ABSTRACT
The nature of a Retention Layer varies with genre, and its complexity must be adapted for the target audience. Anthropy is focused on the Base Layer and prefers to use the tools of Base Layer design to drive her narrative. The objective of a star system is to bring players back into the game to replay previous levels, which is cheaper than building new levels. Players who are finding the game too hard are less likely to quit in frustration and never return if they are shown a clear route to making progress. The goal of the game is to develop an underground vault, dug into the mountainside following a nuclear apocalypse. Pointless Achievements exist because some platform holders insist that games should have Achievements. The physical game is a “balance things on top of other things” game, a variant of Jenga with odd-shaped animal objects.
