I feel like people in the game/metaverse industry haven't grasped how huge Sky: Children of the Light, the virtual world from Jenova Chen and his studio Thatgamecompany, has become. In 2023 it had over 50 million monthly active users and earned a record for most concurrent users for a live virtual concert; based on recent download/rating numbers, it's likely to have upwards of 100 million MAU now. (I'm checking that with Jenova.)
As a latest sign of its hugeness, the studio produced a feature film inspired by the world, and is debuting it inside the world itself. (Watch the trailer above.)
Speaking of which, I interviewed Jenova for Making a Metaverse That Matters, where he shared some design innovations which helped make Sky such a huge success. Here's an excerpt:
"So when we approached our metaverse design for the society of Sky, we wanted to simulate what reality is. In reality, we are social animals by nature, and there's social consequences."
Chen sees those consequences emerging from our evolution as a species, when ostracization from hunter gatherer tribes did not mean being banished to 4Chan, but being abandoned in the wild to defend oneself.
"And so, to me, it's like: how can we simulate that evolutionary biology?"
“[Designing] how people socialize is so delicate that I feel like if people who design the Metaverse do not pay attention, they could easily create a very tricky situation." After 20 years of writing about the chaos and drama eruptions from poor social design, I'd call this an understatement.
Chen's innovation is to change the game structure, so it’s not based around defeating opponents (a la Fortnite) or earning achievement badges (a la Roblox), nor leveling up as in traditional MMORPGs.
“We don't have role playing game leveling -- but we have leveling for relationships." Only at mutual level two, for instance, can you share your name with another player, or even share a hug. While this might seem artificial, Chen suggests it models how strangers become friendly only after several random street encounters; it takes awhile for a level of trust to develop.
These mechanics, he adds, do not come with a reward beyond the activities you share with a friend -- there are no “karma points or other benefits” as is common in many virtual worlds and social platforms. “That's like the worst way to start a friendship,” says Chen. “We learned that human relations cannot be meddled with any gamification.”)
The avatars in Sky are humanoid but genderless, evoking Studio Ghibli characters, and are intentionally without race -- their skins are dark grayish hue.
"We don't really care about gender either because you know, a lot of people, their gender in their mind and the gender of their body is different. And it doesn't really matter if they are a man or a woman in real life. As long as they are who they are in the virtual world.
Chen's team also minimizes class bias through its monetization system as a free-to-play virtual world. Where most metaverse platforms will have a sliding scale of avatar enhancements based on quality and price -- so as in real life, it's fairly easy to spot a wealthy person with a single glass at the finery of their clothing -- Sky's system is based around gifts you can buy for other players.
"Half of our design is about how you buy things for other people," as Chen puts it. "Rather than buy things for yourself. So it's altruistic spending. Yeah, I think right now, you know, about half of the players who use our season pass, they're getting a season pass from a friend.
Often this is done by players across countries as a bridge between economic disparity, with (for instance) relatively well off people in Japan and the United States gifting friends in Sky based in the Philippines.
Over 22% of Sky's revenue now comes from player-to-player gifts -- a truly impressive number, and a proof point that Chen's approach is working.
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