game design for the brainrot generation

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With this first post of the New Year (finally—I doubted myself too), I’m bringing a bit more variety to the newsletter. Along with the usual game design tips and tricks, I’ll also use this space to share my thoughts on the gaming world as I see it.

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

You’ve likely noticed, and perhaps experienced, the decline in attention spans over the past few years. Whether it’s scrolling through social media, multitasking with an app or game while watching TV, or struggling to focus on a long paragraph, these behaviors have become increasingly common.

The decline in attention spans has given rise to the popular "brainrot" phenomenon, which was named Oxford’s "Word of the Year" for 2024. According to them, brainrot is defined as "the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, particularly due to the overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging material, especially online content." It also refers to anything that may lead to such deterioration.

🌀Rabbit hole alert: If you’re interested in a short nerdy linguistic take about brainrot, I definitely recommend giving the following post a read.

when did brainrot begin?

The change in behavior influenced by this lower attentions spans has resulted in reactions like apparently even Netflix has set up some requirements on how their content should be written and presented to support this ‘casual viewing’, or a ‘second screen’ behavior. (read here)

🌀Rabbit hole alert: Another interesting, and well put together video take that explains this phenomenon quite well. (watch here)

😕What's the Game Connection?

Games, like any entertainment medium, evolve with shifting consumption trends. One way to explore this is by examining how broader trends influence how games are consumed.

Role of Free-to-Play in Shifting Consumption

Free-to-play (F2P) games, especially on mobile, offer a great perspective on this shift. These games are designed for accessibility—anyone can start playing for free.

If you’re making F2P games, monetization depends entirely on how engaging your game is. Since players don’t pay upfront, your goal is to create an experience so compelling that they choose to spend. This could be through direct in-game purchases or by engaging with ads. The more engaging the experience, the more likely players are to invest their time—and eventually, their money.

Evolution of F2P Engagement Mechanics

As mobile F2P games gained popularity, different engagement strategies have emerged. Early on, games offered a ‘free demo’ experience or added extra ‘premium’ content for paying users. The most successful approach, however, has been introducing ‘gating’ mechanics.

These mechanics require players to either wait and return later or pay to skip the wait or grind. Today, most top-performing F2P games use some form of time gating to drive engagement and monetization.

To recap, mobile F2P games rose in popularity as an accessible medium. To monetize players, new engagement mechanics emerged—time gating being one of the most enduring and effective.

To explore brainrot and F2P in the same breath, let’s dive deeper into these engagement hooks in games and examine how one might be influencing the other.

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⌛Time Gating Shift

The concept of time gating has been around for a long time, primarily seen in early games like FarmVille with its energy mechanic. This system limited your gameplay actions, forcing you to either wait, engage with friends, or pay to continue. Facebook games popularized this approach, making games more accessible through social connections and timed progression.

As mobile F2P games evolved, energy systems appeared in many forms—and they worked. Early notable examples include:

• CSR Racing

• Candy Crush Saga

• Clash of Clans

• Clash Royale

The core mechanic was consistent: play for a short session, then hit a progress block. To continue, players had to wait or pay to skip the downtime. Different games presented this mechanic in various ways—ranging from energy bars to lives systems tied to friend connections, or slot-based mechanics that limited progress after your slots filled up.

Another shared feature was the session design. As a new player, you’d get around 20–30 minutes of uninterrupted play before hitting a hard time gate. This model became the standard for mobile F2P games.

How Time Gating is Changing

Over time, a subtle shift has occurred. Modern F2P games still use time gating but in a softer, more player-friendly way, especially during early sessions. Notable examples include:

• Royal Match

• Monopoly Go!

• Merge Mansion

• Capybara Go

While older games blocked progress early, these newer titles allow longer first sessions without interruption. Time gates are still there but appear much later compared to earlier games.

For instance, in Monopoly Go!, dice rolls are the currency that limits your progress. However, early on, you receive so many rolls that you can play for an extended time without hitting a block. The experience feels generous and keeps you engaged longer.

Royal Match re-engages returning players with unlimited lives for a short period, giving them longer, rewarding sessions after a break. Meanwhile, Capybara Go offers a “slot machine”-like experience with constant rewards during the initial sessions, allowing players to keep playing without interruption.

The Rise of Super Casual Design

This shift has brought casual, uninterrupted gameplay front and center, contributing to the App Store success of these games. In a market where overall industry growth has slowed, this super casual approach is showing impressive results.

While these trends are often described with terms like hyper-casual or hybrid-casual, what stands out is how these games allow long, early gameplay sessions without aggressive gating. This lenient, player-first approach is a big reason behind their growing popularity and success.

🤔Why?

With so many F2P games out there, competition is fierce. To stand out, you must offer a seamless, engaging experience that keeps players hooked. But the challenge doesn’t just come from other games anymore—there’s a new contender in the attention economy: brainrot.

Games are entertainment—and so is brainrot.

In traditional F2P design, the goal was to create just enough engagement to leave players wanting more. A 10–20 minute session gave players a satisfying taste, leaving them eager to return later. Time gating worked well because players anticipated the next rewarding session.

But social media has changed the game. With endless, scrollable content and instant sensory rewards at every swipe, players can easily shift from waiting in your game to getting their dopamine hit elsewhere. Competing for attention is no longer just about beating other games—you’re up against an infinite feed that never blocks progress.

This shift has created a new challenge: short-term memory. The fleeting nature of scrolling has conditioned players to quickly forget what they were doing. To counter this, games need longer, more memorable early sessions to build a stronger connection and remind players to come back.

Recent successful games have adapted by extending their first-time user experience (FTUE), offering longer, uninterrupted sessions that help players get deeply invested before any gating mechanics kick in.

📜TL,DR

• Declining attention spans and the rise of "brainrot" (mental decline from trivial content) are influencing how we consume entertainment.

• Free-to-play (F2P) mobile games need to adapt to this shift, by evolving their time gating (waiting or paying to progress) mechanics.

• Games like CSR Racing and Candy Crush used energy systems, limiting playtime and encouraging players to wait or pay.

• Modern F2P games, like Royal Match and Monopoly Go!, have shifted to less intrusive time gating, offering longer, uninterrupted early sessions to enhance player experience.

• The "super casual" design approach focuses on providing longer, rewarding early gameplay sessions, making it easier to capture players’ attention.

• Social media’s endless content has raised the stakes for games, with players easily distracted and moving on to other instant rewards.

• Successful games now extend their first-time user experience (FTUE), offering longer, uninterrupted sessions to deepen player investment before introducing time gates.

• The competition is no longer just between games; it's against infinite, easily accessible content in the attention economy.

This was my attempt at connecting some seemingly random ideas and weaving together broader topics into a cohesive thread. Did you like this new approach to thought-posting? Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts! And if there’s anything else you’d like my perspective on, feel free to reach out—I’d love to explore more!