![\"love](\"http:\/\/www.dashjump.com\/setup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/love-couple.jpg\")
\nAs far as game stars go, Eddie Rhodes comes across unusually blunt. Maybe the confidence came when his game attracted a following, became a cult hit, and starting making real money. Maybe it\u2019s all a fa\u00e7ade, carefully designed to fully exploit his exposure in the press. Maybe he was born with it.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, it\u2019s well deserved. After only two years, Rhodes\u2019 game Nexbit<\/i> has exploded from personal project to major cultural phenomenon. Not content to just be a game maker, he\u2019s proved himself a shrewd businessman as well, leveraging the game\u2019s popularity into a personal fortune.<\/p>\n
Impressively, Rhodes has achieved all of these milestones at the age of 22.<\/p>\n
And Nexbit<\/i> is his first game.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up playing thoughtful stuff like Michael Silverman\u2019s I Wish<\/i>, Alex Beachum\u2019s Heavenly Droplets<\/i>, Tom Astle\u2019s Senstellar, <\/i>a bunch of Minecraft-likes \u2013 mainly the classics, really. [My younger brother] Tom had a few consoles growing up, but I could never get into boxed games. With the tablet, it\u2019s just a much more personal experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Like most of his generation, Rhodes was entranced by tablet games from an early age. Echoing the popular sentiment of most game stars, he\u2019s a strong opponent of the pay-to-play game model, citing the stifling effect it has on creativity and monetization.<\/p>\n \u201cFree is the natural state of games,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t pay to play tag, or crosswords, or thumb wrestling, or whatever. Games want to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n As a point of pride, he claims to have never paid for a game in his life. It\u2019s not that he advocates piracy, he\u2019s quick to clarify, but that he simply doesn\u2019t see the point when there are already so many good games to play for nothing. It\u2019s a philosophy that\u2019s pervaded the design of Nexbit<\/i>, and arguably a key driver for its success.<\/p>\n The First Bit Is the Hardest<\/b><\/p>\n Looking back, it seems obvious that someone would have combined dating apps and gaming in one package. But before its release in 2020, nobody had put it together.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just frustrated with app dating, you know? Everyone I knew was using different apps and they were all kind of crappy, but we kept using them. And then I noticed we were all playing the same games, and figured, why not? Nobody had combined the two.\u201d<\/p>\n In Nexbit<\/i>, you start by making a profile, filling out some personal details and writing a brief statement about yourself. Next, you look for matches, both for potential people to date and to play games with. Once you either find a live match or schedule a time to play with someone, you start playing games together. And that\u2019s where things get interesting.<\/p>\n Each game has both cooperative and competitive elements. Completing goals together lets you unlock new game types to play with your partner. Want to read past the first sentence of their bio? Complete three games together. Want to see the whole profile? Make it through five games. Want to get in touch to make a real life date? Finish seven games together and you can swap contact info.<\/p>\n The first games \u2018couples\u2019 play are basic puzzle games, inspired by a wide array of titles past and present. Finish a game together to move on to the \u2018next bit\u2019 \u2013 hence, Nexbit<\/i>.<\/p>\n Of course, if you want to ask your partner out earlier, you can always pay to jump the line.<\/p>\n The Escapism Clause<\/b><\/p>\n In Rhodes\u2019 own words, the game works because it leverages the one thing games actually provide for people: escapism. \u201cPeople play games to kill time and escape from life \u2013 that\u2019s it; any other answer is just rationalization. So why not make that escape work harder? Why not escape and better your life at the same time? It\u2019s just more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n And the best way to leverage this escapism, says Rhodes, is by making the most of what the successes of the past have to offer. What people respond to, he says \u2013 and what they open their wallets to the most \u2013 is a sense of personal connection that the bigger games gloss over.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to go back and look at the real classic games, the Angry Birds<\/i>, the Candy Crush<\/i>es, and see what made people really get invested in those. They had the gameplay hooks \u2013 what they were missing were meaning hooks. Gameplay hooks get you a player\u2019s money for a month. Meaning hooks get you a player\u2019s money for a lifetime.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nexbit<\/i> is unique, according to Rhodes, in how it adapts to the context of the players\u2019 relationship as it forms. Certain game types only unlock when you and someone you\u2019ve played with both indicate you\u2019re officially in a relationship together, furthering the sense of shared experience. And since the game keeps detailed track of player metrics, it can provide one-of-a-kind anniversary notifications.<\/p>\n For example, couples can watch replays of the first game they ever played together, play special commemorative versions of their favorite modes, and share their special moments with their friends. These shared memories, created in-game, are Nexbit<\/em>\u2019s secret sauce. \u201cOnce you have those memories seeded, made in your game, they become sacred places to the relationship,\u201d says Rhodes. \u201cAnd those sacred places can be very profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n For Rhodes, the future looks limitless. He\u2019s hinted about expansions in the works, with more modes and in-game items to buy. He\u2019s been tapped by the Singaporean government to incorporate the Nexbit<\/i> model into the next version of that country\u2019s national matchmaking system. And he\u2019s got his eye fixed on the future of gaming.<\/p>\n \u201cThink about it \u2013 we started with electronic toys on these wildly expensive, impractical pieces of equipment only designed for one thing. Just think about it \u2013 it\u2019s ridiculous! We didn\u2019t have any idea what worked, people just threw ideas around until something stuck. Now we really know how to make games \u2013 how to engineer user behaviors, how to drive retention, how to get your interaction loops to be cash-positive before you even make a prototype.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGaming has grown up \u2013 and this is what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As far as game stars go, Eddie Rhodes comes across unusually blunt. Maybe the confidence came when his game attracted a following, became a cult hit, and starting making real money. Maybe it\u2019s all a fa\u00e7ade, carefully designed to fully …<\/p>\n![\"Nexbit](\"http:\/\/www.dashjump.com\/setup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/eddie-rhodes.jpg\")
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