Rocket Ninja Seeing Retention Rise After Launching 3D Mode in Wrestler: Unstoppable
Social game developer Rocket Ninja debuted its proprietary 3D Facebook game engine, Shr3d, this month in pro wrestling combat game Wrestler: Unstoppable. The company reports that just 10 days live, the game is already seeing a spike in retention rates.
Wrestler: Unstoppable was originally a 2D one-on-one fighting game where players customized an avatar and sent them into turn-based combat with other players’ avatars either in offline or live mode. Players start out with a list of move types like holds and throws and unlock different moves within the type as they win fights and gain experience points. During combat, the player can use as many moves as they like during their turn, but player statistic such as stamina and fatigue combined with statistics for each specific move determine the success or failure of a move. If the player fails a move, their turn ends and the other player is free to attack. The game originally didn’t have viral features and monetization was limited mostly to costume items for avatars.
Rocket Ninja bought the game from developer SteamStreet last year around the time the former secured $3.5 million in funding to invest in new technology. The result is Shr3d, a streaming 3D engine that runs entirely through Flash with no need for plugins or art asset installs. Rocket Ninja introduced the engine into Wrestler: Unstoppable on May 5 to coincide with the Cinco de Mayo holiday, but kept in the old 2D wrestling game as an option to keep its existing user base happy. The engine recasts all avatars and items in 3D and adds animations to the combat that vary by move and by character body type.
This may prove to be a crucial decision for Rocket Ninja’s overall retention. Prior to any changes the developer made to the existing game, Wrestler: Unstoppable already enjoyed a very small but loyal fanbase that was deeply involved with the game’s core mechanics. Fan pages and spreadsheets documented the game’s move sets and many statistics that determine the success or failure of a move and some players arranged in-game marriages and weekly podcasts. Rocket Ninja maintained the integrity of the game mechanics when introducing the new engine, although it did redesign the appearance and location of move statistics during combat. The developer also responded to user feedback from players that wanted to keep the 2D combat mode because it was faster and allowed for players to conduct multiple asynchronous games at once whereas the 3D mode can only run one game at a time.
On the whole, however, Rocket Ninja says the 3D engine has increased player retention. From what we can see in our traffic tracking service, AppData, Wrestler: Unstoppable saw an initial drop in monthly active users right when Shr3d launched while daily active users climbed. The MAU figure now reflects a growth trend consistent with new or returning players visiting the game for a look at the new system. Rocket Ninja did not provide more detailed metrics for player retention, but said that all features in the game are experiencing a marked lift in the past 10 days alone.
Most interestingly, the Shr3d update introduces a viral sharing mechanism that feeds into a core gameplay system. When viewing wrestler profiles either of their own characters or of other players’, a Wrestler: Unstoppable player can Like that individual wrestler. This creates a News Feed story that looks like a trading card, featuring an animation of that wrestler than anybody can manipulate by rotating the character model. The Liked wrestlers form the basis for the Stables and Companies gameplay functions.
Stables are player groups of friends’ wrestlers. Companies are larger groups where players essentially form guilds that match stables against one another, creating rivalries and back stories that fuel player competition. Some of this system existed while the game was still under SteamStreet, but Rocket Ninja introduced formalized game systems that made it easier for Companies to host tournaments and some additional features to incentivize player-formed Companies.
For example, a player-formed Company (called a Private Company) can offer players with a lot of fans of their wrestler a Contract for joining, which automatically pays out the game’s standard currency to that character on a timed basis. Players can only join or form Companies by paying soft currency to unlock one or two initial Company options, and then paying real money to acquire the game’s premium currency to spend on more Company slots or on the option to form a new Company. Both Stables and Companies can direct players to wrestlers to drive up Likes or fans on that wrestler, thus increasing the value of the Company or Stable that acquires that wrestler. Players have also used the Companies function to form meta-games, like The Wrestler Apprentice — a game that mimics the TV show The Apprentice by awarding the winning player with ownership of the Company that hosted the game.
Assuming the growth pattern remains consistent, Rocket Ninja has other features it plans to introduce to Wrestler: Unstoppable. For example, the game is getting an update next week that will introduce sound to the 3D animation sequences, like crowds cheering and booing and wrestler grunts and shouts. Rocket Ninja was not prepared to discuss plans for cross-platform development or additional game plans at this time, but it is possible that the developer might acquire other games in which to introduce Shr3d. Any in-game features the developer is likely to audition within its “test environment” game, Ocean Kingdom.
Stay tuned for an interview with Rocket Ninja.
Correction: A previous version of this story misconstrued the connection between Liking a wrestler and “becoming a fan” of a wrestler in connection to the Companies function. These are actually two separate activities.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Damn shame that more than 3 million was dropped into a 3D engine that will be eclipsed by other APIs backed by molehill. In my opinion, they better learn from other games that took this same road and think more about how to make a good game instead.
