Game Overview

Advent Calendar is a daily-reveal game played over a series of days. Each day, players visit to reveal a new tile on the calendar and receive a daily prize or outcome.

In this game, players are guaranteed to receive an outcome every day. Each reveal triggers a pop-up displaying one of the prizes you have configured. Therefore, there is no "no-win" mechanic. Every day's reveal is one of the outcomes you have configured in the prize pool.

The example video below shows a player accessing the game on Day 7. The calendar displays their saved progress, showing they had not played from Day 1 to Day 5.

Players can only open one new calendar tile per day. The daily outcomes or prizes are not assigned to specific calendar days. Instead, you configure a pool of all possible prizes, which can include tangible prizes like a bonus or engagement messages like a festive greeting or Come back tomorrow!.

Each of these outcomes are configured as a prize and assigned a weight. This weight determines the probability of which specific prize is revealed when a player opens that day's tile.

You can fully customize the game's appearance by replacing default assets, such as calendar tiles, backgrounds, and sounds, to match your brand's requirements.

The entire game is built and managed within the Xtremepush platform and can be embedded directly on your website.

Key Features and Requirements

Key Features

• Daily-Reveal Gameplay: The game's mechanics allow users to reveal only one new calendar tile per day.
• Guaranteed Daily Outcome: The game is configured to grant an outcome every day. Each tile reveal results in a prize, whether it's a tangible reward or a custom message.
• Date-Based Tile Access: The game synchronizes with the campaign's start date, which represents Day 1 of the calendar. A player's progress is tied to the current date. For example, if they first play on the 21st day of the campaign, they will begin at Day 21.
• Saved Daily Progress: Player selections and revealed tiles are saved for the entire duration of the campaign.
• Full Asset Customization: All visual and audio assets are fully customizable, including the calendar tiles, background, and interface sounds.
• Customizable Game Template: The game is built from a template with a default 25-day layout, which can be manually modified by adding or removing tiles.

Prize Configuration

• Configure every daily outcome as a prize, from tangible prizes to simple engagement messages.
• Control the probability of which outcomes is revealed by assigning a relative weight to each prize. For example, a custom message might have a high weight so it is revealed more often, while a large prize would have a very low weight.
• Set a volume limit for each prize, which controls the total number of times that prize can be awarded for the entire duration of the campaign.
• Adjust the winning odds for different customer segments by setting unique prize weights for each group. For example VIPs vs. New Users.

For more information, see the Configure Prizes section below.

Analytics and Tracking

The Xtremepush platform automatically tracks the following engagement data for the Advent Calendar game:

• A record of every user who played the game.
• Timestamps for when the game was opened and when a tile was revealed.
• Details on which users won a prize.
• Timestamps for when a prize was accepted or declined.

Prerequisites of Game Setup

• User Segments: To target your game to specific players, you'll need pre-configured segments. These must be created on the Xtremepush platform before you start. For more information, see Before You Create a Game Campaign.
• Game Assets: Have your game assets prepared. These include images for the game background, calendar tiles, and other branded elements.

Setup Process Overview

The following sections provide a high-level overview of the steps required to set up a Advent Calendar game, with links to more detailed documentation.

The infographic below highlights the four key stages of the game launch workflow, from creation to monitoring:

Create your Game Campaign

The first step in creating your game is creating a game campaign. A campaign acts as the container for your game, allowing you to define crucial aspects like target audiences, campaign duration and more. It also contains your game’s design, text, and prize configurations.

For more information on the required fields when setting up campaigns, see Create a Game Campaign

Selecting a template automatically loads a complete layout file and the necessary assets into your campaign's Assets tab. This streamlines configuration, allowing you to easily replace the default assets with your own without needing to build the game's layout from scratch.

When you create the game campaign, ensure you select the Advent Calendar template.

Make Design Changes to your Game

After creating the campaign, the next step is to customize the game's visual design and text to match your brand. This involves three key areas:

• Replace or Add Assets : The template you select provides a standard asset pack, which includes default images for the background, calendar tile, and prizes. You have two options for customization:
  • You can replace any of the default assets with your own branded versions. For more information, see Replace Assets.
  • You can also add new assets that are not part of the standard pack. For more information on adding new assets, see Manage Assets.
    For a general overview on game assets, see Assets Overview
• Update Game Texts: In the Texts tab, you can update all the standard text that appears in your game's interface. However, the text displayed when a player unveils a day tile is configured separately in the Prizes tab. For more information, see Update Texts
• Make Design Changes in the Editor: For granular control over the game's front-end appearance, use the Editor. It allows you to make detailed visual adjustments, such as resizing or repositioning elements, modifying fonts and colours, or adding new components. For more information, see the following pages:
  • Editor Overview
  • Editor Use Cases

Configure Game Mechanics

Configure Prizes

In the Advent Calendar game, prizes are not assigned to specific calendar days. When a player reveals a daily tile, the prize is determined in that moment based on a weighted probability system and displayed to the user in a pop-up.

The probability of receiving any prize is determined by its weight relative to the total weight of all other prizes available to that player's segment. For example, a prize with a weight of 40 from a pool with a total weight of 100 has a 40% chance of being revealed.

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No-win Outcomes

The game is designed to award an outcome every day so there is no built-in no-win mechanic.

If you want to create a day where the user does not receive a tangible reward, you can configure a prize with a message like Come Back Tomorrow . This prize functions like any other prize and is displayed to your player in the same pop-up.

Since the prize pool is used for each daily reveal, players can win the same prize more than once during the campaign. For example, depending on the prize weight, a player could win the €5 Free Bet prize on Day 2 and again on Day 18.

For more information on how to set up the prizes and the required fields, see Configure Prizes.

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Advent Calendar Prize Settings

• All outcomes you configure for the Advent Calendar game are managed under a single default prize reference
• The Challenge Segment field does not apply to the Advent Calendar game and can be ignored during prize configuration.

Example Prize Pool Configuration

Consider a 7-day calendar campaign with seven potential outcomes for two user segments: VIP Players and Standard Players. To configure this, you would create 14 prizes as shown in the table below, one for each segment:

Configuring seven different outcomes for a 7-day calendar does not mean the player will receive each one once. The outcome for each day is a separate draw from this same prize pool. For example, a player in the Standard Players segment could receive 10 Free Spins on both Day 1 and Day 2 because it has a high relative weight.

This configuration creates a different experience for each segment over the 7 days of the campaign:

• For VIP Players: The total weight of all outcomes is 100. This gives them a 2% chance of winning the Grand Prize and only a 10% chance of receiving the Come Back Tomorrow message on any given day.
• For Standard Players: The total weight is also 100. They have a 1% chance of winning the Grand Prize and a 40% chance of receiving the Come Back Tomorrow message.

Manage Time Slots

You can control your game's daily availability by setting up specific time slots when it can be played. For example, you could make the game available only during a 'happy hour' promotion from 5 PM to 7 PM.

For more information, see Manage Time Slots (Optional).

Launch and Monitor Game

Launch your Game

To launch your game, you must embed it on your website. For added security, you can also use a JWT token to ensure that only authenticated users are able to play.

For more information, see the following pages:

• Launch your Game
• JWT Authentication Details.

Monitor Player Activity

The Xtremepush platform automatically tracks the following engagement data for the Advent Calendar game, which you can view in the Games tab of your campaign:

• A record of every user who played the game.
• Timestamps for when the game was opened (Created At) and when a tile was revealed (Opened At).
• Details on which users won a prize.
• Timestamps for when a prize was accepted or declined.