Table of Contents
If you're an avid gamer, one of the games you may be enjoying a lot these days is hyper-casual games. To know more about the different hyper-casual game mechanics, read on.
Gamers today are constantly finding new game ideas that would create new and different game mechanics for a more fun gaming experience. Hyper casual games are simple mobile video games, which are usually free for everybody to play. These games also showcase a minimalistic human-computer interaction and it is easy to download. People can use it immediately after downloading, and you won’t need any instructions or tutorials to understand the game. Hyper casual games commonly use 2D design and simple color schemes.
If you get the idea and want to try some of the game mechanics for hyper-casual gaming, here is a breakdown of the top ten available for downloading.
Best Hyper-Casual Game Mechanics
1. Timing / Tap Mechanics
Timing and tap games are probably the most well-known hyper-casual game mechanics. Some mechanics use this as a method of getting data for their gameplay and it relies purely on the exact timing of a player’s tap. This form of game mechanics gives importance to the precision of the action, which gives a maximum score. A player’s high score will determine the winner.
If you want to try the tap and timing mechanics, you need to focus on having a clear visual objective. It is important to aim for a perfect shot to achieve a clearer goal.
2. Stacking Mechanics
Stacking mechanics is a progression of the timing/tap mechanics through adding your preliminary taps results to the succeeding round. Your level will go down every time you fail to perfectly stack an item, and it gets harder for every increase in level.
This form of hyper-casual game mechanics gives more difficulty for every failure, then they soften the failure through the continuation of the game. The lesser failure will keep the rounds of the game longer.
If you want to design a stacking game, it is imperative that players must have sufficient points of failure at the end of the stage or round. It is also ideal to set the difficulty into hard to keep the players in the game.
3. Turning Mechanics
The last of the timing and tap schemed mechanics, turning adds more complicated tasks for the player by introducing a visual perception. People rely on a visual cortex and judge distances between vertical and horizontal shapes situated in a 3D space. You need to integrate a confusion of 3D space to provide confusion to players and let them fail.
A good turning mechanics gameplay is much lighter than stack-based gameplay, which allows players to play more and achieve a perfect streak even after failures. This means a player will get less frustrated by giving them another shot at the level. This form of mechanics is also best with 90-degree angles through trial and error. As a player, you need to be more patient and lenient with details because of their illusions.
4. Dexterity Mechanics
The dexterity mechanics aim at players that have simple and repeating action skills that they will use many hundreds of times. Dextrous people can prevail with these games by having enough practice and patience. These games usually speed up, which will need a player’s dexterity and skill under time pressure.
A player must clear a level to advance, but a single mistake or a single life ends the stage and it will take the player back to the start of the level. The concept of these games prioritizes the input and controls sensitivity, where it avoids lag and grey areas.
5. Rising and Falling Mechanics
Rising and falling mechanics showcase great adventures for all their players. The game continues to progress with every stage that a player beats, giving them the confidence to play more without any adjustments in the goal or mechanics.
Every player aims to beat each stage of the game and increase their level using their timing, skills, and also luck. Players would usually create their own problems in the game and make the game much harder. The game makes a player focus on each stage and have fun at the same time.
6. Swerve Mechanics
The swerve mechanic is another arcade-based hyper-casual game mechanic that focuses on making the players drag their fingers to avoid obstacles. This mechanic is similar to rising and falling, however, its aim is for a player’s dexterity rather than their timing.
This mechanic focuses on the player’s concentration and the accuracy of input from sweeping and dragging a finger. Some objects in the game would change in size and as the game progressed, the speed of the frame would also increase. Swerve games rely on the input sensitivity of a player’s finger and it would reward them for near misses with replays to show their errors.
7. Merging Mechanics
Merging mechanics is one of the easiest hyper-casual games in the market. You need to combine similar things and separate the others. As the player progresses with every stage and gets familiar with each subsequent merge, the game then becomes easy. The metagame provides complexity and challenges which can also be divisive that lead to casual players’ disappointment.
The incorporation of metagames into the main game makes the merge mechanics do well. Merge relies purely on visuals that use your action to make it different from the others. This type of hyper-casual game mechanics taps on a player’s sense of progression and urge to defeat the game due to exponential growth.
8. Idle Mechanics
Hyper casual to mid-core games has been using idle mechanics for several years now, with the game designer’s choice as complex and reliance on the mechanics. This type of mechanics does not require a player’s input for progression, and there are no objectives in this game which makes it really boring. Idle mechanics are usually secondary mechanics incorporated into a soft currency. Players can earn that they can use for their core game adventures.
Idle mechanics need balance and avoid bad maths. Players can reach higher levels with too much difficulty or have boring segments where the numbers progress for no reason.
9. Growing Mechanics
Growing mechanics are almost the same as idle mechanics, which also rely on the core control input that forms the objective of the game. The largest are the winners of this hyper-casual game and sometimes they can devour other players which end the stage. The growing mechanics have clear gameplay, and it also provides a unique experience.
Player density is important with growing mechanics. It shows that all players want to grow but not all can achieve it immediately. The game aims at starting with the correct number of players that work with the right space and with the appropriate amount of food to make everything enjoyable. There is also a limit with the amount of fitting gameplay mechanics, but the games have a longer lifespan through the players’ interactions.
10. Puzzle Mechanics
Hyper casual puzzle games feature simplicity and do not complicate the game itself. It also has no end, where players must continue to play the puzzle. In return, the game’s difficulty will not increase. Hyper casual puzzle games do not have a clear end and it is a game of perseverance in playing as long as you want.
Puzzle mechanics are the hardest genre of hyper-casual games due to their defined mechanics. Over time, the genre of this mechanic doesn’t switch into something more simple or too hard.
11. Tidying Mechanics
Tidying mechanics are games that are not usual for all players. Sometimes it could be painting the wall, peeling a fruit, or cleaning a window, in which the concept is to fill in the selected area or to take away its contents.
Request to the Developer
All these hyper-casual games and the mechanics give great entertainment for people. These games give us the simplest challenge up to the hard ones, which makes us become more competitive and finish the game that we started. People find a satisfying and therapeutic way of spending their free time, especially if they get a high score or finish the game. It would be best if developers give their players leeway and make their game a little easier. People will appreciate it if the games are tidy, which means it won’t stress out their players. This will also benefit the developers to gain more players.
Play with Simple Mechanics
Hyper casual games typically have one or two mechanics. If you are designing your own game, you concentrate on working with those mechanics for several gameplay experiences rather than developing your own from scratch.
It would be nice that you make your game in a short, satisfying, and simple format. You may also experiment with the mechanics that have themes and are available in the market already.
Successful Hyper-Casual Games
The way for a developer to have a successful hyper-casual game is to make sure players would understand the game on the spot. Using these mechanics will be the foundation of a great game design. With the correct information and knowledge, the more you experiment with them, the more appealing your games will become.
