Merge Dragons and Why player's love the game?

Why Do Player’s Love Merge Dragons?

There are many reasons why people get hooked on Merge Dragons. I will start with the Core Action.

Merge Dragon’s Core Loop ACTION?

Merge Mechanic

Before I jump into the core loop, I always prefer to first focus on the Core ACTION. This is the basic action a player engages in, several times each session, hundreds of times a week, and thousands of times across the lifespan of the game. The Core action in this game is Casual merge mechanics. Merge Dragons requires the player to create merge chains i.e merge three/five of an item to create an item one step higher on the chain.

Merge Dragon's core action is (i) comfortable (ii)simple (iii) predictable, yet (iv) dynamic.

The Core action has (v)instant feedback and (vi)an immediate rewarding feeling.

For example, when you merge 3 leaves, they become a plant.

Next, a core action must have a (vii)base FIXED outcome but can have (viii)occasional BONUS outcomes. E.g. Merging 3 items will always lead to a fixed item, but if you plan correctly merging 5 of the same item will lead to two better items of the chain i.e 20% quicker gameplay and Bonus.

A great way to keep your core action fresh is to give players the chance at a reward, at the risk of a loss which is obvious in Merge Dragons' core action.

What’s New and Delight for the Players?

Merge Dragons is packaged with the proven casual merge mechanic, dragons, and fantasy elements, mixed with a level campaign mode, better progression systems, and newer elements to this subgenre of unlocking New Areas with a light storyline, etc and is a successful example of how to create a lovable game among players with a market-proven mechanic and creating layers around it.

Proven>Better>New

Triple Town and 2048 started casual merge 3 mechanics in the market and were immensely popular and had high download numbers but lacked deep game systems to yield revenue, retention, or long term progression letting people go out of the game quickly but Merge Dragons as the game delivers a strong progression system consisting of a campaign unlocking new areas and discovering new items during the gameplay for the merge subgenre.

Merge Dragons implemented different layers of energy systems in the game which is driving the game progression. i.e. Dragons sleep after a while of work in the Camp. In a Campaign, there is a limited number of chalices that get used up to play levels. Players can plan their strategy for normal sessions or longer sessions via rewarded ads. Moreover, Ingame events keep the game relevant for the players as it creates new goals for the players and also creates a revenue source for the game. Discovering new items, secrets always keeps a person intrigued and this detail in the game in the form of a book creates a formidable curiosity.

The Merge mechanics is formidable and upon perfect implementation like merge dragons can create longer sessions of gameplay:

1. In Merge Dragons, As a Player, you need to merge 3 Gaies(Statues) to lift all curses from the board to complete the game but instead of quick completion by merging them, you will find yourself merging other items and creating longer game sessions.

1. Once all 3 Gaies are merged, the Curse is lifted from the land and new items appear on the board and the level completes, but the design allows the player to merge the newer items as well for a second or two. A section of players will surely try to merge newer items to unlock new items creating more stickiness.

Moreover, In the Merging mechanic, the thing that separates merge dragons from the other competitors is the skill and mastering the merge element. Merging 3 items is a no-brainer but to get bonuses, the player has to strategically place the items on the grid before merging as the game auto merges items if taken close to each other. The gifs below indicate the process the player has to strategize their moves to get bonus items.

There are additional strategies to earn even better bonuses that are completely skill-based such as Chain merge i.e 3 items get merged and after the merge, if the new higher item spawns adjacent to two already placed a higher item of the same chain, the player gets additional bonuses. This allows the player to master the mechanic naturally and with proper pacing.

The Game also allows you to unlock new areas after collecting more dragons. These new areas come with newer objects and thus motivating the player to stay in the game for a longer period which was completely a new thing in the merge sub-genre. The Game helps the player in-game progression via different sources

1. The game provides players with different reward chests.

2. The game also spawns basic items if there are no more merges left to do.

3. The game also contains a trading system where players can earn dragon eggs to make the progression faster by completing the trade goals.

Delight

Merge Dragons gameplay has mastered the surprise and delight approach as the game progresses. The Game starts with just merging and then Dragons appear in the picture. Dragons started flying and then harvesting in dragon land i.e dragons started getting new things for me thus motivating me to get more dragons. There is always a sense of discovery and surprise during the gameplay as the game allows the discovery to be player-driven. During the gameplay, I had 4 similar chests and I tapped on 1 chest to earn rewards but the next moment I tried merging the remaining 3 similar chests for a surprise and I was surprised again with a new chest with better rewards. The Game has succeeded in keeping the player always wanting more from the gameplay.

