New Year's Greetings
Happy New Year! Thank you for your continued support in 2026.
Introduction
Through the "AwaAwaPon" memory game tournament held in December 2025, I was able to once again feel both the appeal and limitations of this app. I would like to share my reflections and future direction.
What is AwaAwaPon?
"AwaAwaPon" is a memory game designed to train short-term memory. Players remember problems that appear one after another and answer them correctly to earn scores. Despite its simple rules, it is designed as a game where players can feel their memory improving.
Overview of the December 2025 Tournament
From December 5 to 31, 2025, we held a memory tournament for "AwaAwaPon." You can check the details on the following page:
URL: December Tournament Details Page
Results Announcement
19 participants joined the tournament. The highest score exceeded 110,000 points, which was an excellent achievement. Thank you to all participants.
What Went Well with the Tournament
Participants Enjoyed It
The biggest achievement was that many participants enjoyed the tournament. I felt that we were able to share the joy of competing in memory through the game.
The Lottery Announcements Were Fun
During the tournament period, we made an effort to vary the way we announced lottery results each time. This process itself was enjoyable, and I hope participants also enjoyed it.
New Participants Joined
Not only existing users but also new participants joined. I feel this helped increase awareness of the app.
Reflections on the Tournament
Couldn't Maintain Daily Engagement
During the tournament period, we planned to maintain daily engagement through posts, but we were overwhelmed by other work and couldn't do it sufficiently. I once again felt the importance of continuous social media presence.
Customer Acquisition Was Challenging
Participation Was Mostly from Existing Users
Most participants were people who already knew about "AwaAwaPon." We didn't manage to acquire new users.
X (Twitter) Ads Had Low Effectiveness
We ran ads on X (formerly Twitter), but the response was poor and we couldn't acquire users. One factor was that we didn't have the energy to create video ads.
The Funnel from Google Ads Didn't Work
We created a funnel from app users who came through Google ads, but it didn't show results. Even with a prize of 20,000 yen, if people thought "this doesn't relate to me," they wouldn't participate. I keenly felt the difficulty of creating customer touchpoints.
High Scorers' Scores Became Too High
High scorers' scores became too high, making it difficult for light users to feel incentivized to work hard for the prize. I recognized the challenge that when score differences are too large, it reduces participation motivation.
Spent Too Much on Advertising
Despite results being lower than expected, we ended up spending over 50,000 yen on advertising. This made me feel the limitations of the app.
Current Self-Evaluation and Challenges
User Retention Is a Challenge
Some users made in-app purchases, so in the latter half of 2025, I spent time on this app to encourage continued use by adding the following features:
- Avatar additions
- Avatar gacha using coins
- Daily missions
- Notification features
- Genre additions
However, when I checked the actual usage, it didn't seem very effective. As a result, I'm thinking that this app may not have enough appeal to keep users engaged.
Fundamental Gameplay Challenge
As a game for training short-term memory, it's good, but from the user's perspective, they don't feel like playing a second time. This is because the name resets. This is a fundamental gameplay challenge that may be difficult to improve.
The Pros and Cons of Ranking Features
I thought that adding rankings is common for score-based games, so I created and released a national ranking for this app as well. However, I felt that in single-player rankings, when too many high scorers appear, it could drive away light users and actually lower their motivation.
To prevent this, we need to make rankings feel like local battles based on time or location, or create rankings among people of similar skill levels, so that users feel "if I try a bit harder, I could get a good score." I don't have the right answer for this design yet, but I felt that casually adding ranking features is not a good idea.
Future Direction
The Direction of Adding Genres
As one direction to solve the above challenges, we had been adding genres such as "National Flags" and "Kanji." This direction can directly respond to needs like "I want to memorize national flags," so it naturally creates intrinsic motivation.
Releasing as Separate Apps
However, it's difficult for people who want to "memorize national flags" to find this app. Therefore, I'm thinking of making apps that can be found when searching for "National Flag Memorization" or "Kanji Memorization" and releasing them as separate apps. I'm currently working toward this, with a planned release as early as January.
Conclusion
Through the December 2025 tournament, I was able to recognize many learnings and challenges. I want to use these experiences to work on better app development in 2026. Thank you for your continued support.