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Harry Holmwood on how Western developers should implement gacha in their games

Better retention and monetisation through a desire to collect

Harry Holmwood on how Western developers should implement gacha in their games

As part of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2016, Harry Holmwood, CEO of The Secret Police, gave a talk on how game mechanics from Asia can influence your titles.

He primarily spoke about gacha, starting by identifying the word "gacha" as the sound a toy machine makes when it drops randomised toys people enjoy collecting.

Lucky

Games that use gacha tend to be easy to start but have a deep metagame to master. "That metagame usually involves games of chance," said Holmwood.

One thing that helps to focus on the metagame is to include an auto-play, with Holmwood saying that "letting the game play out on its own is just as much fun" as playing it properly when you're focused more on the numbers and less on the action.

You can see all our videos from Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2016 in this YouTube playlist.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.