The Channel 3 alpha has been live with real users since July 1, when we started Season 1. It has gone really really well. Exceeded all my expectations, goals, and benchmarks.
There is a ton of polishing to be done around fundamental user experience stuff, and yet, I’m still adding new features. Why????
Well Season 2 starts 10/1. So there are some things that need to be added for that. But also, before fully polishing UX, I need to build out the essential elements of the platform. And one of those essential elements is: digital stickiness.
Digital stickiness is not your controller after your kid plays Fortnite while eating a popsicle. I’m talking about the features that bring you back to an online platform daily.
This is important because Channel 3 is so vertically focused on gaming specifically. It’s not exactly like Twitter where you can mindlessly scroll… for whatever. You check it when you want gaming content.
And to break someone’s digital app routine is a big deal. So we need that sticky factor that keeps you checking back.
Within Channel 3 we have daily XP, and that helps…
But we need something STICKIER. So I present…. daily mini-games.
🎯Target
You’re shown a screenshot of gameplay. You click on the map where that gameplay is happening. “Like GeoGuessr?” Sure, like GeoGuessr… for video games.
Here are a few from Fortnite…
Do you know where these are? How close do you think you could guess?
Here is the game in action on mobile…
This game is still under development, so right now it’s only Fortnite. But could easily be extended to the game of your choice. Zelda Breath of the Wild? Apex Legends? Elden Ring? STAY TUNED.
🧐Enhance
You’re shown a pixelated game cover for a popular game. If you guess it, you win! If not, “ENHANCE…”
Do you know what game this is? (Like Wordle, you’ll probably have a go to Starter Guess. Extremely rare to get it right on the first guess.)
Enhance…
Now? If so, you’re amazing.
You get 8 tries. Here’s the full progression…
And another for funsies…
The idea for Enhance is from gaming mastermind Dan Tucker. Dan is one of our Channel 3 Librarians. He also casts events, curates news, makes memes, posts on social, and more! WHOA. H3art of the cr3w! Huge props to Dan for everything. I’ll never ever forget his early belief and contributions to this crazy dream called Channel 3.
Want to play again? I bet you do. That’s digital stickiness!
There’s a new 🎯Target and a new 🧐Enhance… every day. Users come back, play again, and make it part of their daily routine.
We keep stats so gamers can compare their lifetime averages with friends and notable gaming influencers and celebrities.
How mini-games tie in to the Channel 3 revenue model
Reminder: The Channel 3 revenue model is NOT ad-based, like traditional social platforms that are making money on YOUR DATA.
Instead, my goal is to make Channel 3 a subscription-based model. So far, so good. Out of ~500 registered users, 10% are paying subscribers. That feels realllly good to me. I’m thrilled with this.
In Season 2 I am simplifying the Turbo model. It will be a flat $5 per month, recurring. Users can pay by month ($5), season ($15), or year ($60).
These games are technically not even released yet. They’re part of Season 2. Users need Season 2 Turbo to play them.
The alpha users found this out this week and the response has been amazing in the best way. 16 users bought Season 2 Turbo a month early just to try these games out!
(And it’s exactly split on paying per month, season, or year.)
One more thing…
There is a third mini-game I am working on with Jeff Mihalik. Stay tuned. 👀
Stickiness!