A simple leaderboard changed player behavior in my puzzle game

3 points by keini 6mo ago ↗ HN

I released a small logic puzzle game a few weeks ago. It reached around 1000 installs with roughly 400 active players.

What surprised me wasn’t the growth, but player behavior.

I added a daily leaderboard mostly as a nice extra. No rewards, no social sharing, no incentives.

Players started replaying puzzles obsessively just to improve rank. Some would finish a level and immediately restart to shave off seconds.

It ended up driving more repeat sessions than progression itself.

Lesson learned: In logic games, light competition can outperform progression, even without rewards.

3 comments

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tocs3 6mo ago ↗

I have a Project Euler (https://projecteuler.net/) account. Though I do not register at all on the leader board I will sometimes work obsessively on a problem just to make one of the level icons light up for me. There is not really competition just a tiny reward.

[dead] trel1100 6mo ago ↗

[dead]

keini 6mo ago ↗

This is exactly the feeling I was aiming for. FuseCells was designed around quiet progress rather than competition — small visual confirmations that you’re improving, even if no one else is watching. It’s interesting how little it takes (a light, a completed grid) to trigger that “just one more” mindset.