May 24th, 2011 at 11:09 am
[...] Yesterday, we got our first look at a 3D social game engine that streams through Flash without the use of a plugin or download from developer Rocket Ninja in the game Wrestler: Unstoppable. The developer’s proprietary engine, Shr3d, marks another effort by developers to push the web technology that makes more sophisticated games possible. [...]
May 24th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
No Rocket Ninja are liars they don’t listen to the masses. WE WANT TAG TEAMS!!!!!!
May 24th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
3D is far to slow for avid players. As an Unstoppable addict I can honestly say that 3D is the worst thing to happen to this game. The match load speed is entirely to slow for those of us who are active in companies and USL, it would be a great detriment to go straight 3D for those of us who have a limited amount of time to dedicate to our obligations to said companies and stables.
Some people claim that the graphics are great. I think that this is another gross exageration. The graphics look like they were designed by a toddler. The male wrestlers look like primates, the tan ones are green. The divas look like they should have track marks on their arms.
I tried 3D, I gave it ample time to impress me and it fell dreadfully short of anything resembling awe inspiration. Not only did I have to refresh multiple times just to do one match, but once the match finally loaded, I had to keep refreshing to do the moves themselves.
It is unfortunate that 3D is going to be forced upon us. Unstoppable is one of the best games I have ever had the privelage to play. But sadly, once 3D is thrown in our faces, I will no longer be able to take part in a game I so greatly enjoy and have spent a more than a fair amount of money on.
Instead of spending time and money forcing a 3D regiem on us, why not spend the money working out the bugs the system already has? For instance the broken links, making training partner links more efficient, rectifying the slow load times for companies and scenes, etc. Or perhaps by updating the store selections by providing outfits that are better suited for real people and not strippers? Another thing could be cracking down on the overly sexualized behavior, let us not forget that this is a family friendly app that only requires a member to be 13 years of age. In short, there are far better things to focus on than a 3D system that nobody wants dispite the propaganda supplied in this overly biased article.
The best coarse of action would be to leave the 2D option. As made evident by the comments on this article and on the facebook thread, and the newsfeed in Unstoppable itself, 3D is not what the consumer wants. And a consumer of this product is exactly what we are, I know I have easily sank over $100 into this product, probably over $200. Why not ask the opinion of the people whose money you take? The answer to that question is that you know that you will be told that this 3D system that you have spent all this money building is a flop and you don’t want egg on your face. Ask your consumers what they think before you force something upon them that they have no desire for, and have in fact, been very out spoken against.
May 24th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
on what bart and jesper said.. Players have been asking for various features like tag teams as the first and fore most.. but these requests till now have been ignored.. Almost everyone in the game uses the currently available 2d mode for matches.. a small percentage actually use the 3d option as it is way too slow for most and is not compatible with many mobile devices.. The game would have a much higher retention rate if we got features we wanted.. not what they think we want..
May 24th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Wow, I find it interesting that whoever wrote this says that RN is listening to the “players”. Obviously it’s NOT the loyal fan base, unless the writer is talking about players that never played the previous version of Wrestler (aka FBW, 1.0). Many of the loyal fan base has asked for tags and other company updates, as well as stable updates. Even though RN did say up front they were going to do 3D, they also promised Tags.
From what I’ve seen, RN is only after money. The only problems they fix are the ones that might cost them a player who puts money into the game … and even then it’s iffy.
There is only ONE administrator that actually cares anything for the players and actually tries to help, while her fellow co-workers sit on their asses. Her name is Heather and she actually plays the game herself, unlike anyone that works at RN.
Heather may be the only person that might actually be able to understand and keep the old loyal fan base since the rest of RN doesn’t seem to give a damn about what the wrestlers want.
July 29th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Rocket ninja is only about money and using Wrestler to perfect Sh3rd they rolled tags out for themselves not us. We are pretty much beta testing sh3rd for them cause they could care less about us
July 29th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Retention is hilarious appdata now shows a drop of over 30,000 monthly active users since June and today alone dropped 140 users. Some retention huh? Rocket Ninjas live in a dream world where everyone loves 3D. Even the stats show tons of people deleting this game
August 16th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
some retition for ya
http://www.change.org/petitions/we-want-rocket-ninja-to-actually-listen-to-what-their-users-want
October 28th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Look at the stats now
http://www.appdata.com/devs/744721-rocket-ninja
-20,100 monthly active members lost in 7 days
-10,020 daily active members lost in 7 days
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:04 pm
[...] game last year and essentially relaunched it earlier in 2011 as a 3D fighting game that runs on its proprietary Shr3d game engine. The developer claimed it saw stronger retention with the dramatic change. Data collected from our [...]
December 27th, 2011 at 7:00 pm
[...] same fans stirring up controversy around the developer’s updates to the title — mainly, the visual makeover from 2D to 3D with Rocket Ninja’s proprietary engine. Players cited numerous bugs and performance issues [...]
March 30th, 2012 at 10:16 am
[...] the more in-app currency will be earned to buy new clothes and accessories; this is similar to the viral sharing system present in Wrestler: [...]