t1k:designer:base:liveops

Field	Value
Module	`base`
Version	`1.13.2`
Effort	`medium`
Tools	—

Keywords: calendar, content cadence, daily quest, engagement, live-ops, liveops, recurring content, retention, season, weekly event

How to invoke

/t1k:designer:base:liveops

Game Live-Ops Design

When This Skill Triggers

Designing a live-ops calendar (daily/weekly/monthly)
Planning content cadence or content release schedule
Designing daily quests, weekly challenges, or login rewards
Designing seasonal content or recurring events
Planning retention loops around engagement KPIs
Mapping live-ops calendar to UA/marketing moments
Analyzing D7/D30 retention and planning interventions

Decision Tree

Intent	Path
Design daily/weekly cadence	Content Cadence
Plan retention loop architecture	Retention Loops
Map calendar to marketing moments	Marketing Perspective
Define live-ops KPIs	KPI Framework
BPC case study reference	Case Study: BackpackCrawler
Anti-patterns reference	Anti-Patterns

Content Cadence

Daily Layer (24h cycle)

Daily quests: 3 easy + 1 medium + 1 hard; complete 3/5 for milestone bonus; midnight local refresh
Login reward: day 1-7 escalating; day 7 = premium reward (hard currency or rare item)
Daily deal: 1 limited-quantity shop item at 30-50% off (creates urgency, drives store habit)
Ad offer: 1 rewarded-ad bonus per day per slot (IAP-light engagement)

Weekly Layer (7-day cycle)

Weekly challenge: meta-objective tied to game mode; reward = cosmetic
Rotating shop: weekly refresh of 5-8 items; 2 items purchasable per player per week
Mid-week surprise: Wednesday minor event or double-drop to combat mid-week dip

Monthly/Seasonal Layer (28-90 day cycle)

Season/battle pass: 60-90 days; free track (10 rewards) + premium (30 rewards); narrative theme
Major event: LTE anchored to IRL calendar or story beat — see game-events skill
Meta season: ranked reset + season-exclusive cosmetic drives competitive retention

→ See references/calendar-templates.md for full annual calendar blueprint

Retention Loops

Core Loop Architecture

Daily habit → Weekly investment → Monthly aspiration
    |               |                    |
Login bonus    Weekly challenge     Season pass value
Daily quests   Rotating shop        Ranked reset
Daily deal     Social weekly        Exclusive cosmetic

KPI Targets (mid-core F2P)

D1 50% (floor 40%) | D7 20-22% (floor 15%) | D30 8-10% (floor 6%) | DAU/MAU ≥0.25 | Session/DAU ≥2.5

Industry context (GameAnalytics 2025): D7 median = 3.4-3.9%; top-quartile = 7-8%. Hitting 20%+ requires category-leader execution — do not treat 18-20% as a floor.

→ See references/kpi-framework.md for full metric definitions, thresholds, ARPDAU benchmarks, and intervention playbook

KPI Framework

ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User): event weeks should lift ARPDAU 15-30% vs baseline
LTV extension: each major season adds ~14-21 days to LTV (season-engaged players 2× less likely to churn that month)
Event attach rate: % of DAU who engage with active event; target ≥ 60% within 48h
Content completion rate: % of event milestones completed; < 30% = too hard; > 80% = too easy

→ See references/kpi-framework.md for ARPDAU model, D7 dual-threshold, and per-segment lift expectations

Marketing Perspective

Live-ops is not just retention — it is a paid UA / organic discovery flywheel.

