Step 1 of 7
The problem
Every design debate cites another game. Nobody checks.
"It worked there." "Players hated that." Ludopsy doesn't just check those claims. It measures them: player feedback from games that made a similar bet, scored on the same metrics and benchmarked across other titles.
How players received a protagonist switch
Three games made the same call. Players reacted very differently.
How players received a protagonist switch. Share of reviews raising the switch. Game Welcomed Resented Verdict God of War Ragnarök (Playing as Atreus) 1.8% 3.2% More complaint than praise The Last of Us Part II (Forced to play Abby) 11.9% 3.5% 3.4× more praise Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Swapping Peter and Miles) 6.6% 1.2% 5.5× more praise Share of 5,000 analyzed reviews per game. Spider-Man 2's complaints concern civilian segments, not the hero swap.
Step 2 of 7
How it works
From player reviews to a decision you can defend
Benchmarked player insights, in three steps.
Name the games
Your game, your reference games, or a whole genre. Any game with public reviews works. Nothing to install.
Step 3 of 7
Every review is measured
Purpose-built models, grounded in player-psychology expertise, turn thousands of reviews per game into measured data: 50+ metrics, each benchmarked against the genre and the full database.
Step 4 of 7
You get the evidence
What's normal, what isn't, and which issues actually matter, measured by their impact. Every number is traceable to individual reviews.
Not every complaint costs you
Recommendation rate among players who criticised the timed structure in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
Not every complaint costs you. Recommendation rate among players who criticised the timed structure in The Blood of Dawnwalker. Game overall: 83.4%. Group Reviews Recommend Moderate criticism 186 96.8% Strong criticism 363 45.5% Moderate critics still recommend the game. Strong critics are split in half.
Step 5 of 7
Ranked against the genre and the library
How often a topic comes up versus the average, how opinion splits, where the game ranks in its genre and across the database, and its impact.
How one game's topics rank against its genre
Five standout topics for a Souls-like game.
How one game's topics rank against its genre. Five standout topics for a Souls-like game. Topic Mentions vs average Positive Negative Score Rank in genre Rank overall Exploration agency 2.6× 92% 5% 93 1 of 17 7 of 650 Player skill progression 2.3× 79% 18% 73 3 of 17 30 of 650 Approachability 0.9× 45% 49% 49 5 of 17 304 of 650 Thematic appeal 0.6× 92% 2% 81 8 of 17 227 of 650 Technical performance 0.6× 19% 79% 36 9 of 17 280 of 650 Mentions compared with the library average for each topic. Score 0 to 100. Ranks among 17 Souls-like games and every analyzed game.
Step 6 of 7
Dynamic player segments extracted from reviews, not assigned to them
Every audience is broken into segments based on what players actually said: how big each group is, what motivates them, how they play, and what keeps them coming back.
Who is the tactics player?
Recurring player segments across four tactics games.
Who is the tactics player?. Share of each game's reviewers in each segment. Game Deep-strategy veteran Story / theme-driven Challenge-seeker Variety seeker Frustrated churner Tactics game A 33% 46% 22% none none Tactics game B 36% none 29% 14% 21% Tactics game C 35% 19% none 24% 23% Tactics game D 18% 45% none none 37% Share of each game's reviewers in each segment.
Step 7 of 7
When teams use it
Built for the moments a decision locks in
Greenlight
Is there room in this genre, and where?
See what the genre's players expect as table stakes, and where they're still underserved.
Pre-production
Will this design bet land with players?
See how players reacted when other games made a similar call, before you build it.
Production
What do we prioritize?
Find out which experiences your audience values most, and prioritize accordingly.
Launch window
How did we land against the genre?
See where you rank on every metric: what's working, what's lagging behind, and what to fix first.
Live ops
Did the patch land? What did a competitor's do?
Track how player reactions shift after every update, yours or theirs.
How players received a protagonist switch
Three games made the same call. Players reacted very differently.
| Game | Welcomed | Resented | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| God of War Ragnarök (Playing as Atreus) | 1.8% | 3.2% | More complaint than praise |
| The Last of Us Part II (Forced to play Abby) | 11.9% | 3.5% | 3.4× more praise |
| Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Swapping Peter and Miles) | 6.6% | 1.2% | 5.5× more praise |
Share of 5,000 analyzed reviews per game. Spider-Man 2's complaints concern civilian segments, not the hero swap.
