Research
Hyper Casual Games
Hyper Casual games are usually allocated on mobile e.g. the play-store or app store on android and apple. They are lightweight and instantly playable, very commonly addictive for the player and tend to use a very simplistic mechanic towards the game. They are also often very low poly as of the phone may not run the game. Having a low poly hyper casual game is very simplisitc but very effective towards players. As of the addictive aspect towards it, it makes the person want to play again and again. Having a low poly game can also be aesthetically pleasing towards people. If the person finds it aesthetically pleasing it may interest them in the game even more.
Geometry Dash:
The game Geometry Dash involves the player using a pawn or shape to complete a level. It uses the tap/ click tool of the player tapping the screen to the beat to overcome obstacles in the way preventing them from reaching their goal. Each level has a different layout and and music style. As a level is complete the next level will always become harder challenging the individual even more. There are vibrant and contrast colours involved too giving off a positive outlook on the game with the upbeat music too.
Strengths:
There is upbeat music in every level and the music type varies each level and with each colour it sets a mood for the level. The music aids you in the course of the level by tapping to the beat to jump from block to block and over spikes etc… This gives the game a good vibe and a positive aspect about it.
Weaknesses:
One of the games weaknesses is that it has a limited type of target audience. As its such a hard game to play people at younger ages or not as good reaction time may not be able to or will struggle to play it. This is a massive drawback as most hyper casual games nowadays a majority of them are played by under 18’s.
Crossy Road
The objective of Crossy Road is to cross an endless series of roads and obstacles as far as possible without dying. The player plays as a chosen character and must tap to go forward or swipe the screen in the appropriate direction to move the character horizontally. The game is endless and has no story behind it. It is extremely addictive and gets casually harder as you get a higher score.
The visuals are very simplistic and its an 8 bit game. The player is able to collect coins; an in-game currency, characterised by its squarish shape and red C in its middle. These are obtained in-game by collection during game play, watching advertisements, completing tasks, collecting a free gift given every few real-time hours, and using legal currency to buy them in various amounts. Coins are counted the top right corner of the screen. One hundred coins can be used for a chance at a new character from a lottery machine.
Strengths:
The strengths of the game Crossy Road is that the game is very aesthetically pleasing. As of this people will find great ease playing the game which allows them to concentrate of the aspect of the game which is to cross the different terrains. Another strength that this game has in the in game currency and the accessories implemented into the game. As there are hundreds of skins or characters to choose from which makes the game more fun or worthwhile.
Weaknesses:
One of the weaknesses of this game is that is has minimum audio whilst playing. As it lacks audio it may not be so joyful for the player which could frustrate them. Some people find background music relaxing whilst playing the game. It also can be rage enduring to some people.
Improvements:
An improvement which could possibly implemented into the game is by adding background music to the game when playing the level. For example calming music in the background would help the player relax and continue playing the game without getting frustrated as much.
Moodboard-
After careful consideration of looking at a wide range of games our final outcome is a 3D Sci- Fi Crush The Castle. We took massive inspiration off Crush the Castle Baseball Boy and Monument valley to help us with it.
We spun the whole idea of a 2D slinger game and made it 3D. Instead of keeping the genre of Medieval times we completely went the opposite direction with a Sci-Fi or Futuristic art style. We are keeping this game at a low poly cube art-style. This is because it is very simplistic saving us a lot of time as of the narrow time slot we have currently of 48 hours. Keeping a simplistic art style allows us to present it to a wide variety of audiences. As this will be child friendly too it is suitable for all ages as its very addicting too.
Crush The Castle
Crush the Castle has a flinger animation like angry birds etc… the objective is to crush the structure and kill the people standing in it. You click once to release the swing and click a second time to release the pawn in the weapon to destroy the structure. Depending when you click to release the pawn determines how far high and powerful the throw is. There are specific challenges within each level to get the highest possible score for that certain level. For example for all of the levels there is a gold silver and bronze medal to section off how good the player has done in that level. The less shots you do this in the better the score you get. In this case it would be 1 Shot for a gold medal. 
Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump consists of the player controlling a character called ‘ The Doodler’ and has to guide the character through and up a series of elevated surfaces without falling off or dying. The player tilts the screen or phone from side to side trying to avoid any objects on screen as the character is going up. The player can collide with some objects like a propeller hat to give a bit of acceleration to aid the character to get up further. Players can also get a short boost from various objects, such as jet packs, rockets, springs, trampolines and invulnerability shields. There are also monsters and UFOs that the Doodler must avoid, shoot, or jump on to eliminate. Aiming is performed by tapping on different parts of the screen, on the Android and Windows Phone versions of the game there is also an automatic aim mode. Players can choose from several different themes including Original, Christmas, Halloween and Rain-forest theme.
Knife Hit
Knife Hit game on the mobile consists of the player tapping on the screen and it initiates a knife being thrown up onto a circular board. The goal is to throw as much knives as possible against rotating logs. Sometimes, you’ll encounter bosses every 5 stages. The game ends when you hit another knife on the log. There are multiple accessories implemented within this game too. This ranges from different colour and style knives, different colour and style boards and objects to hit onto the board.
This is one of the boss levels within the game. The objective was to hit all the knives onto the board. As there are so many knives its harder and as the style of them are wider then most of the knives in the game it makes it harder to fit them onto the board without them all touching. If a knife overlaps another knife it is game over and you have to start it again. At the end of a boss level if you succeed you get a different style knife or another accessory to progress and gave an achievement to show some accomplishment for the player.
Snake vs Block
Snake vs Block game involves the player using his or her thumb to hold and swipe in a specific direction to get passed the blocks and gain balls to make the spherical made up snake longer. As you progress more and more the higher the blocks get. As you hit the blocks it takes away one of your circles. For example if you have a snake which is 67 balls long and you hit a block which has health of 63 to get passed it you will only have 4 balls remaining. So this game is an endless runner type game but progressively gets harder as the time goes on. The aim of the game is to collect the yellow circles to gain lives which helps you get through the blocks.
Mechanics for hyper casual games:
One of the most popular mechanics for hyper casual games is the Tap/ Timing mechanics for the games. For example this mechanic is purely just tapping and timing game play. Therefore the levels tend to be quick and the difficulty gradually increases. Another popular mechanism to use for a hyper casual game on mobile is Stacking mechanics
Stacking mechanics
Stacking mechanics take the tap/timing mechanic further by adding your previous taps outcome to the progress of the round. Stacking mechanics provide more points of failure for the players, with each failure having a smaller effect than a Pure Tap game. They soften the failure by allowing you to continue, but they maintain the clear visual clarity of how that failure occurred. The less punishing failure the longer the round, but long rounds also signify a sense of ease.
https://mobilefreetoplay.com/top-10-game-mechanics-for-hyper-casual-games/
I mainly used secondary research and used secondary resources for this research task. For example one of the secondary resources I used for this task was the internet. I collected multiple images and GIF’s
Lewis Duggan 