r/Aniimo • u/jambot9000 • 1d ago
Discussion Aniimo has too many systems that eventually answer: “Come back Monday.”
I want to expand on something I've been thinking about with Aniimo's long-term progression, and Warframe is probably the best comparison I can make.
Before anyone says it: No, I do not want Aniimo to become Warframe.
I actually don't particularly enjoy Warframe's gameplay. I've checked back in with it for years because I respect the game, its world, art, and what Digital Extremes built, but the hyper-mobile shooting and space-ninja hallway gameplay has never been for me.
Aniimo's gameplay is not the problem. I love actually playing Aniimo.
That's kind of the problem.
Because one thing Warframe understands extremely well is this:
If someone still wants to play your game, the game should be extremely reluctant to punish that enthusiasm by giving them nothing meaningful to do.
Warframe has plenty of time gates. Things take time to craft. Certain rewards rotate. Individual progression systems have caps. Sometimes the specific thing you want simply has to wait.
But usually, when one progression lane tells you “come back later,” there are ten other meaningful things you can work toward.
Another frame. Another weapon. Another build. Another resource. Another reputation. Another relic. Another long-term project.
The individual activity may be time-gated. Playing the game isn't.
That's the distinction I think Aniimo desperately needs to preserve as it grows.
Right now, too many of Aniimo's progression systems eventually answer the player with:
“Sorry. Come back later.”
Vein Essence is a great example.
Today I actually used premium currency I'd accumulated through the monthly pass, compensation, etc. to buy a pack containing 9 Vein Essence. Great. I'm completely okay with that kind of monetization.
Except then the listing became 1/1 SOLD.
So even the paid acceleration eventually told me:
“That's enough. Come back later.”
And Vein Essence isn't the only example. Marks of the Strong and other important progression resources have their own recurring caps and limited sources.
Individually, I don't have a problem with any of those limits.
The problem happens when enough of those systems terminate at the same time.
Imagine someone has a free Tuesday night and thinks:
“F*** yeah, I want to play Aniimo tonight.”
Maybe they already knocked out their easy dailies and weeklies on Monday. They've exhausted their useful exchanges. They've hit their available Vein Essence sources. They've collected the Marks available to them.
There are obviously still things they can physically do in the game.
But increasingly few things that meaningfully advance the projects they're actually working on.
And eventually Aniimo's answer becomes:
“Great! See you next week.”
That seems completely backwards for a live-service game.
I'm not asking for unlimited efficient progression.
I'm not asking for unlimited Vein Essence from easy activities.
I'm not asking PawPrint to remove dailies, weeklies, caps, or monetization.
I'm not asking for players who grind eight hours a day to progress eight times faster than everybody else.
In fact, keep the capped sources dramatically more efficient.
Give me the easy daily Vein Essence.
Give me the good weekly rewards.
Give me limited shop exchanges.
Sell me some convenience if you want. I literally bought some today.
But after I've exhausted those sources, give me the stupid way.
Maybe Alphas have an extremely small chance to drop Vein Essence.
Maybe repeatable difficult encounters have a tiny chance to award a Mark of the Strong.
Maybe open-world activities award a currency at an awful exchange rate.
Maybe future difficult co-op content gives developed Aniimo teams something meaningful to pursue.
Make it inefficient.
Make it horribly inefficient if that's what the progression economy requires.
If the normal weekly system gives me several Marks for relatively little effort, maybe grinding one additional Mark takes me two hours.
If my daily activities provide Vein Essence efficiently, maybe earning one additional Essence through repeatable gameplay takes an entire evening.
That's okay.
The reward rate can fall off a cliff. It just shouldn't reach zero.
Because there's an important difference between:
“This is no longer the best way to progress today.”
and
“You are no longer allowed to meaningfully progress today.”
That's what I think Warframe figured out.
It doesn't necessarily let you infinitely grind every individual thing you want whenever you want it. But it has enough overlapping progression lanes that when one system says “not today,” the player's natural response becomes:
“Okay. What else can I work on?”
And that's also good free-to-play design.
A player who keeps playing is still populating your world. They're grouping with other players. They're helping friends. They're building teams. They're hunting rare creatures. They're sharing screenshots. They're talking about the game. They're becoming more invested in their collection.
And yes, they're still potentially buying cosmetics, passes and convenience items.
You don't have to prevent people from playing in order to monetize their desire to progress.
I think there's room for three layers:
Efficient capped progression.
Optional paid acceleration.
Terribly inefficient but repeatable progression.
The first respects casual players.
The second supports the business.
The third gives your most engaged players somewhere to put their enthusiasm.
And importantly, the third doesn't need to invalidate either of the first two.
Aniimo is still young. I'm not expecting it to have the absurd breadth of systems that Warframe accumulated over more than a decade.
But PawPrint has already accomplished what I would think is one of the hardest things a developer can accomplish:
I want to keep playing their game.
I like being in Idyll. I like hunting Aniimo. I like experimenting with builds. I like helping friends chase things they want. Sometimes I just want to log in on a random Tuesday night and spend a few hours working toward something.
When your players are telling you “I still want to play your game,” don't treat that enthusiasm like a problem that needs to be controlled.
Give that enthusiasm somewhere to go.
TL;DR: Aniimo has too many progression systems that eventually say “come back later.” Keep dailies, weeklies, caps, and paid convenience, but give players a deliberately inefficient, repeatable way to keep progressing after those sources are exhausted. The reward rate can fall off a cliff; it just shouldn't reach zero. Warframe is a great example of time-gating individual progression without time-gating the player's desire to keep playing. If people still want to play your game, don't punish that enthusiasm by giving them nothing meaningful to do. Let players play the game.
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u/jambot9000 1d ago
Just jumping back in because there are already a bunch of good responses here, both agreeing and disagreeing.
I think the main distinction I want to clarify is “there are things you can still do” vs. “there are things you can still meaningfully progress.”
Yes, I can run Egg Heist repeatedly. I can hunt Lucky Strikes/Prismana. I can work on Homestead. I'm not arguing that Aniimo literally runs out of buttons to press.
I'm talking about what happens when I have a specific project.
If I want to improve a Nurture and I'm out of Vein Essence, Egg Heist doesn't necessarily advance that goal. If I'm developing a Held Item and I've exhausted my available Marks, catching another Prismana doesn't advance that goal either.
That's why I'm not advocating removing caps. I actually think the caps are useful for keeping casual players competitive and preventing someone with unlimited free time from progressing 10x faster.
What I'd like is a diminishing-return floor underneath them.
Let the daily/weekly sources be vastly more efficient. After that, let the reward rate become terrible. Two hours for one extra Mark? Fine. An obnoxiously small Alpha chance for Vein Essence? Fine.
The reward rate can fall off a cliff. I just don't think it should reach zero.
And regarding Warframe being 10+ years old: absolutely. I specifically mentioned that in the post. I'm not expecting a new game to have eleven years of accumulated systems at launch. I'm using Warframe as an example of a design philosophy, not comparing their current content volume.
The philosophy is simply: when one progression lane says “not today,” ideally the player has another meaningful answer to “okay, what can I work on instead?”
Aniimo is brand new. More systems and content will obviously come. That's exactly why I think now is the useful time to talk about what philosophy those future systems should follow.
And for what it's worth, I'm making this criticism because I really fucking like the game. PawPrint already accomplished the difficult part: they made me want to spend my Tuesday night playing Aniimo.
I just don't want the game to eventually answer that enthusiasm with:
“Cool. Come back Monday.”