Eatventure VS Cat Snack Bar: An analysis of both games | Pocket Gamer.biz

Eatventure debuted in December 2021, serving because the premiere undertaking of the fledgling Lessmore based in 2021. Though the corporate’s age barely surpasses that of its hit sport, their core group boasts a roster of seasoned professionals. These veterans hail from cellular gaming titans like Kolibri Video games, Popcore, LoadComplete, and Rovio. The success of Eatventure wasn’t merely serendipitous, it was crafted from deep-rooted experience in sport improvement.

On this visitor publish, AppQuantum’s publishing producer, Anastasia Romakha (left), and affiliate producer, Anastasia Gushchina, talk about what makes Eatventure so common and the way its first profitable copycat, Cat Snack Bar, additionally discovered its viewers on this area of interest.

Gameplay overview

Eatventure gives a pleasant low-poly idle gameplay expertise the place gamers delve into the world of restaurant administration. Ranging from a humble lemonade stand on a metropolis road, gamers can ascend to managing upscale fine-dining institutions.

Gameplay components embrace managing and upgrading meals and beverage stations, hiring workers, buying perks to boost manufacturing and enhance earnings, and accumulating gadgets. Notably, this stuff, other than perks, introduce common sport enhancements, affecting earnings and workers all through the sport, together with throughout LTE and never simply the place they’re acquired.

Eatventure strikes a steadiness with its gameplay, making certain it is streamlined but participating and free from cluttered mechanics and modes. It possesses a simple core loop, a system for accumulating gadgets that provides an additional layer to the gameplay, and a rotation of limited-time occasions that refresh weekly.

By July 2022, Eatventure noticed a big surge in downloads, clocking in practically 1.5m on Google Play alone. From that time onwards, its income has been on an upward trajectory. This success sparked the preliminary wave of copycats. A subsequent wave emerged within the autumn of 2022 when Eatventure ramped up its scaling efforts. Since January, the market has witnessed a constant inflow of comparable titles, with a number of new releases every month.

Let’s take a look at the info from SensorTower:

The origin of Cat Snack Bar

Most of Eatventure’s copycats or video games that draw inspiration from it are strikingly much like the unique. They usually embody not solely the identical food-making setting but in addition equivalent stage designs, sequences, an unchanged set of options, and a core gameplay loop. Given this panorama, the place does Cat Snack Bar slot in?

Cat Snack Bar launched practically a 12 months after Eatventure’s debut and simply three months after Eatventure’s preliminary scaling – particularly, in late October 2022. Even with this timeline, it was one of many earliest video games to attract inspiration from Eatventure and positively the primary copycat that appeared extra refined. Whereas the timing of its launch undeniably performed a task in its success, we consider there’s extra to the story.

Since its launch Cat Snack Bar has scored over 20m downloads (in comparison with Eatventure’s 40m) and has earned greater than $4,000,000 in income (excluding advertisements). Impressively, these figures make it probably the most profitable amongst all of Eatventure’s copycats (we’ll additionally contact upon just a few different budding tasks in a while). However what units Cat Snack Bar aside?

Cat Snack Bar’s peculiarities

From a primary look at Cat Snack Bar, you possibly can surmise its origins. The sport was crafted by the South Korean group Treeplla. Though Treeplla is a newcomer, established in 2021, a part of its group previously labored for Mafgames, a studio with a knack for creating endearing, fluffy cat characters that seize hearts. Inside a brief span, Treeplla rolled out a number of titles spanning varied artwork types within the idle and puzzle genres. Nevertheless, Cat Snack Bar emerged as their first massive success.

What units Cat Snack Bar other than the myriad of Eatventure copycats is its distinctive setting and artwork fashion. The sport immerses gamers in a comfortable, enjoyable cat world. Whereas the core loop mirrors that of Eatventure, gamers work together with and serve lovable, plump kitties in Cat Snack Bar. And the technique has labored. A demographic evaluation of each video games reveals that this distinct visible enchantment permits Cat Snack Bar to seize a youthful, predominantly feminine viewers, thus avoiding direct competitors with Eatventure.

Nevertheless, it isn’t merely about adopting a special setting and artwork path, despite the fact that these components can considerably propel a sport in direction of success. Treeplla wasn’t afraid to innovate. In stark distinction to many Eatventure copycats, Cat Snack Bar gives gamers with a special gaming expertise relating to options and mechanics.

Notably, the sport operates at its personal rhythm, whereas different tasks copy the Eatventure’s steadiness. Cat Snack Bar is rather more full of life and dynamic. The builders launched contemporary components corresponding to eliminating the requisite smooth foreign money wanted to advance to subsequent places, introducing Vault a lot earlier, and recasting the Invite Helper function or the Service provider Occasion with a progressive limited-time supply that mixes free and IAP rewards (Worldwide Cat Day).

Let’s delve deeper into Eatventure’s options adopted and refined by Cat Snack Bar to raised perceive Treeplla’s technique in enhancing their undertaking.

Merchandise system

How the merchandise system is applied in Eatventure and Cat Snack Bar differs considerably. On the floor, they may appear comparable, however delicate nuances considerably have an effect on the perceived worth of things acquired.

