A puzzle game gives you five lives. Fail a level and you lose one. Lose all five and the bar is empty. You can wait, and one life comes back every 30 minutes. Or you can pay 99 cents and have five now.
Five lives→Bar empty→You leave→You come back
Why would a game stop you playing? The empty bar is a wait, like the wall in chapter one. But it has a second job. It breaks one long sitting into many short visits. Five lives, gone, leave, come back. A player who would have played for an hour now plays five times.
4 pmEmpty at
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30 minutesOne back every
The bar runs out at four in the afternoon and you do not pay. When are all five lives back?
Tomorrow. Lives reset once a day.
Not yet. Lives do not wait for a new day; they come back through the evening. A bar that filled once a day would give one visit a day, and the game wants more.
Half past four. Thirty minutes is the wait.
Not yet. Thirty minutes brings back one life, not five. A full bar takes five waits in a row.
Half past six. Five lives at 30 minutes each.
Right. Two and a half hours, and the game will send a message the moment they are full. The wait is not only a wait; it is an appointment.
Shop seen, one hour straight1 time
Shop seen, six short visits6 times
The game counts visits. Every visit is a fresh screen: the shop, an offer, a chest. A player who plays for an hour straight sees the shop once. A player who comes back six times sees it six times. Coming back is worth more to the game than staying.
Move the control to set how many times a day you open the game, finding the bar full each time. The rule is made up: five lives a visit, one life back every 30 minutes, a go lasts 3 minutes.
Games you get to play5 games
Most the bar refills in a day53 games
1 open a dayOpen the game 1 time a day and find the bar full each time: 5 games. About 15 minutes of play, in 1 visit.
Games you get to play10 games
Most the bar refills in a day53 games
2 opens a dayOpen the game 2 times a day and find the bar full each time: 10 games. About 30 minutes of play, in 2 visits.
Games you get to play20 games
Most the bar refills in a day53 games
4 opens a dayOpen the game 4 times a day and find the bar full each time: 20 games. About 60 minutes of play, in 4 visits.
Games you get to play40 games
Most the bar refills in a day53 games
8 opens a dayOpen the game 8 times a day and find the bar full each time: 40 games. About 120 minutes of play, in 8 visits.
Games you get to play53 games
Most the bar refills in a day53 games
16 opens a dayOpen the game 16 times a day and find the bar full each time: 53 games. That is the most the bar can refill in a day.
Going from 8 opens a day to 16 does what to the games you can play?
Nothing: 40 either way.
Not yet. More opens do bring more games, up to the refill cap. Sixteen opens gets 53, the most the bar gives in a day.
Fewer than double: 40 becomes 53, because the bar can only refill 48 lives in a day.
Right. Past a point the bar is the limit, not your time. That point is where the refill for 99 cents starts to look sensible, and that is where it is sold.
Double: 40 becomes 80.
Not yet. Doubling the opens would double the games only if the bar were always full. Sixteen opens is one every hour, and the bar fills only two lives an hour.
Move the control.
11 yearsOne puzzle game
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about 20 billion dollarsTaken in
Real numbers. A puzzle game with exactly this bar, five lives and 30 minutes, has been among the top-earning games on phones for over ten years. Its maker said that in its first eleven years it took in about 20 billion dollars. Most of it came from people who ran out of lives.
4 pmFrom
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8 pmTo
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30 minutesOne every
One life comes back every 30 minutes. How many lives does the bar give back between four in the afternoon and eight in the evening?
lives
Right. Eight lives in four hours, though the bar only holds five, so three of them are wasted unless you come back in between. That waste is also on purpose: it rewards checking in.
Put in order what the energy bar does across an afternoon.
Tap them in order, first to last.
Fifth life lost→Refill offered→Closed→Message→Opened again
Right. The offer comes at the empty bar, before you leave, and the message comes when the bar is full, to bring you back. The bar sells at one end and calls at the other.
4 hoursCrops
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12Plots
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every 4 hoursCome back
A farm game has crops that take four hours to grow, and a player has twelve plots. What does the game want the player to do?
Play for four hours straight, watching the crops.
Not yet. There is nothing to do while a crop grows. The four hours are made to be spent away from the game, not in it.
Plant, leave, come back in four hours, and do it again all day.
Right. A crop is a life drawn as a plant. Twelve plots that ripen together make one visit every four hours, and each visit opens the shop.
Buy more plots.
Not yet. More plots mean more crops per visit, not more visits. The timer, not the plot count, sets how often the player returns.
Lesson complete
An energy bar stops one long sitting and turns it into many visits, and every visit is counted.