• Role: Research

• Tools Used: Figma

• Method: STAR Method

Situation

The Fighting Game Community (also referred to as the FGC) has been known for years as a niche crowd of passionate and supportive members of the genre. The group primarily thrives within its tournament settings, where players treat each other like family and show respect for the love of the game.

However, while the existing players have kept this franchise alive, few new players join and stay. Therefore, for this project, we will explore some creative strategies that can be used to attract new players to a fighting game like Street Fighter and keep them engaged for the long term.

Task

Implementing a battle pass system can be a good strategy for game franchises, provided that their game is free to play. However, for a fighting game that is not free to play, the developers would need to reduce the launch price while also offering paid content such as characters and costumes. Additionally, they would need to divide their battle pass into both free and paid models.

Action

Players have the opportunity to learn and improve their skills while earning rewards in the form of currency or experience points that will contribute to unlocking their battle pass. Completing more challenging bounties will yield greater progress in the pass. The pace of this journey is entirely up to the player, so if they prefer to simply button mash and try flashy moves, they can still make progress towards unlocking rewards, albeit at a slower rate.

Results

Investing in a battle pass can provide players with a variety of cosmetic rewards to enhance their gameplay experience. This approach has been successfully adopted by popular franchises such as Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Marvel Snap. Offering a journey map of rewards that players can work towards, creates a strong incentive for players to invest in the game.

One of the main advantages of such a system is that the rewards are strictly cosmetic, meaning that players do not gain any unfair advantage over others. This also helps to avoid the issue of pay-to-win, where players who pay more are given an unfair advantage over those who don't. These changes would make an overall better experience for both new and returning fans of the franchise.