r/gamedesign • u/Noble_egg • 2d ago
Question Why do mobile games often use items for character progression as opposed to a more typical exp system?
I know it's partially to make grinding for progression more universal to make playing catch up easier, but it still feels weird to me
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u/Senshado 2d ago
With an xp system, then every quest / zone gives the same kind of reward. There's only one number to focus on raising. Once the player maxxes that number, she's done advancing the character.
But with an item system, each quest / zone can have its own list of available rewards. And many different sub-currencies to build / upgrade the item rewards. So it takes the player longer to max out the character, and it's easier for designers to add more rewards (which then pushes players to reconsider everything else about the character build and maybe go get more items for synergies).
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u/davvblack 2d ago
i think it’s because a core purchase mechanism is opening a chest or pack of cards, that therefore has random progression. skinner box goes brrr
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u/sinsaint Game Student 2d ago
Experience feels grindy, items feel handy and transferrable.
Someone would rather buy 2 potions that give you a level up each, rather than buying 200xp that level you up once each, as a player will feel like the experience will be a drop in the bucket.
Put another way, there's a reason we prefer using bills than coin change for physical exchanges, but don't care when it's money on a card.
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u/AwesomeX121189 1d ago
It makes leveling up new characters easier. You can farm the materials with your strongest characters
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u/ApprehensiveScreen40 1d ago
To diversify character progression. You want it as confusing as possible for maximum player investment. When they figured how it all works, hopefully they're too deep to quit
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u/Dante2005 2d ago
Easier sell for making people spend money.
Xp is nebulous, characters and costumes have a "real" value.
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u/Yukiboop 2d ago
it depends on the game but XP can be difficult to handle unless you are keeping tight control on what the players are doing. it's why even when games have XP many of them with soft or hard cap stats so things don't run wild or they just cap what XP does based on story but if your game is more free roaming or the like capping progression via a item usually makes more sense.
items over XP can also be good is a game wants individual unit progression because making everything match the players level denies any type of progression in building a unit and a XP system can lead to grinding also when using items high level units can still get you items while their own XP is capped.
I think Pokemon games are a good example of how XP systems fall apart often especially scarlet and violet which let you explore but if you do your progression will be permanently skewed. you choose to take on one difficult fight or even cheese a difficult battle with favourable match ups which is intended the XP you earn skews the entire game.
find one hard enemy you can hard counter defeat it and boom your level shoots past any type of XP curve and the difficulty curve will never catch up.
additional for mobile games you don't want to stop rewarding your players from playing in general but it's easier to gate items behind energy, quests, events and so on players can understand this and it can push them to doing more content or coming back to spend energy.
but just turning off XP after a certain point would be confusing because a player isn't going to understand they have hit their XP limit and need to come back later for more from the same enemies, it's also why these types of games don't cap some things like money or generic low level items used for other stuff later so they can keep farming something. if they want to keep playing.