Parchisi
Star
A teardown of Gameberry Labs' Parchisi STAR, two live-ops events designed for it, and a clickable prototype of a third: The Matador Arena, where every capture earns a red cape.
Game analysis
Live-ops events
Interactive prototype
The game
Parchisi STAR
Parchisi STAR is a multiplayer board game where players roll dice, move their pieces with some strategy, and capture opponents to get all their pieces home first. It mixes luck, tactical choices and head-to-head play in short matches.
Before designing anything for it, we pulled the game apart: what players do every match, what keeps them coming back, and which motivations it already serves.
Studio
Gameberry Labs
Released
17 February 2017 on Android, 9 March 2017 on iOS
Format
Short, competitive multiplayer matches staked with coins
Core loop
Stake, roll, race home
Every match starts with a stake. Winning returns it with rewards and opens higher-tier rooms; losing costs it. Either way, the loop ends at the same place: play again.
Meta systems
Player motivation
What players play it for
We scored the game against the Quantic Foundry motivation model, out of 8. Community leads by a distance; story and fantasy barely register.
7
Community
More modes mean more ways to play with others, from clubs to offline games with friends.
5
Completion
Less central, but there are dice, skins and emoji to collect.
5
Competition
Different modes give more chances to compete.
4
Power
Little sense of power or status.
4
Design
Little room for creativity or customisation.
3
Challenge
Players can pick higher stakes and different modes.
3
Strategy
Modes ask for slightly different tactics, but they're similar.
3
Excitement
A capture rewards 20 moves and reaching home rewards 10, and coins are on the line.
3
Discovery
Players can explore different modes.
1
Fantasy
Very little role-play or escapism.
1
Destruction
Capturing has a destructive edge, but not much of one.
0
Story
Almost no narrative.
One thing we'd change
A win streak
Reward players more for every win in a row. Each step up the streak gives the next match a reason to happen: the one-more-game pull.
2 wins
Coins
→
3 wins
Chest
→
4 wins
Gems
→
5 wins
Cosmetic
The single metric it should move
Day 7 retention
The share of players who come back and play seven days after their first session.
Streak rewards keep players going past a single match, especially when they're already winning. And a streak worth protecting is a reason to come back the next day, too.
Event 1
Parchisi Hour
A daily window, from 8 PM, layered onto normal matches. Winning isn't the only objective any more: the bigger your margin over your opponent, the bigger the multiplier on your rewards.
1×
→
2×
→
4×
→
8×
The core loop changes in one place: after progressing toward home, players push to beat their opponent by a bigger margin, and that margin sets the multiplier.
Time-gating
“8 PM every day” turns the event into an appointment, a scheduled reason to open the game.
Intent
Engagement, retention, monetisation
A daily reason to return at 8 PM, more play during the window, and a chance at bigger rewards.
Who
One player against an opponent
Players compete head to head; the event adds no separate leaderboard or teams.
Where
The existing Parchisi match
It sits on top of normal matches rather than adding a new board or mini-game.
How
Time-limited event, margin milestones, multiplier
Normal matches during Parchisi Hour, with the multiplier climbing 1× → 2× → 4× → 8× as the winning margin grows.
Primary motivation
Competition, reward, challenge
Not just winning, but winning by more, to reach the higher multipliers.
Secondary motivation
Urgency, habit, FOMO
It only runs for a limited time each day, so players return at a set time before the chance is gone.
Event 2
Fortune Room
A once-a-day push-your-luck mini-game beside the main game. Four cards lie face down: three hold rewards, one hides the Witch.
• Pick one card at a time.
• A reward card adds to your winnings for this run, and you move on to the next round.
• The Witch takes everything you've collected, and the run ends.
• Every fifth round is a Jackpot round with no Witch: a guaranteed safe pick.
• You can leave at any round and keep what you've won.
• The first entry each day is free. After that, re-entry costs currency or money.
The entry screen
Four cards, next jackpot round shown
A new power: the jar protects rewards
The Witch: give up or play on
A jackpot round with 2× rewards
Intent
Engagement, retention, monetisation
A short extra activity every 24 hours, a risk-reward goal, and a reason to pay for re-entry.
Who
Level 3 and up
Players know the core game before they reach it; the mini-game itself is played alone.
Where
A new mini-game
A separate layer inside Parchisi STAR, apart from the normal match loop.
How
Push your luck, random picks, building rewards
Each reward card raises the stakes; the Witch can take it all. Leave any time, and every fifth round is safe.
Primary motivation
Rewards, excitement
Rewards keep growing while the hidden Witch makes every pick tense.
Secondary motivation
Risk, challenge
Bank it now or risk it for more: a simple decision that still matters.
The prototype
The Matador Arena
Our third event, built as a clickable prototype. Every capture in a standard match earns a red cape, so the move players already enjoy most now counts toward something bigger.
1
Capture to collect
Knock opponent tokens off the board in standard matches to earn red capes, +10 per capture. Capes count whether you win or lose.
2
Collect those capes
Gather as many as you can over the event.
3
Check progress in Events
See your total and your place on the milestone track.
Two tracks
The free track pays coins and gems. The Matador Track adds bigger rewards at every milestone, from 1-star cards and XP boosts to dice parts, an arena theme and the Royal Bullring.
$3.99 add-on
The Matador Track unlocks as an extra for Season Pass holders.
The flow
1. Home
A bull badge on the home screen shows the event and your red capes so far.
2. The pop-up
Three rules and one button: Enter Arena.
3. The match
A normal match. Knock an opponent's token off the board and a red cape flies to the meter.
4. The result
Win or lose, the summary counts captures and capes toward the event.
5. Events tab
The arena card shows your progress across the whole event.
6. Milestone track
Seven milestones from 400 to 6,500. Scroll it, as in the prototype.
Team
The event start from the same idea: give players a reason beyond the win. the Matador Arena turns captures into progress.
Aashish Anand
Bhuwanyu Agrawal
Aashish Dev Raju
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