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Elevating Player Engagement and Revenue in Rival Stars Horse Racing Through Strategic Event Design
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Rival Stars Horse Racing has a dedicated player base engaged in competitive events, but 55% of players remained disengaged from PvP modes.
This project aimed to create a non-competitive, community-driven event to attract a broader player base, encourage completion-focused play, and foster inclusivity.
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Aiming to quickly validate our hypothesis, we took inspiration from other games and ideation to generate our solution.
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Using our existing event due to it's success, we iterated to include more monetisation aspects and improve the UI.
Iteration one was our initial implimentation aiming to test if an event dedicated to non-competitive players would attract a broader player base, encourage completion-focused play, and foster inclusivity.
On boarding was important for the event, this gave us an opportunity to teach and contextualize the event in the Rival Stars world with narrative flavour.
37.46% increase in average spending per user, primarily from purchases of gold packs for premium breeds.
This contributed to an estimated $12k revenue from premium breeds alone, with a total economic impact of around $24k.
Players felt the event was a nice change and refreshing compared to the existing schedule.
Overall we saw enggement within the community - players loved to share their progress and resulting horses from the event
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Seeing the positive community engagement was really fulfilling, it's rare as a UX designer to have such a passionate and vocal audience around your product.
The positive correlation between milestone achievements and increased spending suggests that strategic enhancements, such as extending event duration and exposure, could further boost participation and revenue.
Players wanted “more” from the event such as tasks/goals
Aim: Due to the success of the initial release, we wanted to iterate on this to support a new game mode and create more monetization opportunities.
Race pass and locked rewards - An IAP (In-app purchase) allowing players access to premium rewards and double points for the duration of the event.
Event Boosts - Additional purchases with in-app currency (gold) that offer a variety of benefits for event progression.
We combined Foaling Season with an existing paradigm of tabbed navigation from the game market to create the following mockups.
This paradigm allowed more screen real-estate to display tasks and key art.
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We needed clear visual communication that rewards were now locked behind the Race Pass
Responding to feedback from Foaling Season, the event was longer in duration.
We changed how the points are displayed to focus on the immediate and achievable goal for the player which was frequently used in other games.
We tested 5 existing players varying in game progress and spending behavior.
We tested with existing players as they already built a mental model around Foaling Season and these events were locked to new players.
For the prototype I put together a high fidelity Figma prototype with the following goals:
Race Pass Comprehension (UI States): Is this event easily navigable and clearly communicated?
Tasks and Points: Is the new reward track easy to understand?
General Sentiment: How do player feel about paying for a race pass, existing events, subscriptions etc.
We made iterative changes to the prototype during the tests when we started to see patterns emerging.
Iterating between tests enabled us to understand the impacts of our changes.
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Players were able to navigate the limited time event with ease, observing the reward track and the items to unlock.
Tasks and boosts: Information and functionality was easily understood by players.
Race Pass communication: Players had trouble with the communication around locked rewards and communication of Race Pass content which we iterated on during the tests.
Points System: There is uncertainty about whether the points needed for each reward will increase progressively (e.g., 100, 200, 300 points).
Overall the Foaling Season event is positively viewed, mainly for the opportunity to earn new or exclusive horse coats.
Players also appreciate advance notices about the event within the community, which helps them prepare by saving items, gold and silver.
On boarding was the same structure as Foaling Season, however, had different content and character to reflect the Steeplechase Theme.
Now that we had boosts that affected the event, we had to have different states for player feedback when purchased e.g. gold animated bar when 2x points were active.
In-App Purchases (IAP): The design contributed to a 23% increase in IAP conversion rates, significantly influenced by the race pass.
Race Pass Sales: The race pass was particularly popular among repeat purchasers and subscribers, suggesting that the design was well-received by existing spenders.
$29,000 total revenue generated, an increase of $5,000 from the first Foaling Season, exceeding expectations
Collect All Button:
Gives users the choice of collecting all rewards they have, minimizing any unnecessary clicking
Dual Reward Track:
Dual reward tracks are common place and would be valuable to experiment with.
Live Event Hub:
Investigate one place to put all of our events for better visibility
Conversion Strategies:
While the race pass design successfully increased IAP conversions among certain user segments, the challenge remains to broaden its appeal to non-spenders.
Future designs could incorporate more varied incentives or clearer value demonstrations to attract a wider audience.
Event Funnel Engagement:
The low early funnel conversion rates for non-race pass holders indicate that the event progression design could be improved by integrating more frequent and tangible rewards to motivate continued player progression.
Since launching Limited Time Events (LTEs), they have become a cornerstone of our product strategy, evolving into a key driver of player engagement, content delivery, and revenue growth.
Our regular event rotation now generates an average of $7,000 USD per week, maintaining consistent player participation and monetization.
Special seasonal events drive between $22,000 - $25,000 USD per week, significantly boosting engagement and excitement around new content.
LTEs have expanded to support new content types and mechanics, making them the primary way we introduce fresh gameplay experiences.
These events have also enabled us to create more seasonal content, celebrating global traditions, cultural moments, and our diverse player community.
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Creating scalable solutions for translation management
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Improving User Understanding with a Transparent, Color-Coded Grading System
Exploring Acceptance and Usability of Wearable Tracking Solutions
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