I have learned more about game design in the past 6 months by working with multiple web game platforms than my entire ~5 years in game-dev.
For example, I recently published a game on Telegram (900mln+ users) with a partner and they calculated a KPI called k-factor (virality factor).
Now the partner showed me a game with a high k-factor and when I played the game, I attributed the gameplay to the KPI, and deconstructed it to understand why it works!
🌟 I share my games with these platforms and they provide feedback: but feedback from every partner differs from each other, as the audience they cater to is slightly different.
🌟 I also ask them about the best games on the platform and the reason - which gives me insights into what works/does not work.
This helps me with:
✅ Better Ideation on what kind of games to build
✅ Elements to add to attract the audience
✅ Differentiating the gameplay
More varied feedback = better shaping of product = high-quality experience
One of my focus areas in game-dev this year is to design better gameplay and it seems to go in the right direction so far!