Streaks are the most common retention mechanic in daily games, and they are also the most fragile. One missed day and the number resets, which means one missed day is enough reason to stop playing entirely.
The streak punishes the wrong behaviour
A streak rewards showing up every single day. But the players who care most are often the ones who cannot show up every day. When they break a streak, they do not restart it; they leave, because the number they had invested in is gone.
An archive does the opposite
An archive says: the content you missed is still here. A returning player can catch up instead of starting over. That makes the first day back a pleasure rather than a reminder of failure.
What the archive has to be
A list of past boards with their answers, kept behind an optional reveal. Not a leaderboard of how badly you did, and not a feed of what everyone else played. Just: here is what you missed, and here is the answer if you want it.
The combination that works
A streak for the people who want the pressure, and an archive for the people who want the content. The mistake is making the streak the only way in.
If you are designing one of these modes, the Krillion matters more than the leaderboard.
Top comments (0)