VR growth and engagement design for a live game

01 · The Core Loop

Four Features, One Product Problem

The brief included multiple monetization and engagement features, but designing each independently would have created four disconnected experiences. I mapped them as one loop so each system could give the player a clear next step.

Purchasing provides currency, bundles give that currency value, Daily Tasks create short-term goals and rewards, and Weekly Events extend the loop beyond a single session. Each one feeds the next — and mapping it out early gave us one question to check every decision against: does this make the next step clearer?

1. PPCoin packs

simplify the IAP structure with clear value differentiation

2. Bundle strategy

player-targeted bundles for different stages and spending behaviors

3. Daily Tasks

short-term goals that encourage daily engagement

4. Weekly Events

lightweight recurring events built on existing gameplay

Purchase → Spend → Play → Progress → Return · PPCoin → Bundles → Daily Tasks → Weekly Events

02 · Constraints

Designing Inside a Live VR Game

Every decision that followed was shaped by the same reality: this was a shipped VR game with players in it, not a blank canvas. Writing the constraints down early is what kept four systems consistent as scope grew from one ATM screen to the whole lobby and store.

Existing environment

work within the current lobby, store, and in-world UI rather than redesigning the entire experience

VR readability

important information must be understandable quickly from a comfortable VR viewing distance

Implementation scope

reuse existing gameplay, environments, and systems where possible

Information density

introduce monetization and engagement features without turning the lobby into a wall of UI

Live-product consistency

new systems need to coexist with the game's existing interaction and visual patterns

03 · PPCoin Purchase Experience

Simplifying the Purchase Decision

Buying PPCoins was harder to figure out than it needed to be. I proposed four packs with clearly separated prices — 2,000 at $2.99, 10,000 at $9.99, 60,000 at $29.99, and 180,000 at $59.99 — so the step up from one to the next is obvious.

Then I redesigned the in-world ATM to put the packs front and center. Balances sit in one compact row at the top, the packs take the rest, and the amounts and prices are sized to read from a comfortable distance instead of making you lean in.

The labels do the comparing. Best Value and Most Popular sit right on the packs they describe, and each tier has its own coin render, so you can tell the sizes apart before reading any numbers.

Compact balances

three currencies in one row instead of a competing panel

Pack-first layout

coin packs take the majority of the screen area

Merchandising labels

Best Value and Most Popular reduce comparison to a glance

Tiered coin renders

pack size is legible before the number is read

Enter lobby → Approach ATM → Compare packs → Purchase

04 · Bundle Strategy

Turning Cosmetics into Targeted Offers

Instead of one generic promotion, we defined four bundle types with different price points, contents, and levels of value. Starter gives new players a full loadout. Rescue is a lower-cost entry offer designed for more price-sensitive players. Hero rotates around one standout cosmetic. Premium is a larger collection at a higher value tier.

Each type has its own price, contents, duration, and audience — so one set of UI can handle very different offers without building a new screen for each.

It also had to work spatially. Rather than leaving bundles in menus, I explored putting them in the room: a life-size character wearing the loadout on a lit podium, with a panel next to it carrying the discount flag, the crossed-out price, the buy button, a countdown, and a grid of what's included.

Each bundle owns a color that runs through the character, the podium light, and the panel trim, so you can tell Shadow Strike, Blue Impact, and Crimson Storm apart from across the lobby. Seeing the outfit at full scale answers what a thumbnail grid never could: what you'll actually look like.

Starter

a complete introductory loadout for new players

Rescue

a lower-cost entry offer designed for more price-sensitive players

Hero

rotating offers built around one standout cosmetic item

Premium

a larger collection at a higher value tier

05 · Engagement System · Daily Tasks

Designing for Today

Monetization on its own wasn't going to fix engagement. Players also needed a reason to come back and something clear to do once they were in. I designed two engagement cadences: Daily Tasks for immediate direction and Weekly Events for recurring goals.

Daily Tasks give players immediate objectives and visible progress within a session. Tasks pull from different parts of the game — Playground and Practice, core multiplayer, and modes and variety — so objectives spread players across the game instead of repeating one action. In VR the hard part is density, not content: tasks sit up front in the lobby with simple progress states, a visible reward on each row, and locked states for what isn't open yet.

