When we built Soccer Legends at Project Legends, we knew gacha mechanics would be at the core. It was a conscious decision — and one that taught me more about game design than almost anything else.
Here’s the thing about gacha: it strips game design down to its psychological fundamentals. Every pull is a loop. Every rarity tier is a promise. Every banner is a story you’re telling the player about what they want.
The lessons that stuck:
First — desire without friction is not game design. The tension between what the player wants and what they have to do to get it is where the fun lives.
Second — monetisation that feels fair is a design problem, not a pricing problem. If players feel respected, they spend. If they feel trapped, they churn.
Third — the best gacha systems are actually progression systems in disguise. The randomness is a surface. The design underneath has to be solid.
These principles apply far beyond mobile games. Worth thinking about regardless of what you’re building.