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
A social fitness system where the activity is the content.
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.
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.