Once upon a time, when I first started working as a game planner, I received a task: to analyze a popular skill fishing game at that time. As a systems planner, I was puzzled. In my impression, skill fishing games were simply about controlling a cannon, clicking to shoot, and relying on probabilities to determine success. What more was there to analyze? The mechanics of this game could be explained in a few minutes, so why analyze it? I thought it would be a game with various complex mechanisms and gameplay, such as the combat system in shooting games. Nevertheless, I had to complete the task, so I obediently downloaded the skill fishing game and started playing.
As I played this skill fishing game for 30 minutes, I suddenly realized that my emotions were fluctuating with the rewards I obtained. Could this be a point of analysis? So, I fired the cannon 400 times and recorded the earnings for each betting probability. At that moment, I also thought about slot machines, which are similar in a way—pushing a button to make it stop at certain points and changing the multiplier. I ran several hundred trials on the slot machine as well, then compared the earnings curves. To my surprise, I discovered that the general probability trends of the two games (slot games and skill fishing games) were very similar. These curves reflected my own psychological fluctuations—feeling happy with small wins and becoming more excited with big wins. The skill fishing game was designed with incredibly detailed feedback, with at least seven or eight gradually increasing levels of feedback, from simple to various glowing effects, culminating in the screen filled with flying gold coins for the jackpot. It was fascinating to observe how these games played with our emotions and the power of visual and auditory stimuli. I continued my analysis with different aspects and patterns, hoping to gain more insights into the mechanics and psychology behind these games.
So, I began to speculate: do players enjoy playing because these probabilities create emotional ups and downs? This leads me to a further question: when we play games and find them enjoyable, what exactly makes them fun? Is gambling inherently fun? Well, it's not particularly exciting on its own; it's just repeatedly clicking a button. However, when it becomes associated with money, every throw or bet starts to make people nervous because it has the potential to make them rich or poor. Even if this so-called "money" is just game currency, virtual in nature, it still gives people a sense of stimulation that is close to real value. "What is associated with emotions is not the event itself, but the change in human value brought about by the event. The more important the changed human values are and the more frequent the changes, the stronger the resulting emotions will be." In the case of skill fishing games, by simplifying the mechanics and focusing on probability and feedback, many people become engrossed. This demonstrates that designing the fluctuations in players' emotions is the core aspect of skill fishing game design. Understanding how to create these emotional fluctuations is key to engaging players and ensuring they have an enjoyable experience.
That is something I have concluded from one testing experience, and I hope it can bring some inspiration to your skill fishing game development. Only by paying attention to the changes in the psychological activities of players can we design skill fishing games that meet the needs of the public. Of course, if you need a variety of skill fishing games, you can browse our official website www.intelligent-game.net or contact us directly.
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