D7/D30 → CAC Payback

Each +1% D7 improvement ≈ 3-5% reduction in effective CAC payback period
Strong D30 (>8%) unlocks higher CPI bids on Meta/Google/AppLovin
Live-ops calendar should be shared with UA team 4 weeks in advance

Seasonal Events as Marketing Moments

App store featuring: seasonal events → “New Content” badge → feature slot eligibility
TikTok-able beats: design 1 visually unique moment per major event (skin reveal, countdown animation)
Influencer drops: 5-10 mid-tier creators (100K-1M followers) for early access 3 days before launch

→ See references/marketing-perspective.md for UA calendar alignment, influencer playbook, real-world examples

Case Study: BackpackCrawler / Backpack Inu

Full detail: references/kpi-framework.md §BPC. Sources: Story.md §12, Systems.md §2.3-2.4 §20, revenue-mix.json (locked 2026-04-29, corrected 2026-05-02)

3 monthly major events: “The Annual Picnic” (Wk 4), “Black Friday Returns” (Wk 8), “Quarterly Earnings” (Wk 12, 8-Act gauntlet + Mythic reward)
5 rotating weeklies: Take Your Pet to Work Day, Casual Friday, All-Hands Meeting, Pizza Party, Office Olympics
Wk 11 dead-week mitigation: “Mochi’s Photo Album” mini-event (~15h prod) — lore re-collection, D7-equivalent retention lift
ARPDAU realistic base: $0.17-0.19 (BP at 10% MAU conv, ad-free pass at 4% blended, rewarded 36% of mix)
D7 dual-threshold: target 20% / floor 18% — auto-revert to Tier 2 IAA if D7 < 18% any week

Recent Comparable Games — Live-Ops Cadence

→ Full table in references/kpi-framework.md §Benchmarks. Summary:

Survivor.io: bi-weekly + seasonal peaks; $5-6M/mo at year 3 (Gamesforum)
Royal Match: daily jackpot events + weekend tournaments (Propeller Rush = +14.6% revenue); $2B+ 2024 (PocketGamer)
Genshin Impact: 6-week patch cycle; double-banner ~+30% uplift; $0.7B 2024 (Bittopup)
Marvel Snap: monthly (first Monday); season pass + thematic cross-promo (Marvel Snap Zone)
Brawl Stars: ~6-8 week brawler drops + Brawl Pass; Brawl Talk cadence
Stumble Guys: monthly IP collab (My Hero Academia, Avatar: TLA, PAC-MAN) (Scopely)

AppMagic 2025: midcore games run 20-40 events/month; grew 73→89 events/mo overall; seasonal peak October. (AppMagic LiveOps 2025)

Anti-Patterns

#	Anti-Pattern	Fix
1	No mid-week event (DAU dips Wed–Thu)	Add Wed surprise: double drop, flash deal
2	Same cadence every week	Rotate event types; surprise every 3rd week
3	Event too short (<24h)	Minimum 48h; major events = 5-7 days
4	No marketing alignment	Share calendar 4 weeks early with UA team
5	Live-ops ignores seasonality	Map to CNY, summer, Halloween, year-end
6	Modeling best-in-class as base case	BP at 10% MAU conv, ad-free at 4% blended

Gotchas

D7 18-20% is a stretch, not a floor — GameAnalytics 2025 median is 3.4-3.9%; top-quartile is 7-8%. Plan with eyes open.
Live-ops density ≠ quality — adding events without tuning earn-rate math dilutes event currency value
Dead-week mitigation is mandatory — Week 11 equivalent (low-prod mini-event) prevents churn between major events
No proven cozy-IAA-mobile-roguelite precedent at scale exists — benchmarks from HKIA (premium) are invalid as IAA peers
Battle pass conversion industry-typical = 8-12% MAU — not 28%; model accordingly before presenting to stakeholders

Cross-References

game-events — Detailed LTE design (event currency, shop, monetization)
game-economy-design — Event economy sinks/faucets, event currency design
game-mobile-design — Session design aligned to live-ops cadence
game-quest-design — Daily/weekly quest structure and reward hooks

Reference Files

File	Coverage
`references/calendar-templates.md`	Annual calendar blueprint, event scheduling templates
`references/kpi-framework.md`	Metric definitions, ARPDAU benchmarks, D7 dual-threshold, intervention playbook
`references/marketing-perspective.md`	UA alignment, real-world examples, influencer playbook, store checklist