Problem with FTUE
Candy Crush Saga loses 70% of their players during the First Time User experience. This represents a massive opportunity cost in player acquisition and long-term revenue potential.
The data reveals critical drop-off points throughout the onboarding journey, with the most significant losses occurring during booster introduction and early level progression.
FTUE Impact Overview
Player Loss Rate
7 out of 10 players lost during FTUE
Players Lost
From 1M new daily players
Critical Drop-off
Biggest loss point: 45% → 30%
Player Drop-off Throughout FTUE Journey
1M New Daily Users
FTUE Strategic Vision
Recognizing that scattered, tactical fixes wouldn't address systemic FTUE issues, I took strategic ownership to develop a comprehensive player experience vision that was adopted organization-wide. This foundational work established the design philosophy and strategic approach that continues to guide all FTUE development across Candy Crush, demonstrating how strategic UX leadership can drive long-term business value through systematic design thinking.
Strategic Foundation
Get more players to experience Candy's strategic depth through superior FTUE that drives retention and builds daily habits.
Cut through the noise—let players discover Candy's depth through invisible learning that makes them feel clever, not taught.
Transform onboarding into gameplay-integrated tutorials that are meaningful and progressively discovered through natural gameplay.
Player Experience Vision
"Create invisible learning experiences that guide players to mastery while making them feel clever, not taught"
What are Boosters?
Strategic Booster Mechanics
Boosters are the strategic foundation of Candy Crush gameplay — powerful tools that transform impossible levels into achievable victories. The booster system demonstrates strategic depth through its interface and immediate gameplay impact.
Understanding each booster's unique mechanics and strategic applications is essential for players to develop mastery and make informed decisions during challenging moments.
Research & UX Audit
A systematic product quality review by PMs and Researchers identified the most pervasive FTUE issues, which I translated into actionable design improvements backed by qualitative and quantitative insights. Our systematic approach combined quantitative user analytics with qualitative expert reviews, creating a comprehensive audit that prioritized issues by both player impact and business value.
50+
Unique Problems
7
Critical Priority
20
Internal Evaluators
1000
Users Surveyed
FTUE Problem Priority Analysis
PROBLEM
PRIORITY
"🚀 This comprehensive audit became the foundation for our systematic FTUE redesign, turning scattered feedback into a strategic roadmap for player experience improvements."
Problems with Boosters FTUE
Based on the Product Quality Review of Candy Crush Saga's FTUE, I identified and prioritized five foundational onboarding issues, drawing on user research and direct feedback from first-time players.
Poor Understanding
Players unlock boosters without understanding how to use them, leading to low adoption and missed monetization opportunities.
Impact:
65% of players never use their first booster, directly reducing purchase conversion and long-term engagement.
Hard-Coded Tutorials
Still using the same basic popup system from 2012 launch. Tutorials are not dynamic or adjustable, limiting iteration speed.
Impact:
Requires engineering resources for every tutorial change, slowing UX improvements and A/B testing cycles.
Popup-Heavy Onboarding
Booster tutorials add to an already crowded popup ecosystem, creating fatigue and causing players to skip key instructions.
Impact:
Reduces learning effectiveness and breaks gameplay flow at critical moments.
Poor Context & Flow Structure
The flow presents score summary with animated stars, but gets disrupted mid-sequence by a booster introduction popup.
Impact:
Fragments user's mental model during critical learning moments, reducing comprehension.
Slow Booster Rollout
Candy Crush waits until Level 90+ to unlock some boosters, while rivals showcase them within the first 20 levels. This delay makes early play feel repetitive and less rewarding.
Impact:
Drives players to faster-paced competitors who offer more engaging early-game experiences.
Problem–Solution Framework
After analyzing the core issues, I developed targeted solutions for each problem area, focusing on contextual learning and seamless integration.
FTUE System Evolution
Original Launch
Basic popup system implemented for booster introduction tutorials
Same Structure, Same Problems
Despite 13 years, onboarding still happens post-game round at suboptimal timing for player comprehension
Problem–Solution Framework
Problem Solution Framework Mapping
I treated the most critical FTUE issues as design constraints, ensuring every solution directly addressed a friction point in the player journey. This framework created an onboarding experience that is contextual, dynamic, scalable, and invisible to the player. By pairing each pain point with a clear, flexible solution — and applying the FTUE design principles established in our strategic vision — we have a clear framework for approaching all FTUE & onboarding experiences in the future.
Mapping Problem to Solution
Poor Booster Context
Contextualized and immediately usable
Flawed Popup format
Dynamic overlay above gameplay
Hard Coded
Modular, scalable, and easily adjustable system
Late Introduction
Front-loaded, lifecycle-aware, progressive disclosure
Initial Concepts
Key design changes focused on timing, clarity, animation, and connection to create a more intuitive booster introduction experience.
Design Implementation Changes
1
Improving contextual understanding by moving the Booster ahead of the game round for immediate usage.
2
Instructional copywriting that succinctly explains the booster mechanic
3
Booster seeding animation to indicate how many boosters enter the player's inventory
4
Boosters animate into the booster bar to draw a causal connection to the booster bar UI.
"Candy Crush Saga's character mascots are under-utilized. We explored inserting the characters to celebrate the unlock moment, without taking away focus from the booster."
In-Game Booster Design
Party booster in-game demonstration
UFO booster in-game demonstration
Lollipop hammer booster in-game demonstration
The new implementation introduces boosters at the exact point of use, providing live demonstrations that show their mechanics in action. By contextualizing boosters within active gameplay rather than abstract explanations, players immediately understand their value and purpose, making the learning experience memorable and actionable.
Before
Seeded after a game round, with a subpar tutorial.
After
Seeded right before a game round starts, immediately usable.
"Decoupled FTUE from fixed level triggers, replacing the hard-coded popup with a configurable system."
Future Slices — Work in Progress
Improved UI & Art
This flexible framework enables future visual improvements for FTUE and onboarding of any game elements. By removing hard-coded barriers, the team now has full control over UI updates and iterations.
Load Screen Reinforcement Learning
In a concurrent project I'm working on that complements the new booster tutorial sequences, I designed load screen micro-tutorials that flash core gameplay concepts during transitions, turning dead time into passive learning moments that reinforce mechanics without interrupting play.
Pre-Game Booster Design
The new implementation moved booster introduction from post-game to pre-game, allowing immediate usage and better comprehension.
Before
Old popup format that did not differentiate pre-game boosters from in-game ones.
After
Auto-selected pre-game boosters that teach players they can equip certain boosters right before the game round.
Success Metrics & Key Learnings
This project reinforced the importance of designing for immediate value discovery rather than comprehensive feature education. By focusing on the moment players first experience meaningful progress with boosters, we fundamentally shifted our approach to onboarding.
Player Drop-off Throughout FTUE Journey — Before vs After
1M New Daily Users
"Players don't need to understand everything upfront — they need to experience joy quickly and build confidence through progressive success."
"Our streamlined tutorial prioritized showing value over infantilizing users with excessive explanation, showing that effective onboarding with progressive disclosure is stronger when we focus on the player experience and early game perceptions, rather than information transfer by brute force."
Framework & Future Applications
The flexible booster tutorial system we developed can be adapted for other game elements and onboarding scenarios. By decoupling tutorials from hard-coded triggers, the team gained more control over iteration and testing without requiring engineering changes for each adjustment.
Long-term Impact
The design principles established through this project have influenced subsequent onboarding initiatives at King. The approach of prioritizing immediate value discovery over comprehensive explanation has become a reference point for future FTUE work, contributing to more player-centered design decisions.