Puzzle / Hidden Object Games: Creative Trends

SCHEDULE A CALL

Competitive Trends Puzzle Games

Puzzle game competitors: June’s Journey, CC Friends Saga, CC Soda Saga, Gardenscapes, Homescapes, Toon Blast, Toy Blast, Cookie Jam, Sweet Escapes, Lily’s Garden, Funky Bay, Best Fiends, Lost Island, Manor Cafe, Resort Hotel, Passion Puzzle, Design Home Express, Meow Match, Diner Dash, Pet Rescue Saga, Choices, My Home:Design Dreams, My Cafe, Word Villas, Vineyard Valley, Township
Hidden Object game competitors: Pearl’s Peril, Criminal Case, The Secret Society, Agent Alice, CSI Hidden Crimes, Diggy’s Adventure, Hidden City, Letters from Nowhere, Murder in the Alps, Mysteries of the Past, Tropicats, Adam Wolfe: Dark Detective Mystery Game, Adventure Escape, Hidden Objects Mystery Society, Pearl’s Peril, Seeker’s Notes: Hidden Mystery, Bubble Island, Survivors: the Quest, Temple Run 2, Township: Farm & City Building, Horse Haven World Adventures, Klondike Adventures, Diamond Dash, Stand O’Food, Virtual City Playground, Just Dance Controller, Just Dance Now, Trials Frontier, Ubisoft Club, Cage & Aviary Birds, Clipomatic, Colorfy, Color Your Call, Galatea, Murder Minute, Paint Color, Quiz Crazy, Shudder, Tarot
To view competitive videos, click here

Puzzle Game Trends

Cinematic Storytelling: Romantic, dramatic stories (Murder in the Alps, Criminal Case, Galatea)
Female-centered storytelling: (StoryScape, Solve It, Galatea)
Cats!: “Find the Cat” concepts are becoming more ubiquitous and beginning to evolve (Criminal Case, Hidden City)
Hidden Object Countdowns: (Pearl’s Peril, Hidden City)

Player Profiles

Demographics/Profiles Summary:
91% women aged 35+, 18% of whom aged 65+
70% play in the living room, 40% play in bed, 60% watch TV while playing
Favorite YouTube channels include Bernadette Banner (sewing, vintage art), Rachel Maksy (vintage makeup), and Kendall Rae (murder mystery)
Other games they enjoy are also strongly story driven:
Hidden Object: Seekers Notes: Hidden Mystery, Hidden City, Criminal Case, Pearl’s Peril, Murder in the Alps
Words: Word Whizzle Search, Bible Verse Collect
Town-building: Klondike Adventures
Target Audience
“Escapist Homebodies” (Introverted High Payers)
Demographics Women 45-60+
Motivations: Escapism, Self Improvement, Self Expression, Self Care

Player Motivations

Solitary Story Player:
Hooked by the story and can’t wait to know what’s next!
Wants to know what happens next in the story, but doesn’t want to sacrifice her island decoration to progress faster
Wants to decorate her island to her own taste
Looking for an immersive solitary bubble to recharge away from the world
Solitary Self-Challengers:
Story and decorations are nice but secondary: what matters is hidden-object scenes
Immersive gameplay helps her relax into repetitive, hypnotic focus
Wants to relax through steady self-improvement Play is “me-time”
Looking for a good brain-teaser to improve their memory
Cares most about the gameplay, less about the story

Concept: Story-focused challenges

Attract Hidden Object players with hidden object challenges in a movie trailer like format, like Murder in the Alps and Criminal Case
Try counted clues in Criminal Case style (before and after)
Use a series of images/hidden object challenges that tell a story (similar to Murder in the Alps)

Concept: Story-focused countdowns

Use crime scenes to create more of a story in finding hidden objects (Pearl’s Peril, Criminal Case, Murder in the Alps)

Concept: Character-centric Stories

Utilize simulation/role playing-style (e.g. Pocket Gems Episode) technique to tell character-centered stories (Solve It, Storyscape)
Create simple puzzles that “save” your main character – targeting both solitary story-centric and self-challenger players (Homescapes)
Tell character-centered stories with voice over and/or supers (Galatea, Dream Home Solitaire)

Concept: Gameplay Methods

Combine live action people playing the game (relaxed, escapist) with gameplay (Klondike, Pearl’s Peril)
Combine gameplay with leaderboards (Tropicats)

Concept: “Find the Cat”

Incorporate saturated interiors with food with “Find the Cat” challenge or other short headers/items:
“Find the Gun”
“Find the Dog”
“Find the Rope”
“Find 5 Cats”
“Find 5 Oranges” (Criminal Case, June’s Journey)
Consider using cinemagraphs like the bar scene (Pearl’s Peril, Hidden City)

