Get new and old users back into the game.
Star Stable Online is an online game in which you create a horse and an avatar, and choose if you want to interact with other players in real time. You train and compete with your horse and take on quests on horseback in the open world Jorvik.
The main objective was to get 1 million registrations on the US market, letting the user base continue being only female players. It was a cross-functional capstone project, and I worked solely with the UX Research. The final product consisted in e.g. a trailer for a new game quest.
Different user goals.
The income is based on the subscription fee for the game in the different countries. Our client tells us that their target group is girls between the ages of 8 and 16. We’re realizing we have two target groups with two different goals: Young girls – and their parents, who pay for the game.
The questions I brought into my research are “What do American girls expect from gaming culture online?” and “What makes parents feel their daughters are safe on the Internet?”. To find out, I made posts in several Facebook groups related to parenting and gaming culture, and posted surveys on Reddit.
former users choosing the pivot.
As part of my research I started to play the game myself and took part in the game’s community, which turned out to be really huge. A lot of engagement was to be seen on Star Stable’s YouTube channel and in the comment field for the videos posted by gamers themselves. In these channels, I asked questions about what would make former players return to Star Stable, and this started conversations about all their likes and dislikes about the game.
A new story.
The data from the surveys, the conversations in the community and the social channels tell us that the current players appreciate the fellowship and the game’s quests. New quests are also what would get former users to start playing again. That’s why we created a new storyline – Riders to the Rescue – with new quests, and the announcement that the more players who take on the quests, the easier it’ll be to succeed. We’re marketing the story this way with a recruit/tell a friend thought in mind, to increase the conversion.
A part of the final design is a trailer for the game, together with content for social platforms and OOH campaigns. Below you can see some of the recruit a friend marketing design.
You can watch it all on https://riderstotherescue.wixsite.com/starstablecampaign
This capstone project from Bergh’s School of Communication May’21 was made of me (UX research), Madeleine Callas (production management), Filippa Dahlkild (strategic communication), Henrik Billing (copywriting), Lovisa Zeiloth (art direction), Filip Ceder (growth marketing), Josefin Plahn (public relations) and Erik Arve (communication design). Our mentor was Frida Norfors (Head of Design and Co-Founder of Nameless.today, at this time UX Expert at Conversionista!).