Two New Custom Games in Vibe Studio: Smash It and Cross Hopper!

Vibe Studio has two new custom games, and in both of them a player can lose. One asks players to cross a busy road. The other asks them to keep a horde of zombies away from a house.

Both are built on Smartico's standard Voyager mechanics, and in both the prize is awarded only if the player wins.

Smash It!: keep the zombies away from the house

Players drag and smash zombies before the zombies reach the house. To win, they defeat the required number of zombies in time.

If the zombies get through, they start tearing the house down and the player's life bar decreases. When it reaches zero, the house is destroyed and the player loses. The accumulated prize is awarded only on a win, and nothing is awarded in a losing round.

Smash It! has three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium and Hard) and configurable minimum and maximum steps.

Cross Hopper: cross the road, collect the chips

The goal is to cross the road and collect the required number of Mystery Chips while avoiding traffic. Each hit from a vehicle reduces the player's health bar.

If the player collects enough Mystery Chips, the reward is revealed. If the traffic takes the health bar to zero first, the player loses the game and receives no prize.

What the two have in common

Each game gives the player a bar that drains and a clear way to lose. That is a different kind of round from draw-based mini-games such as wheels and scratch cards, where the reveal is the main event.

Our reading is that a real risk of losing gives a win more weight, and that having two moods to choose from, everyday traffic or a horror comedy, makes it easier to match a game to a promotion. That is our interpretation of the design, not a result measured on operator data.

Getting them live

Because both games use Voyager mechanics, they go with a Voyager mini-game. Smartico's Custom Games guide notes that a custom game has to use the same mechanics as the mini-game it replaces, so a Voyager-based game on a different mini-game type will not work correctly.

1. In Gamification, open your Voyager mini-game.
2. Turn on the "Use Custom Game" toggle. The Skin option is replaced by a Custom Game selector.
3. Choose the game you want. For Cross Hopper, that is the Cross Hopper global template from Vibe Studio.

Custom games need Vibe Studio on your label. If you don't see it, ask your Customer Success Manager.

Rewards stay where they are

The mini-game template remains the source of truth for rewards, prize pools, odds, limits and eligibility. They are configured in Gamification, Mini-games. Vibe Studio, Custom games is where the look and interaction live. You can link a different custom game later without affecting your rewards or configuration.

Good to know before launch

• Test with a test user. The preview plays real rounds: it uses the preview player's attempts, and prizes won in the preview are really given to that player.
• Translations live in the game. Write "/translate" in the Vibe Studio chat and the AI agent handles the rest, so one game can serve several languages.
• Desktop standalone mode has size settings. When "Use Custom Game" is on, the mini-game template lets you choose the default size, a custom width and height, or fullscreen.

Ways to use them

These are campaign ideas to consider, not product features:

• A themed promotion. Smash It! suits a Halloween or horror-themed week, and Cross Hopper suits everyday play.
• A weekly switch. Alternate the two games from week to week so a mini-game doesn't go stale.
• The end of a challenge. Make a round the payoff for finishing one of your daily or weekly missions.

Want to see these and many more retention-driving games from the Smartico catalogue in action? Book your free, in-depth demo below.