Playground / Practice

encourages exploration and skill development

Core multiplayer

directs players toward the primary multiplayer experience

Modes / variety

encourages players to explore more of the game

What should I do? → How far am I? → What do I earn?

06 · Engagement System · Weekly Events

Designing for the Week

Weekly Events create a longer recurring cadence using the game's existing mechanics and environments. The week splits into three activity types — solo exploration, skill practice, and multiplayer competition — that reuse gameplay we already had.

Golden Target Hunt, Quickshot Rush, and Knockout Clash all share one card structure: day range and countdown, event name, a one-line rule, PPCoin reward, progress state, and a destination-based action. A new event changes the content without asking players to learn a new layout.

Golden Target Hunt · Mon–Tue

find and shoot all hidden golden targets in Practice — 6/10 found

Quickshot Rush · Wed–Thu

hit the correct targets as fast as you can — best score against the clock

Knockout Clash · Fri–Sun

one elimination equals one event point — 18/30 points

Explore → Practice → Compete → Return

07 · Environment Integration

Bringing the Systems Together

The final direction puts monetization and engagement in the same room. Walk into the lobby and you can see Daily Tasks, the current Weekly Event, a featured bundle, and the ATM — all out in the open instead of buried in menus.

The lobby wall reads left to right. Leaderboard and stats tell you where you stand, the events board puts today's tasks and this week's event in one panel, and the featured bundle and ATM close the wall where interest is highest.

The store does the same thing with color-coded zones for Outfit, Mask, Bundles, Accessories, and Marker, so you browse by walking and looking instead of tabbing. Bundles hold the center wall, and the ATM sits by the entrance.

The scope decision was deliberate. I improved existing in-world UI where it already worked, introduced new UI only for the systems that needed it, and left the main menu and blackboard intact rather than redesigning the whole interface — not every system had to live on the main board.

The point wasn't to add more UI. It was to make the room we already had do more work.

Discover → Play → Progress → Earn → Purchase → Return

08 · Collaboration & Tradeoffs

What the Team and the Constraints Decided

None of this landed on the first pass. I'd take an exploration into review with the PM and producer, and the notes that came back usually had less to do with how it looked than with what product needed, what it would cost to build, or how it held up in a headset. Much of the final design reflects those tradeoffs rather than a single original vision.

These are the decisions I can point to a specific conversation or constraint for.

Product requirements

the PM brief defined which monetization and engagement systems were needed; my role was to connect them into one legible loop rather than four screens

Producer feedback

my first Weekly Events concept needed new gameplay, so I rebuilt it around three activity types that reuse modes we already shipped

Reusing existing systems

rather than building a new purchase screen, I kept the ATM as an in-world object and moved comparison into pack sizing and merchandising labels

VR viewing distance

early bundle cards looked readable on a monitor but became too dense when reviewed at VR viewing distance, so I enlarged the contents and discounts and reduced the visual weight of secondary information

Scope over rebuild

we kept the existing main menu and blackboard, improved in-world UI where it already worked, and added new UI only for systems that required it — balancing feature visibility against environmental clutter

09 · Outcome

One Framework Instead of Four Features

The final design direction connects PPCoin purchasing, bundles, Daily Tasks, and Weekly Events as one framework rather than four isolated features. Each system supports a different point in the loop — purchasing, spending, playing, progressing, and returning.

Purchase clarity

PPCoin packs are structured for faster comparison at VR viewing distance.

Offer discoverability

Featured bundles become visible parts of the environment rather than menu-only promotions.

Session direction

Daily Tasks give players clear short-term objectives and visible progress.

Recurring structure

Weekly Events create a repeatable engagement cadence using existing gameplay.

Environmental integration

The lobby and surrounding in-world UI become connecting surfaces across monetization and engagement systems.

10 · Reflection

What I Learned

Live-product design isn't always about rebuilding the experience. The harder problem is deciding what to change, what to preserve, and how new systems can work together inside constraints that already exist. Paintball Playground reinforced the value of treating monetization and engagement as one connected system while keeping changes focused on the parts of the product that needed them most.