To See More Hidden/Object Game Trends

Section 1: Why Creative Is So Important
Creative Tunnel Vision and How to Overcome It
Section 2: Inspiration for Puzzle / Hidden Object Game Ads – Facebook and Google
Puzzle / Hidden Object Competitors We Studied
Puzzle / Hidden Object Competitive Trends
Puzzle / Hidden Object Creative Concepts We Recommend
Section 3: Using Player Profiles for Market Segmentation and Creative Targeting
Pasta Sauce, Pickles, and Howard Moskowitz
Horizontal Segmentation for Facebook User Acquisition
Game Theory and User Behavior Models
People Can’t Always Tell You What They Really Want
Player Profiles as UA Creative Strategy 2.0
Section 4: Creative Testing and Why the Control is So Hard to Beat
Statistical Significance vs Cost-Effective Approach
How We’ve Been Testing Creative Until Now
Creative Testing 2.0
Conclusion
Special Offers

READ OUR WHITEPAPER!

DOWNLOAD OUR WHITEPAPER TODAY!

What’s Hot In Q2 2020? See All Creative Trends

Our Creative Studio Clients

Check Out Our Work

Creative Drives Performance! Facebook and Google’s new algorithms have simplified media buying, making ad creative the primary driver of performance. Our in-house Creative Studio has produced over 300,000 creatives and we’ve managed over $3 billion in social advertising spend. As a result, we deliver ad creative at scale for these channels:

GET CREATIVE NOW

WANT FRESH CREATIVE IDEAS AND VIDEOS?

Seeking to acquire, retain
and monetize mobile app users
or leads more efficiently from
Facebook, Instagram, Google UAC,
Snapchat and Pinterest?
Contact us today!

Creative Studio

CREATIVE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

Creative Audit: Review your creative to loearn what works and fails so we can provide fesh ideas.
Deep Cometitor Audit: Study your competitors’ best ads to steal what is working best for them.
Asset Review: Deep dive on your avialable assets to see how we can create the best ads.
Review Player Profiles: Understand what motivates your players to inform our creative strategy.
Creative Strategy: Custom, bespoke strategy is generated mini briefs for your approval.
Data-Driven Optimization: Based on KPIs we learn and iterate creative strategy and designs.
AdRules Platform: Easy creative reviews and approval wit 1-click uploads to Facebook & Google.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“ConsumerAcquisition.com scaled our mobile app install volume while beating our aggressive CPI targets. They tested hundreds of images, audiences, and ad copy to quickly deliver results. The team took a quantitative approach to optimize results from various countries. They quickly re-formatted winning creative for Instagram and introduced us to a new audience. This company knows mobile app install marketing!"

Issei Shimizu,

User Acquisition Manager

"Consumer Acquisition has been a gamechanger for June’s Journey. Their knowledge of Facebook creative and media buying drove scale and profitably to new levels for us. In addition, their structured creative testing process has been instrumental in discovering new ideas to sustain volume. We’ve expanded our relationship with them to 3 other titles in our portfolio. I can definitely recommend Consumer Acquisition."

Jessica Hasenplaugh,

Head of User Acquisition

“Consumer Acquisition immediately ramped design production using their Creative Studio. They rapidly created and tested multiple variations of new interior design video concepts and efficiently identified winners, that transformed our business month-over-month. We enjoy working with them and love their diverse creative capabilities. We highly recommend them to anyone looking to properly scale their Facebook user acquisition!”

Dasha Chipchay,

User Acquisition Manager

"We were referred to CA.com from another eCommerce company that had an amazing experience in moving product, and we were thrilled when they blew out our inventory too. Prior to working with them, we had not advertised our eCommerce store on Facebook. The CA team was able to achieve profitability early on, which helped us with a successful Y Combinator demo day! Highly recommend these guys for Facebook ads! "

Betsie Larkin,

Founder and CEO

“Consumer Acquisition is a valued long term marketing partner for MobilityWare. Their market expertise and quick testing strategies allow for creative success repeatedly. We wanted to find pockets of revenue Worldwide and CA was able to do it quickly with creative. We can always rely on CA to partner with us to find the best solutions for long term success.”

Stevie Lutgen,

Marketing

“Consumer Acquisition ramped up within the first several days and capped out our daily budget while delivering CPIs 20% below targets and beating ROAS goals. In addition, they continue to test creative (images and videos), messaging, and targeting and have further reduced CPIs by 60% and increased ROAS 25%. As a result, this team knows Facebook and how to fight off creative and audience fatigue.”

John Parides,