Retry Rate: Do Players Want One More Go?
Retry rate is the share of players who start again after they lose. A high rate usually means they felt it was their own mistake and want one more go, and a low rate means they have had enough, so read it next to how many win in the end.
What does a retry rate tell you that a win rate cannot?
It tells you how a loss felt. Neon Tumble is an invented arcade game, and these numbers are made up for this example. Levels 5 and 6 look alike on paper: about the same share of players lose. But look at what they do next.
| Level | Players who lost | Started again | Very likely between | Usual pause before restarting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 300 | 252, or 84% | 79% and 88% | 2 seconds |
| 6 | 160 | 72, or 45% | 38% and 53% | 14 seconds |
Each player counts once here, by what they did after their first loss, so one stubborn person cannot look like a crowd.
Level 5 is healthy. People lose, and two seconds later they are back. That quick restart is the sound of "that was my fault, I can do this". Level 6 has a problem you would not see in a win rate. More than half leave after their first loss, and the ranges for the two levels are far apart, so this is not chance.
The pause is the extra clue. A usual gap of 14 seconds means something stands between losing and trying again. It may be the player sitting there sighing, but it may be the game. The maker looked, and there it was: level 6 plays an 11-second replay after every loss, and it cannot be skipped.
How do you read retries and wins together?
A retry rate alone does not tell you whether a level is good. Put it next to how many win in the end.
| Started again | Won in the end | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Many | Many | Hard and fair. Leave it alone. |
| Many | Few | They want it, and they cannot get it. Look for something unfair. |
| Few | Many | Those who stay manage. Losing costs too much, or it feels cheap. |
| Few | Few | People are giving up. Look here first. |
The second row is the one that fools people. High retries feel like success, but if players restart 30 times without getting anywhere, you have a grind and not a challenge.
How do you bring players back for another go?
Change what stands between a loss and the next try.
- Make restarting instant. One press, under a second, with no walk back and no menu.
- Make the reason visible. A loss should show what killed you, so that the next try has a plan.
- Shrink what a loss costs. A checkpoint often does more than weaker enemies.
The maker took out the replay, the cheapest of these. He then watched for level 6 to rise towards level 5. If it does not, the next suspect is the laser that fires from off screen.
Level 6 only had 160 players who lost, which is plenty here because the gap is so wide. With 15 players, 7 of 15 could mean anything from 25% to 70%. In that case, watch people play instead. The difficulty curve recipe gives you retries and pauses for each level.
Paste this to your AI
Tell me how losing feels in my game. The event log is in [file or folder].
1. Draw what happens from the moment a player loses until they can play again as a Mermaid state diagram. List every screen, replay and walk back, with its length in seconds, read from the code.
2. Use get_recipe with difficulty-curve if Spielerando is connected. For each level, show: players who lost, how many started again after their first loss, the 95% range, the usual pause before restarting, and how many won in the end. Count each player once.
3. Compare the real pause with the diagram. If they do not match, tell me which you trust.
4. Sort the levels into four groups: many or few restart, many or few win. Show which group each is in, and the numbers behind it.
Pick the level with the worst mix, and name the one thing that most slows down trying again. Do not tell me a level is fun because people retry it. If under 30 players lost on a level, leave it out and say so.
Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP
How to check it worked
- Lose on purpose and count. How many seconds until you can play again?
- Check the log. The pause there should match your count.
- Look for the restart. Would a new player find it at once?
- Watch a stranger lose. Do they lean in, or put it down?