In Eatventure, gamers can use any merchandise for upgrades in the event that they belong to the identical class (Hat, Physique, or Hand). The sport would not strain gamers to constantly buy and open chests looking for a particular merchandise.

The Eatventure retailer gives two kinds of chests, various in measurement, with a pair of distinctive gives obtainable for every of them. It is believable that the builders intentionally selected this restricted set of chests. Such a design simplifies the decision-making course of for gamers after they contemplate shopping for chests containing gadgets.

This strategy displays the builders’ dedication to minimalism and ease in each the upgrading system and the shop design, attributes that resonate with informal gamers, their major audience.

In distinction, Cat Snack Bar adopts a extra hardcore technique: upgrades require equivalent gadgets of the identical rarity. This design selection nudges gamers in direction of shopping for extra chests in hopes of securing the specified merchandise.

Furthermore, this method elevates the perceived gives worth, in-game occasions, and actions that present particular gadgets. Gamers cannot freely select and buy any merchandise within the retailer. An exception is the Door-to-Door occasion, which permits gamers to purchase particular gadgets with laborious foreign money at a reduced fee.

Past these gives and occasions, Cat Snack Bar gives one other chance to acquire gadgets: retailer chests. The sport options three kinds of chests: a small one, which gamers can entry by watching advertisements, and medium and enormous ones, purchasable with laborious foreign money. On this side, we observe a minimalist strategy paying homage to Eatventure’s design philosophy.

Invite helper

In Eatventure, this function is launched as soon as the participant unlocks the third slot (Burger) on the fifth stage of the primary metropolis (San Francisco). This sometimes happens across the 4th or fifth day of the participant’s lifetime. Each half-hour, this function ostensibly permits gamers to ask others to help in serving prospects for a 5-minute period.

Moreover, your avatar could be invited by these “gamers”. Though it is evident these aren’t precise gamers, the function encourages you to gather extra gadgets. The logic is easy: the extra spectacular your assortment, the upper the chance of your avatar being “invited” as a helper throughout offline intervals, granting you some laborious foreign money.

In the meantime, in Cat Snack Bar, this function turns into obtainable as soon as gamers improve the third slot (Bagel) on the 4th stage (Cafeteria). This milestone is reached a lot faster, usually on the primary day of a lifetime. Not like Eatventure, Cat Snack Bar doesn’t feign the presence of actual gamers for invitations. As a substitute, the helper resembles an NPC endowed with perks from collected gadgets. There’s just one Meownager, eliminating the necessity to choose from an inventory of potential helpers. A notable distinction is that the Meownager stays energetic even after their five-minute shift has ended. They continue to be predominantly inside the stage, awaiting participant interplay. Upon tapping the Meownager, gamers can lengthen their help for one more 5 minutes in change for viewing an advert.

Worldwide cat day

Treeplla did not resort to mere imitation. Among the many distinctive options in Eatventure-like tasks, the Worldwide Cat Day and the assorted sandwich gives included within the sport stand out. Based mostly on the info launched by the builders, it is evident that in August 2023, they noticed a big enhance of their IAP income.

These sandwich gives are intrinsically tied to the core gameplay. This differentiates them from different informal video games with comparable mechanics, as gamers cannot earn rewards with out collaborating within the core.

To advance inside the “sandwich”, gamers should fill the progress bar of the improve level and earn particular foreign money. After accumulating sufficient foreign money for the improve, they’ll declare the reward, unlock a brand new stage, and proceed to fill the progress bar to acquire extra particular foreign money.

The rewards for every stage alternate between being free and paid. For example, gamers can not entry the third stage’s free reward with out first buying the second stage’s paid reward.

Whereas this may increasingly appear to be an aggressive monetisation tactic on the floor, insights from the builders counsel there hasn’t been any cannibalization or diminished curiosity in making purchases.

Monetisation System

Concerning monetisation, Cat Snack Bar boasts considerably extra advert placements and IAP choices than Eatventure. The latter even lacks a number of generally used and customary placements like dashing up the manufacturing for a rewarded advert, Starter Packs, or No-Advertisements Supply. Eatventure has just some humble gives, a number of boosters for laborious foreign money, a pair (actually) of merchandise chests, and laborious foreign money packs – that’s it.

Whilst you would possibly spot two or three new IAP choices throughout one in every of its weekly limited-time occasions, this pales in comparison with Cat Snack Bar. This one gives a double starter pack, full advertisements remover supply, piggy financial institution, totally different packs, chests for advertisements, progressive limited-time gives, and particular rent employee cats. The record goes on.

However when analyzing the Income and RPD of each video games, does Cat Snack Bar’s intensive monetisation technique really outshine Eatventure’s restrained strategy? Though the analytics platform, Sensor Tower, would not show advert income information, it is evident that Cat Snack Bar not solely has extra advert placements but in addition extra choices for IAP purchases and premium foreign money expenditure. Consequently, we would anticipate variations of their IAP RPD if such disparities exist.

