Did HBO's Silicon Valley create a paradigm for successful mobile games when they created "Not Hotdog", the app that determines if a photo contains a hotdog, for one of it's episodes?
The App Store is a fickle mistress. It’s nearly impossible these days to predict what gamers will gravitate to.
In early 2016 Slither.io became huge with it’s odd big fish/small fish domination premise. Before 2014 if I handed you a game where all you could do was tap to make a pipe-phobic bird fly, you might have laughed at me for wasting your time.
There’s seemingly no tried and true formula for a #1 hit on the App Store. If such a formula existed we’d all be filthy rich. But alas, that’s not the case. Yet.
We can look at games that have performed extremely well and attempt to analyze why they were successful. With mobile games it can be tough to break down due to the plethora of genres, mechanics, art styles and everything in between.
As an avid fan of HBO’s Silicon Valley I was pumped to learn that the fabled “Not Hotdog” app, used in one of the plot lines, had actually become available for download on iOS.
Feel free to try it for yourself but in case that doesn’t interest you I’ll fill you in: the function of the app is identifying whether or not the subject of your photo is a hotdog. That is literally all the app does.
Why, you ask, do I believe Silicon Valley’s “Not Hotdog” is a paradigm for developing a hit mobile game? Read on.
Most of you, if not all of you, are thinking, “Hold on, this isn’t even a game. It’s a (loosely) functional app.” And on the surface you’d be correct. But let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves: nobody actually needs an app to tell them if an object is a hotdog or not.
Forget about the fact that it was created by a team of writers for the comedic purposes of a television show about the cradle of technology. For this discussion it’s not important. I’m looking at this piece of software as a serious product.
More than anything else, I think this app should be filed in the games category. Why? You’re not using this app because you need help. You’re trying to trick it into thinking the subject of your photo is a hot dog even though you most certainly know that it’s your riding crop sitting adjacent to a tray of caviar.
At it’s core a game has an objective the player is trying to accomplish within the confines of a specific set of rules.
“Not Hotdog” is a unique and successful game because the rules are not spelled out. It’s up to the player to devise their own objective and rule set. Whether you try to trick the app into thinking something is a hotdog or get your friends to laugh at how much time you’ve wasted, there is a game to be played here.
Most mobile games nowadays have some element of social sharing. Players want to brag about their new high score or what level they finally reached. Some games let you invite others to join them via social media.
The trick with social sharing is getting the player to do so without feeling pressured or sleazy afterwards.
A game where the player genuinely wants to share something in-app is the recipe for a viral success. “Not Hotdog” absolutely screams “Share Me!”.
Players love to one-up their friends and being able to do so in a manner that sets the player up to look like a genius is a recipe for habitual social sharing. If you can get your audience voluntarily sharing multiple times a day, you’ve hit the jackpot.
“Not Hotdog” has a semi-secret feature where double tapping the screen switches to the front-facing camera to help determine if you are in fact a hotdog.
People love making discoveries but they love that feeling of innate brilliance even more. Next time you’re designing a feature or mechanic for your game determine if it’s a good candidate to be one that’s not explained, but rather one the player will logically stumble upon.
Letting players discover mechanics can give them a sense of accomplishment and encourage them to keep playing.
I initially criticized “Not Hotdog” for not having the tap to focus/improve the lighting like iOS’s stock “Camera” app. As I continued to use it I noticed the app had trained me to stop tapping around my screen and, in effect, I was evaluating potential hotdog doppelgängers much faster.
On top of that, the UI is very straightforward: shutter button, flash toggle and import a photo. The lesson here is less is more.
Keeping your game’s user interface as simplistic as possible is important. Only providing the player with tools they need helps avoid confusion and frustration. UI overload is not your friend…or the player’s.
“Not Hotdog” knows what it is. It makes no apologies and it stays true to itself from top to bottom. Nothing about it is drastically out of place when compared to the rest.
At it’s heart, “Not Hotdog” is a love letter to all those single-function apps that are masters at what they do. This app’s name, icon, function, UI and even the feeling you get from using it are all on the same page which is one of it’s best strengths.
Even if a game isn’t that great from a game design standpoint, it can almost be forgiven if the game itself has an extremely strong identity. A self-confident app can give the player a well-rounded experience from the moment they tap the icon to the moment they quit.
If your game has solid mechanics, is fun to play, is addictive and has a great identity then you may very well have a bonafide hit on your hands. Maybe.
When I downloaded “Not Hotdog” I figured I’d test drive it for a few minutes before doing the “long-press-jiggle-delete” dance.
Instead, I found a game that has all the ingredients of a well-designed, viral success: self-awareness, a strong sense of identity, gratifying UI that’s as simplistic as it is functional and social sharing features that dare to be ignored.
As a developer I can say that the chances of the Silicon Valley writers, producers and developers accidentally stumbling upon their final result is slim. Even something as simple as “Not Hotdog” takes careful planning and execution to be a success.
Are you on the same crazy page as me. Do you think I went too far analyzing an app that was meant to be a marketing tool to drive subscribers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
This post was originally published on my Devlog. I am an independent game developer from London, ON. Feel free to check out my minimalistic mining, crafting, battling puzzle iOS game, ‘Stencilsmith’, here.
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