How To Make The Most Addictive Game Ever

I want to talk about the design tactics that went into making the "Most Addictive Game Ever."  We're basically using every trick in the book to increase play-time as much as possible. It's packed with psychological alteration.

The game is a simulation of a slot machine. It's simple: there is ONLY one button, the "SPIN" button that determines the outcome. Which brings us to:

Variable Reward

You want the game to be as engaging as possible. If the reward is too predictable, this will decease the behavior of playing. The best reward schedule is to just make it totally random. Humans are quite bad at interpreting true randomness, meaning they are bad at guessing the outcome. It has been shown that a variable ratio (random rewards) leads to the most clicks and the lowest chance of stopping. And that's what we have here. And in this game, the payouts from a win are randomized + or - 15 dollars. This further cements unpredictability. 

Marking Wins And Masking Loses

This idea is pretty simple. Casinos want the wins to be much more memorable than the loses. So in this game, I made blinking, multi-color lights that go off when you win. If you don't win anything, the game does nothing, as to not draw attention to the loss. 

Enticing Jackpot

You will see in this game, there is a Jackpot that continuously increases with every spin. This gives the user a sense of progress and something else to look at besides the reels themselves. The dirty secret is that there is a 0% chance of getting this jackpot, what exists is merely the supposed "possibility" of gaining the Jackpot. In real life, these jackpots have impossible odds and only exist to get your hopes up.

Your Cash

You will see, in dark text to the bottom right, a running display of how much money you have. Notice that it is tucked away and not very legible. Your cash will quickly go into the negatives playing this game, so instead the main focus is just seeing the top jackpot going up in value with each spin. 

Simple Controls

Are slot machines designed for drunk people? Or children? They don't need to think, there is only one input: pull the lever. Just keep pulling the lever, that's all you need to do. No skill involved, no need to learn complicated rules, just simple betting. In this game we have only one input: "SPIN."

Near Miss

This game is set up to show near misses. A losing spin of the reels will always display 3 of a kind from the 5 reels, thus creating the impression that the user was close to getting 4 or 5 of a kind. This "near miss" idea is a tactic used by all casinos. 

Fake Wins

A fake win is simply a loss disguised as a gain. Example: Say it costs $50 for a spin at a slot machine. And say you win $30! Booyah! It looks like a win, but it's actually a $20 loss. I take the same approach to this game: some "wins" are actually just losses when you do the math. 

Social Proof

Each spin gives a bit of social proof. Example: "Mark L from Maryland just won $2,624 on his first spin!" This serves as validation and creates a FOMO effect in the player. Or at least, that's the idea. It's a simulation, none of these people are real. 

Conclusion

This game is way too addictive. It will hypnotize the masses into a trance. They will immediately stop what they are doing and just keep clicking "SPIN" until their diaper explodes. You can't sue me! You asked for this!