Looking at the types of games they like we’re seeming pretty mainstream releases, so again helpful while you’re thinking about ideas.
In terms of theming you can see a heavy cartoon/illustrated style to the TV shows and movies that they like. Visually it doesn’t have to be something AAA game style, it can be that more abstract interesting style that indie game devs do so well!
Time Spent Gaming and Peak Times
On the Rune platform games are played within a room. The average room length is about 25 minutes and players have 2 or more of these a day. So another part of the picture becomes clear. These players are playing for about an hour a day - probably just enough time to catch up with their friends and have a few games.
We also see peak loads of players around the end of day, when players have come back from school or work, and they’re catching up with their friends. In fact that’s one of the reasons for the name Rune, that's when our players are playing!
Types of Game That Work
Finally lets talk about what games we’ve already seen working. It’s early days so there’s plenty of room for game developers to push out brand new ideas and have overnight hits. Games that have done well so far:
- Strategy games like Cathead Defense where players build towers and defend the world from invaders together.
- Turn based games like Dungeons of Glee where players go on adventure together in a paced chill environment.
- Physics Games like Melancia where players have a shared experience dropping, bouncing and matching fruit.
- Arcade Games like Please Hold where.. well, I think you'd have to play this one, it defies describing!
- Traditional Games like Connect Four where friends play a familiar game in the context of their voice chat.
- Idle Games like Tap the Button where players get bonuses for being together with friends.
There a few things to remember that might not be obvious when you’re designing a game to be successful on the platform:
- Players will be hanging out and chatting with each other while they’re playing, games need to give space for them to chat.
- Sessions with outcomes should be short, let players play a full game in the short amount of time they have (or are willing to commit to it)
- Fun comes in lots of sizes, don’t assume that what isn’t fun elsewhere isn’t fantastic when you’re playing together with voice chat.
- Assume players will play regularly, so progression and save points are recommended.
- Super casual games work. The top games on Rune at the moment are super casual chill experiences.
- A good place to start is a novel twist on something existing. Adding multiplayer is often a catalyst to new game mechanics.
- Many players will try the game solo before recommending it to play with friends, try to make the solo experience as endearing as the real thing.
- Don't forget to check out our Best Practices
Getting Your Game Seen
We're working hard to make visibility of games better on the Rune platform right now. As always though theres a lot of value in getting your game seen externally. Twitch and YouTube are your friends either by making your only videos or finding areas of your game that appeal to streamers.
Things that streamers/social-media likes:
- Parts of games that cause players to scream/laugh/emote with each other.
- Funny side effects of game logic - crazy physics is always a win!
- Big effects for actions in games
Top 10 Games on Rune Right Now
At the time of writing the top 10 games on Rune are:
1. Melancia (jallen)
2. Scorched Turf (cokeandcode)
3. Tap the Button (jallen)
4. Tic Tac Toe (Helios1138, oblador, Shane Helm)
5. Quizcraft (cokeandcode)
6. Cathead Defense (propcat)
7. Dungeon of Glee (cokeandcode)
8. Pinpoint (Helio1138, Lynda)
9. Flick Footie (cokeandcode)
10. Jumper Race (Tonai)You can see a wide variety of games work but they all have space for players to chat while playing.
Summary
Players of games generally range across many different demographics but with luck using the information in this article, our developers stand a better chance of writing the next great game on Rune!
If you’d like more information or just to comment on the article just drop into our Discord.
