For The Win – Studio Tinymoon

FTW: Feature Design & Retention Strategy

For the Win is a sci-fi mobile FPS released in 2025 by Jungle. During soft launch, the team set two priorities:

1. Improve D1 retention

2. Ship new features to boost engagement

PROJECT TIMELINE
6 months

ROLE  
UI/UX Designer

YEAR 
2024 

TEAM 
Product Manager, Engineers,
Game Designer, Art team

DELIVERABLES
Feature Breakdown
Competitive Analysis 
Wireframes
Mockups
Documentation
Asset production

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
UI Concept: Aline Paffaro

IMPROVING RETENTION

FTUE

In the soft launch build, core gameplay and meta systems had no introduction beyond the basic controls. Without structured onboarding or a logical progression, players had no clear path from learning the basics to engaging with the rest of the game, which contributed to low retention.

18%

0.5%

SOLUTION

I split the introduction of core gameplay and meta features into 7 chunks. Each chunk introduces one new mechanic, followed by gameplay so players can practice it before the next one arrives.

To define the sequence, I worked with three inputs:

1. Genre benchmarks, to better understand the pacing and how much to teach at once.

2. Game system specs, to map dependencies between features, so nothing was introduced before the player had what they needed to use it.

3. Product goals, to decide which features had to come early to support D1 retention.

1. CONTROLS

2. SHOP & EQUIPPING

3. GAME MODE - 5v5

4. COLLECTIBLES & UPGRADES

5. GAME MODE - 3v3

6. MISSIONS

7. LOADOUT

Narrative as an engagement driver

A narrator character guides players through the key moments of the FTUE, introducing each new mechanic as part of the story. This gave the FTUE a continuous thread and made the game feel more immersive from the start.

NARRATIVE