Mechanics library
The building blocks behind the apps and games people keep coming back to. Each mechanic comes with its psychology, the users it fits, and real examples from the library.
Streak / Streak Bonus
A counter that increments each time a user completes a defined action within a set time window, typically once per day.
Energy / Lives
A system that limits how many attempts or sessions a user can have within a given time window.
Daily Login Reward
A system that gives users a reward simply for opening the app each day.
Variable Reward Schedule
A reward system where the outcome of an action is uncertain, the user knows they will receive something, but not exactly what.
Daily / Weekly Quests
Structured, time-limited objectives that direct user behaviour toward specific actions and reward completion.
Set Collection / Completion
A mechanic that organises rewards into named sets, where completing a set unlocks an additional reward or status.
Limited-Time Events
Temporary content, challenges, or reward tracks that expire on a fixed deadline, creating urgency to engage now.
Achievements / Milestones
Named, permanent markers of progress or behaviour that the user collects over time.
Challenges
Structured, completable objectives with a visible endpoint that users opt into, typically with social or competitive dimensions.
XP / Leveling
An experience point system where users accumulate points through actions, eventually reaching level thresholds that unlock rewards or status.
Season Pass / Battle Pass
A time-limited reward track with free and premium tiers, where completing in-app actions advances the user along a progression of rewards.
Piggy Bank
A mechanic that accumulates in-game currency over time, but requires a small purchase to unlock and collect what has built up.
First-Purchase Bonus
A significantly enhanced reward package offered exclusively on a user's first transaction.
Monthly Card
A subscription-adjacent product that provides a daily currency drip over 30 days in exchange for a single upfront payment.
Credits / Tokens
A virtual currency layer that mediates between real money and in-app spending.
Cosmetics
Purely visual items, skins, avatars, frames, that alter appearance without affecting gameplay or capability.
Ads
Advertising integrated into the app as a revenue mechanism, from intrusive interstitials to voluntary rewarded video.
Social Feed
A stream of user-generated activity, completed sessions, achievements, milestones, visible to followers or the community.
Community / Groups
Named groups with shared identity, shared history, and shared goals that users join and return to as members.
Clans / Guilds
Structured cooperative groups with internal roles, shared goals, contribution tracking, and collective rewards.
Leaderboards
A ranked list of users or groups ordered by a performance metric, making individual standing visible and publicly comparable.
Gifting
A mechanic that allows users to send items, currency, or resources to other users, creating cooperative social interactions.
Hard Currency
Premium currency purchased directly with real money and spent directly on in-app items or actions.
Soft Currency
In-game currency earned through play, not purchased.
Passive Construction Meta
A persistent construction or restoration layer where the output of the core activity — currency, completions, or time — is invested into visibly building something that accumulates across sessions: a village, a car, a city, a farm.