The goal of Merge Dragons is to combine specific objects on the board to complete the level and proceed to the next level. You will require three or more identical objects and simply dragging them next to each other will merge into an object with stronger properties.

You will be rewarded upon completion of a level which will be presented in the Dragon Camp. You can use the rewards to expand your territory and to level up. The Game provides levels and challenges but the biggest aspect is the Dragon Camp as shown below where you’ll produce all sorts of resources and expand your territory.

The Camp is similar to the levels but without any solid fixed goal. The Objective of the camp is to build different objects, hatch new dragons and collect resources. The only goal is to expand your camp by removing the curse.

The additional meta in the Dragon Camp is the strategic use of the Dragons as your gameplay progression depends on your solid use of Dragons. Dragons have limited stamina to harvest in the Camp unlike regular levels and once it runs out, they need sleep to recover and harvest again.

In Camp, you need dragon power to reveal new areas.

You need to collect more dragons to increase your Dragon Power.

Players need to collect dragon eggs to form dragons and increase dragon power.

Once, You have accumulated enough dragon power, You can tap to reveal the area as shown below.

Core Reason for People’s Love for Merge Dragon:

#1: Perfect Core Action

As already explained, the Core action of the game is perfectly implemented in the game. This creates a fresh experience every time a game session starts.

#2: Game Balance and Fresh Gameplay in every session

Merge Dragons provide gameplay systems that keep the game fresh every time the game is played. The Player can decide their own goals during the gameplay i.e either to build up more objects for a perfect 5 merge or quickly merge 3 objects. Moreover, the game provides unique items which then adds critical decision making whether to use it quickly or to build similar objects to merge later.

#3: Player Controlled Progression

In mobile free-to-play games, it is very important to only let the player engage with the game in short bursts. But unlike other F2P games, Merge Dragon Camp building allows endless gameplay which leads to the progression completely driven by the player. The Discovery element of the game keeps fresh and always leaves the player wanting more and allows the player to play long sessions. The Game follows the old energy system in levels in form of chalices though players can consume rewarded ads to continue playing. The game also provides help in the form of resource spawns or drops helping the player to play a bit more. In Levels, Player can choose to end the level on their terms even if they have the opportunity to complete the level by merging 3 gaies but the player can choose to merge other items and decide when to merge the 3 gaies thus player get a sense of full authority and thus stays in the game.

#4: Player Agency

In Merge Dragons, Merging identical resources provides unique resources with different behavior upon harvesting. Some Resources can be consumed to remove the curse from the land or currencies. The player has control over their decisions i.e They can choose when to consume resources or to wake up the dragons for more harvesting. Moreover, Those decisions have consequences within the game and The player has enough information to anticipate what those consequences might be before making them.

#5: Compelling Weekly Events

Merge Dragons provide irresistible events that provide plentiful rewards that can contribute to ramp up an advance in the normal game.

#6: Strategy and Merge Expertise

The player is required to make strategic decisions about what has to be done with a resource at any particular time. i.e to hold it off to merge 5 for a bonus or to consume it quickly. This allows the player to master the game mechanic as it decides the gameplay progression pace. The Game contains a trader that also has certain requirements. The Player has to make decisions whether to complete the trader’s requirements for trade.

#7.A game designed for Different Player Models

The Game is perfectly designed to keep different sets of players engaged as possible. The Quantic Foundry Model is suitable to explain the different motivation aspects that are available in the game.

The game caters to some of the categories present in the Quantic Model of Motivations. Let’s start with the motivation category type “Mastery”.

Mastery - Strategy

The strategy revolves around long-term oriented motivations. Merge Dragons provides a balanced strategy model catering to both highly strategic and low strategic players.

Highly strategic players can plan long-term strategies considering consequences to merge unique items and make complex decisions in the game. Example: Merging 3 dragons or waiting for a longer time to merge 5 dragons for a bonus dragon. In terms of low strategic players, the game provides quick reactive gameplay of merging 3 items at a time with short time horizons and thus allowing the game to be accessible for both the player types for a long time.

