Streaks Unleashed
How a Bold Experiment Unlocked a +15% Lift in IAP Revenue
When we set out to design a new event for Shallot Games’ Coffee Golf, the logic was clear.
Players had shown they loved the saga progression - adding one in an earlier experiment had lifted RPI by 75%. The next step was to push further in the same direction, taking inspiration from one of the strongest live ops in casual gaming: Royal Match’s streak-classic Lava Quest.
Beyond the Basics
Our goal wasn’t to copy Lava Quest, but tailor it to Coffee Golf players.
The game has a popular mode called Daily Classic, where each day players tackle the same level, aiming to complete it in the fewest shots. Data showed the most engaged players grind these levels to build long streaks of top 10% finishes over time. Gator Quest gave us an opportunity to bring that competitive behaviour into the saga progression.
Doing so would add extra layers of motivation to the event. Rather than simply completing the seven levels, players would compete to do so in the fewest number of strokes. Anything other than a Top 10% finish would give them a reason to try again, extending play time and opening up more opportunities to spend.
And, just like the Daily Classic, a calendar would track players’ best result each day. Trophies rewarded consecutive finishes, giving players a reason to include the game in their routine. We expected these additional touches would more closely align it to Coffee Golf players, making a proven event even stronger.
Not So Fast
But life isn’t always so straight forward. As often happens with experiments, the initial results were not as expected. Retention ticked up slightly, which gave us a small rise in ad revenue, but IAP revenue fell 5%.
Lava Quest is a proven winner. Why was our version making Coffee Golf worse?
The Best Work
Regardless of the result, our first move is always to investigate the data. We had a number of questions about how players might be behaving to create this dip:
How many started the event each day?
Which tier did they finish in?
How were gem balances fluctuating across the event?
Which led to a core set of hypotheses:
Tiers could feel punishing over seven levels rather than one
Rewards might be too low for the event to feel worthwhile
The extra steps required to take part could be a net negative for players.
Alongside this, one issue consistently came up: visibility. Were players regularly seeing the event? In our next release we changed how the event was surfaced.
Now, the first time players open the game each day, beginning any level would trigger Gator Quest. They could choose to skip it, but not miss it.
Puzzling to Proven
This single change improved results dramatically. Purchase revenue swung from a 5% decline to a 15% increase. Retention gains from the initial launch remained, and more players engaged with the event, completing it and re-engaging across attempts.
Visibility is fundamental for successful experimentation. Players need to notice a change if they are to respond to it. In this situation that meant forcing players to see the event every day they opened the game.
This isn’t new, when King first tested hard level labels the team called them “Special Levels” and created UX that tastefully blended into the existing design. Players didn’t understand and results were flat.
They could have written it off at that point. Instead, in the second iteration the UX was re-framed as “Hard Levels” and surrounded by fire and skulls. Players understood and responded. Hundreds of millions of dollars later, the feature is a free-to-play staple.
Experiments rarely work first time. The key is to understand how your players behave and what that reveals. Here the result didn’t make sense. Taking the time to reflect and iterate meant we banked a healthy revenue increase and a green light to keep building from the saga playbook.
That’s how sustained growth is built.
"TXG tackled our challenge head-on, running targeted experiments, designing UX, and analysing data to drive revenue growth."
Brad Scarboro, Founder, Shallot Games
