Systems
A system is the loop, not the parts. A system map shows how one app's mechanics connect and feed each other: the streak that protects a reward, the reward that pulls the next session. Each map is drawn in our house language, nodes for mechanics and red lines for the connections that carry the most weight.
Strava
Recording an activity is the hub the rest of the system runs on.
Uptime
A micro-learning app where achievement cards are designed as social media content rather than in-app trophies.
Calm
A wellness app that builds five daily return reasons from a single free check-in suite.
Canva
A design platform where the achievement system distributes verifiable credentials designed for LinkedIn.
Capybara Go!
A layered progression system where every session adds to multiple tracks simultaneously.
Chrome Valley Customs
A puzzle game where every match-3 coin is immediately converted into a named change on a 3D car the player is authoring.
Clash of Clans
A base-building game where Town Hall level is the gate to every other mechanic in the game.
Cleo
A finance app whose central mechanics are not new tasks but judgments on data the user already produced.
FC Mobile
A monetisation system where the revenue mechanics are also the retention mechanics.
FIFA Panini Collection
A digital collectible system where the physical world is an integral acquisition channel.
FitOn
A fitness platform that front-loads its community identity before the user has done a single workout.
Fortune City
A budgeting app where the gamification is entirely free and the actual financial tools are behind the paywall.
Freeletics
A fitness coaching app that runs its lowest price past the user three times before the first workout.
Gymverse
A gym planning app where the paywall is a soft suggestion and the streak protection mechanic is unavailable when it would be most useful.
Insight Timer
A wellness system that uses behavioral science arguments to earn the commitment it then mechanizes.
Ladder
A fitness app where the coaching team is the product, not the workout library.
Liftoff
A strength training app where every muscle group has its own rank, and every logged set advances it.
Match Creek Motors
A puzzle game where the episode ends with a buyer negotiation instead of a reveal cinematic, making the player an active participant in the sale.
PicsArt
A creative platform where the content feed is also the product demo and the challenge is also the currency system.
Royal Match
A casual system where the social mechanic surfaces exactly when the core friction becomes painful.
Solitaire Grand Harvest
A casual game where a single bet-multiplier decision affects five downstream reward variables simultaneously.
Steam (iOS)
A gaming platform where a deeply developed cosmetics catalogue is funded retroactively by purchases the user was already making.
Subway Surfers
An ad economy where every reward surface has a monetization path and every monetization path has a bypass.
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
A collectible RPG where 300+ characters are visible from the first session, each with a Find button showing exactly how to acquire them.
Tiimo
A planning app for neurodivergent users where unlocking an achievement changes the ambient visual environment of the screen.
Wispr Flow
A productivity tool that justifies its retention mechanic on functional grounds, the only app in the library to do so.