Merge Dragon Camp

The Camp consists of systems that require decision making e.g. The Players have to strategize how they are going to use the dragons in the camp as they have limited stamina and tend to harvest on their own. Highly strategic players can use the dragons most efficiently by making them harvest the required resources. On the other hand, since the dragons can harvest on their own, Low Strategic players can ignore them and can use the harvesting resources without thinking ahead.

The Camp can be revealed only via Dragon Power which can be increased by having more dragons or stronger dragons. The Player can decide upon merging 3 identical dragons or wait for longer and merge 5 dragons to get an additional bonus which can impact the dragon power in the long run as it can take a long time to reveal the full camp.

Moreover, The game also focuses on making the player decide on reviving the land or use the available space to construct resources that yield gems and currencies. The Player has to strategize efficiently to have a faster gameplay rate in comparison to casual thinkers who will just play the game for fun.

The game gives the player enough feeling of agency over the resources as the player can choose the progression pace by their decision making. Moreover, Merge Dragons also provide a steady and consistent flow of resources to keep the casual players engaged for a long time.

Dragon Collection

The Dragons have two attributes - Dragon Power and Stamina. The Player has to strive to get Rare Dragons with higher Stamina and Dragon power as it is one of the most influential parts of the game to differentiate between a High Strategic Player and a Low Strategic Player.

Mastery - Challenge

The game does a great job in targeting both hardcore challenge lovers as well as casual players. There are Challenge levels that are time-based and normal as shown below.

Getting a 3 star in a challenge level is extremely difficult and highly challenging and for the players of the higher end of the challenge, motivation can be a strong aspect to retain them in the game. On the other end, players with lower challenge motivation can casually merge anything and complete the level and stay in the game for a long time doing easy tasks.

Achievement - Completion

The Motivation category of players that will surely be motivated to stay in the game for a long time is “Achievement”. These are the player’s that always want more from the game.

Starting with Completion player types, there are many features in the game that are well crafted for them. There is a saga map with simple levels or challenge levels from players that can earn stars that provides long-term progression to the players. Completing levels gives a clear identification to the player the rate and the distance of progression in the map.

The game has a camp that shows progression in form of space and more area unlocks. It takes a long time to uncover all the land area and is a good motivation technique to retain completionists in the game for a long time.

There are diverse items that need to be discovered in the game and the player can always try to get them all and this acts as a motivator to play the game for a long time. The Game provides this as a goal to the player who likes to collect rare items in the game.

Achievement - Power

Power-hungry players always get motivated to play the game if they can get something powerful. The game provides Wonders which are the highest item of few merge chains and offers powerful rewards. These can be yielded in the game by merging objects to the highest form which takes a long time thus making power-hungry players stay in the game for a long time.

Moreover, having mythical dragons in the inventory always helps to increase the pace of the gameplay progression. These kinds of motivators are always helpful for retaining players who are always looking for powerful characters or powerful equipment in the game.

The game also touch a few more motivation category types i.e

Immersion - Story, Immersion-Fantasy, Social - Community, & Creativity - Discovery.

Immersion - Story/Fantasy

The Game offers light story elements in the game which targets the lower end of the Story spectrum. The game allows players to play as a god where they have to remove the curse from the Dragon lands and they have to bring life to them. This acts as a purpose to play the game for a long time as the player connects emotionally and allows the player to play the game more.

Social - Community

The Socializers in the game can create a den or join them to work together to progress in the game by collaborating in Den events to get prized rewards or to share a common goal of increasing Den’s Dragon power and Stars. Moreover, Players can chat, share strategies, or progress in the game.

This allows the socializers who like to connect with other players to create a sense of togetherness and allow them to stay in the game for quite a long time.

Creativity - Discovery.

Merge Dragons throws several unknowns in the game to retain the players in the game and make them play for a long time. The Discovery of merging chests to create better chests, unlocking Wonders in the game, and discovering mythical dragons are some of the factors that play a huge role in motivating the player to stay in the game for a long time. Moreover, discovering rule changes such as Dragons getting exhausted while harvesting in meta, whereas infinite stamina in levels, always create a sense of surprise and delight during the gameplay.

The Game can work on the remaining category types such as Creativity - Design or Social - Competition in the future to capture more player types as these are strong motivation types to keep the user for a long time in the game.

Another social element that is present in the merge dragons is the basic spectator mechanic. The Player can view a friend's camp or Den member’s camp to check their progress. This is perceived as a “learning” experience and can inspire a subset of socializers to play the game more players.