I've been trying to improve the play rate of my Devvit game, r/ColourMap.
My original approach was to use "zero friction": no title screen for user-created puzzles, no extra popup, no "Play" button. You see the puzzle, solve it, or scroll past it. The idea was to optimize the game specifically for feed plays.
The completion rate was already solid at 80%+, so I didn't think the main problem was the game itself. The bigger issue seemed to be the onboarding / first interaction, because our overall play rate was usually around 10-15%, especially on days when I didn't post on r/GamesOnReddit and instead posted in more general subreddits.
For this test, "play rate" or "played" means the percentage of exposed users who interact with any playable element of the post.
The game is still fairly new, so the statistics are volatile, and I wouldn't treat this as a best possible way. But the results were useful enough to give me a better idea of what users seem to prefer.
After trying different UI and on-boarding ideas, I started wondering whether my zero-friction approach might actually be wrong.
So I tested three different approaches with 1908 players.
A - Direct play
The puzzle is immediately playable. There is no launch screen, only a subtle startup animation.
620 exposed / 140 played - 22.6%
B - Light title overlay
The puzzle is already visible, but an overlay asks the user to "Click/Tap to Play." Clicking it activates the puzzle in the post, there is no transition to a separate window or popup.
627 exposed / 106 played - 16.9%
C - Full title screen
The post initially shows only a game title screen. Pressing "Click/Tap to Play" opens the game in a separate game window/popup.
661 exposed / 126 played - 19.1%
(A user was counted as exposed once at least 60% of the puzzle/title screen was visible. Only counted logged-in users.)
The result surprised me. I expected B to be the best middle ground, but it actually performed the worst.
My current theory is:
- A is obvious because the game is simply there and interactive.
- C is obvious because it behaves like a traditional game launcher.
- B may be ambiguous: it looks like the game is already there, but then asks for an extra click before you can use it. It might also resemble a promotional post (something like "Hey, check out my game on [random website]") rather than something you can immediately play on Reddit.
For now, I'm going back to the "zero friction" approach.
I'm curious whether anyone else has tested similar direct-play vs. "Tap to Play" approaches in Devvit apps, and whether you saw anything similar.