This is the typical screen the player returns to each time they come back to the game. Instead of having an abrupt end to the session with energy, Fallout Shelter slowly tweaks the gameplay so you as a player feel smart for leaving.

The player enters the game, feels rewarded, but the game slowly increases the pressure to leave. But as we’ve seen in previous posts ( here and here), having a limit on sessions and progression is absolutely necessary to drive long term retention.įallout Shelter employs what I like to call “Flexible Sessions”. There’s no blocker such as energy which says “you must leave now”. There’s always something positive to do with your vault. How did Fallout Shelter become a beacon of acceptable free-to-play design for core gamers? #1 No Arbitrary Session Capsįallout Shelter never forces its players to leave.

So what was so different about this launch? We have seen this many times before ending poorly (see Dungeon Keeper, Sonic the Hedgehog). Here is a game that was developed by a traditional developer, taken a brand many gamers love (as a premium title), and then changed it completely to be free to play. To make marketing on the AppStore affordable, brand recognition is becoming more and more important.īut the marketing aside, what shocked me was the response from players to this game.

Every game studio since the launch of Kim Kardashian by Glu has known this. It attracted loyal gamers and drove massive organic growth on the AppStore. I don’t think anyone can doubt that the brand of Fallout was huge for this launch. Many (including myself) have been preaching about the unchanging stasis that exists at the top of the AppStore, and Bethesda came in and changed that completely.Īs the smoke cleared, and I watch Fallout Shelter slowly fade from the top charts, I’m left with: “so what did we learn?” Fallout Shelter shocked many people when it reached the top grossing charts.

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