A fan who plays once is a visitor. A fan who plays every matchday is an audience. These rules are what the most successful daily games have in common, from Wordle and Connections to Candy Crush and Duolingo, turned into things you can check in your own game. Each one says what to do, why, and how gamestage review checks it.
Quickstart
Build the game, then run the review from its folder:
npx gamestage@latest reviewReview of Stat Attack (hunt), played locally against a real Engine
ok First answer in 4.1s, 2 taps (consent, Play)
advice Play next is not the main button on the result screen
Rule: Play next is the loudest button. The largest button is "Share result".
Fix: give "Play next" the primary style and put Share below it.
ok The story waits to be opened, and has 3 slides
advice About 4 distinct scores a round: ties will be common
Rule: design the scoring so ties are rare.
Fix: rank a week's total, or score by guesses or time, not pass or fail.
ok Share card declared (og:image, 1200x630)
ok A streak or come-back cue is on the result screen
ok 9 rounds ready in the poolNothing here fails a deploy. Every line is advice with a fix, because these are judgements about a game rather than faults. Run it before gamestage deploy.
The rules
| Rule | Why | What review checks |
|---|---|---|
| A fan reaches their first answer within 30 seconds, in 3 taps or fewer | Wordle's first guess teaches the game; a tutorial in front of it loses people | Seconds and taps from load to the first answer |
| One main action on every screen | A fan should never wonder what to press | The largest button on the result screen |
| Play next is the loudest button after a round | Another round is the most valuable thing a fan can do next | Whether the primary button on the result screen is Play next, Play again or Come back tomorrow |
| Reveal the answer after every round | A fan who learns something comes back; one who is only told "wrong" does not | Whether the answer is on the result screen |
| The story is 1 to 3 slides and never opens on its own | A story forced on a fan after every round reads as a wall | Story slide count, and whether it opened without a tap |
| Design the scoring so ties are rare | A leaderboard full of "=1" means nothing | Distinct scores a round can award |
| Rank a week's total, not one round | One round is too small to separate people | (Engine setting: the edition total) |
| A daily rhythm, with a clear end | One shared puzzle a day is what makes a result worth sharing | Rounds ready in the pool, and "Come back tomorrow" when they run out |
| A streak, shown from two | Fans who reach a seven-day streak are far more likely to keep going | A streak or come-back cue on the result screen |
| Mix easy and hard | Connections runs easiest to hardest inside one puzzle | (Your round data) |
| Six options for a pick-one quiz | Four options make guessing too rewarding | Options on the board |
| A share card that never spoils the answer | Wordle's emoji grid took it from 300,000 players to millions | Share tags and a Share button |
| Nothing manipulative | Rights holders carry the reputation, and many fans are children | (Not checkable: see below) |
Make the first answer fast
Put the round on the first screen. How to play is a button, not a gate. If your game has an intro screen, its Play button goes straight to the board.
Count the taps a new fan needs: the consent banner is one, Play is one. Anything more has to earn its place.
Make Play next the loudest button
After a round, the result screen offers, in this order:
- Play next, filled and full width, when another round is ready.
- Come back tomorrow, the same button greyed, when none is. Never a dead end.
- See the story and Share result, quieter, beneath it.
Reveal the answer, briefly
Show the right answer on the result screen, whether the fan got it or not. If you have a story, keep it to one to three slides: the answer, the closest miss, one fact worth repeating. Let the fan open it. Never open it for them.
Design the scoring so ties are rare
A round that pays 300, 200 or 100 has three possible scores, so most fans tie. Separate people by something that varies:
| Instead of | Score by |
|---|---|
| Right or wrong | How close (the push format's proximity scoring) |
| A flat reward for finding the answer | Fewer guesses score more |
| One round on the leaderboard | The week's total across the edition |
| Equal scores sharing a place | Who got there first (the Engine breaks ties by time) |
| Everyone naming the obvious answer | A rarity score, as Immaculate Grid does |
Give fans a reason to come back
- One round a day, or per fixture, the same for every fan.
- A streak, shown once it reaches two, that says plainly what keeps it alive. Forgive a missed day that had no match.
- "Come back tomorrow" with the time the next round opens, when the pool is empty.
- A leaderboard of people the fan knows, when your game has sign-in.
Share without spoiling
The share card shows the game's name, the score and how the fan got there, never the answer. gamestage deploy writes the share tags; check the picture reads when a chat app crops it square.
Format playbooks
| Format | Do | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Hunt (pick one or more from a board) | Six options, one clearly findable, one plausible trap. Fewer guesses score more. Reveal the answer and why. | Four options. Pass-or-fail scoring. Questions a fan cannot reason towards. |
| Push (get close without going over) | Show the running total against the target all the time. Make a bust visible and a near miss celebrated. | Hiding the target so completely that a guess feels random. Negative scores on a public screen with no explanation. |
| Group (sort into sets) | Order the sets from obvious to oblique, like Connections' yellow to purple. Include one deliberate red herring. | Four equally hard sets. Sets that need knowledge nobody could have. |
| Predict (call it before it happens) | Settle quickly after the event, and tell the fan what they got. A streak of right calls is the natural hook. | Questions settled days later with nothing to do meanwhile. |
| Bingo (mark the card as the match happens) | Squares that are likely to happen during one match, some rare. Resolve on every open card at once. | A card that cannot complete in a normal match. Squares nobody can verify. |
What not to copy
The same games that teach these rules also use patterns Gamestage games must never ship:
- Lives or energy that stop play until a fan waits or pays.
- Offers at the moment of failure, such as "5 more moves for 10 gold".
- Randomised paid rewards. Several countries treat paid loot boxes as gambling.
- Guilt-driven notifications or a streak used as a threat.
- Endless play for its own sake. Finish, feel good, put it down.
Where the evidence is
- One puzzle a day, and a shareable result: Josh Wardle on Wordle, TechCrunch; NYT Games' 11.2 billion puzzles solved in 2025, Today.
- A finite daily habit: Jonathan Knight, head of NYT Games, Creative Review.
- Streaks: fans who reach a seven-day streak are 3.6 times more likely to finish, Duolingo.
- Short, fair difficulty: how King prunes its least-fun Candy Crush levels, MobileGamer.biz.
- Scoring that separates people: Immaculate Grid's rarity score, Wikipedia.