From the supplied charts (that you could be discover under), just a few amusing information:

• Firstly, Cat Snack Bar generates much less income total than Eatventure, with its RPD within the US being half of Eatventure’s.
  
• Secondly, Cat Snack Bar’s income distribution sees equal contributions from South Korea and Japan (~30% every) and the US (~30%), whereas Eatventure pulls roughly 55% of its income from the US and round 15% mixed from Western European nations like Germany and the UK.
• Lastly, the RPD for each tasks in South Korea is almost equivalent.

Does this suggest that Treeplla’s monetisation methods had been ineffective? No, truly. We contend that their efforts had been legitimate given they focused a definite viewers, which notably differs from Eatventure’s (with a heavier give attention to the Asian market). In the event that they hadn’t devised such an intricate monetisation system, they in all probability would not be a subject of our dialogue.

In closing, it is price noting that “extra” would not robotically equate to “higher” (though we consider there’s vital potential for enchancment in Eatventure’s monetisation). Builders ought to at all times be conscious of their sport’s distinctive traits. Blindly adopting options from different tasks is unwise. All the time conduct A/B exams to gauge the affect of any new additions in your viewers.

Eatventure — High 3: US – 54.3%, UK – 7.8%, DE – 7.2%
Cat Snack Bar — High 3: US – 36.4%, KO – 18.7%, JP – 9.6%

Inventive methods

Eatventure took a few 12 months to transition from its launch to scaling and reaching constant large-scale purchases. In distinction, Cat Snack Bar reached this milestone in a considerably shorter time. One would possibly speculate that Treeplla leveraged a ready-made advertising technique for its undertaking. However is it actually so?

Whereas Cat Snack Bar initially launched gameplay creatives paying homage to Eatventure, it isn’t with out its personal peculiarities.

Shortly afterwards, Cat Snack Bar transitioned to utilizing non-gameplay creatives that imitated the fashion of an isometric tycoon sport. That is nonetheless their common strategy. In the meantime, Eatventure continues its distinctive strategy through the use of creatives in its UA campaigns that function altered gameplay carefully resembling the precise sport.

Whereas each video games may appear comparable product-wise, their advertising methods are markedly distinct. This statement reinforces our perception that Cat Snack Bar has carved a distinct segment for itself alongside Eatventure. By figuring out and catering to a singular viewers section, they’ve ensured their sport resonates with its goal demographic.

What about different copycats?

We beforehand talked about a surge of latest tasks much like Eatventure that started rising after Eatventure’s first scaling in July 2022. Curiously, Cat Snack Bar additionally spawned a minimum of two copycats of its personal. So, what grew to become of those tasks over the past 12 months? In brief, none have really succeeded. Nevertheless, let’s delve a bit deeper.

We recognized over 25 video games that had been unmistakably impressed by Eatventure. These could be grouped into three classes:

1. Rip-off tasks aiming to money in by straight mimicking the unique sport (e.g., Lemonade Stand and one other Eatventure – a whole copy of the unique sport, together with the title).
2. Video games that merely swapped out the unique decor in hopes of turning into a success (e.g., Good Cream, My Idle Retailer).
3. Formidable tasks unafraid to experiment with totally different core mechanics, types, themes, and views (e.g., Avenue Cafe, Espresso Enterprise, Idle Artwork Tycoon).

The third class is undoubtedly probably the most fascinating. Not all such tasks have proven promise, as seen with Good Metropolis Idle Store. Nevertheless, some, like My Resort Life, would possibly emerge as success tales, doubtlessly attracting copycats of their very own. Moreover, there are just a few new contenders that we’re keenly watching, corresponding to Order Up! and Undertaking Snack Bar.

Is there a spot for one more Eatventure-like sport?

We have lastly arrived on the important query. Should you’ve been holding out hope for a silver-bullet answer, you is perhaps disillusioned. There is not one. Our deep dives into Eatventure, Cat Snack Bar, and quite a few comparable tasks have solely reaffirmed a fact. There is not any singular magic function that dramatically boosts retention, no particular supply that drastically will increase conversion to paying customers, and no standout advert artistic that makes your CPI twice decrease than LTV. Success on this business usually stems from years of dedication, numerous makes an attempt, failures, and improvements.

Many unsuccessful tasks bear similarities, whereas every profitable one carves its distinctive path to triumph. Cat Snack Bar did not merely emulate Eatventure. The Treeplla group crafted a sport imbued with its personal distinct environment, tempo, and have set that harmonises fantastically. As a substitute of merely treading the trail paved by Eatventure, Cat Snack Bar solid its personal route.

Certainly, we consider there’s house out there for one more sport paying homage to Eatventure – presumably even for a number of of them. Maybe the one recommendation we could give right here is to not attempt to totally copy Eatventure or Cat Snack Bar. Whereas you should utilize them as foundational inspirations, relying solely on visible and ornamental modifications will not doubtless end in a success sport.

For these searching for a extra secure and promising trajectory, we advise figuring out a setting that lends itself naturally to introducing contemporary gameplay options and modes. Tweaking the core gameplay can pave the way in which for enhanced monetization and meta gameplay methods.

Edited by Paige Cook dinner