As a creative agency responsible for developing interactive microsite games in various marketing campaigns, we’re no stranger to the world of Role-Playing Games (RPGs). Little known fact, creating and producing RPGs actually draw more similarities to the best practices of website design and development than people care to realise. Beyond just programming and the need for compelling graphics, elements behind a successful RPG are not that different from an effective web design unlike the other game genres, such as First-Person Shooters (FPS) and Multiplayer Online Battle Arena that don’t quite share the same fundamentals.
While we’re not saying you’ve to plan a full-scale RPG as you develop your website, there’re a couple of ways that successful RPGs can inspire your website design or revamp. Here are 6 of them that we’ve curated:
Wide Range of Genres
Even within the RPGs as a gaming genre, it can be further broken down into a few sub-genres and each has its own faithful group of players and fans. For instance, there is action (i.e. Final Fantasy), Mass Multiplayer Online (i.e. World of Warcraft) and Sandbox (i.e. Zelda II).
Each of these games was designed for a specific community, but it still received mass popularity over time. This is mostly due to their unique elements and engaging themes, which led to it spreading through Word-of-Mouth (WoM) and referrals from its fan base. When it’s good, people will automatically share it.
Similarly, you should design your website for your target audience, keeping them in mind throughout the process. When you do so, your website is more likely to convert your target audience and take off as a result.
Multiple Elements Involved
RPGs often allow you to choose from a pool of characters, customise your gears, select your skills, and in some cases, own pets. You can also travel to other areas and explore the unique offerings within each area. And these are just generally speaking.
Clearly, there’s an abundance of elements that makes up a good RPG — each RPG has its own unique graphic style and provides a different experience within its gaming world. That’s the concept behind creating a new game.
Web design should follow the same train of thought. Assimilating the visual style from each brand’s unique style guide, the website should create a unique and engaging user experience for its audience. The components may be similar but each section should give off a different vibe for the user.
An Engaging Storyline
Great RPGs have really engaging storylines, which may even be enough to be made into a movie or TV series (*ahem* Netlfix’s The Witcher). In fact, most great games (outside of Flappy Bird) have it.
From the aforementioned The Witcher’s brave tale of Geralt of Rivia battling fantasy creatures and monsters to various assassins overcoming the Order of the Knights Templar in the renowned Assasin’s Creed (incidentally, also has been made into a movie), storylines are enough to drive great RPGs into stardom.
What do stories and websites gotta do with each other? Well, your website tells your brand story and a great website tells a story that stays in the minds of users long after they’ve exited your website. It also drives traffic to your website. Long story short (pun is fully intended here), make sure your site tells a good story of what your brand really stands for, and what you actually do. Bear in mind that for most websites, getting a good conversion rate or a quality lead is quite a big deal.
Keep Them Coming Back
Some successful RPGs have sequels, some don’t. But what’s true for both types is that gamers are constantly playing them over the years, even though the essence of the game and the characters mostly stay the same.
They accomplish it through having a new storyline, updating the game with a different design, introducing a new character, developing a new feature or just having a new event/quest. With just simple additions or updates, the games managed to keep the users hooked and coming back for more.
Believe it or not, you can do the same for your site too! Complementing your marketing campaigns, your website can keep users coming back with new products/services, thematic promotions, a new web design feature that users can play with or just a really successful website redesign. It just takes a little bit of something new every now and then to get it done (much like the makings of the Powerpuff Girls).
Levelling Your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The grind in RPGs to level up and improve their characters is something that every gamer is familiar with and it takes up a hell of a time. It’s also this same process that resulted in gamers playing the same game repeatedly to reach the top.
Most games take at least hours of ‘grinding’ to reach a stage where you’re at least competitive with your peers and even more so if you intend to play professionally. Point being, it can take time and effort to get there.
The same can be said about a website’s SEO and search engine rankings as starting a new brand or revamping your website often result in an initial low rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). To make sure your web design and SEO is done right, you need to put in the effort and have the appropriate skills to optimise and create new content on your website for the appropriate keywords, and it can take up to 3 months for the results to show.
Don’t have the necessary skills or lack the resources to handle your SEO? Well, we got you. Our creative strategists are adept in Search Engine Optimisation to help choose the right keywords and rank your websites on top SERPs. Let us do the grinding for you.
Cash To Win
Some, not all, games have a cash component. What we mean by that is the option to pay for certain features within the game, ranging from new gears, new modes and sometimes, an advantage over your peers otherwise known as ‘Cash To Win’.
This can be rather annoying to veteran players of the game who have put in the time and effort to improve their characters, only to have a newbie ruin it with the spare dough and willingness to splurge on the improvements.
You can do that for website design as well, though in this context it’s much less frowned upon. Offer an established web developer and you should see a stark improvement in your web design in terms of the overall look and feel of it (or you hired the wrong one).
Putting The Fun In Website Design
We know games and we know web design, so you can be sure we know how to make your website engaging and fun for your audience. Whether its a professional and corporate business or a consumer and lifestyle brand, our UI/UX designers will enjoy the process of making your website as epic as a successful RPG.
Don’t hesitate to enter our realm and approach our guides (aka sales consultants) to begin playing with your new website. Contact us today!
