World Flipper Fans Proudly “Pour Their Hearts Out”

World Flipper just celebrated its second anniversary after launching in November 2019.

The “Pour Your Heart Out” event, where fans hyped their favorite character on Twitter, was first held as part of the game’s one-and-a-half-year Flipperversary. Six months later, it returned, bigger and better than ever.

This time, we interviewed the head of promotion and event leader about all the love on display during the event.

What Started off as a Way to Learn about Fan Favorites
Ended up Showcasing the Magic of World Flipper

Having the players themselves talk about their favorite characters is a unique idea for an event. What served as the inspiration?

Megumi　World Flipper holds many events on Twitter, so we’ve always been close to player reactions. That’s when we noticed that people were attracted to units not because of the meta, but because they liked how the characters looked or acted. So we started thinking it’d be fun to give fans a chance to express that love.

Many games hold character popularity polls, but what made you choose to do something different?

Megumi　I felt that a popularity poll would focus all the attention on the top-rankers, making it hard to convey the love each individual character gets. Since one of the biggest draws of World Flipper is its huge range of units that appeal to all sorts of people, I wanted to respect that and give every fan and their favorite time under the limelight.

How did hearing from players make this event special?

Megumi　Well, for one thing, the reasons for liking units were so diverse that I found myself thinking, “Oh, so that’s your favorite part about them”, or “Huh, I didn’t expect that to resonate with people.” It felt like I was rediscovering the characters.

The event was also a great way to reach new players. A fan-written Twitter post has a degree of authenticity and individuality that you wouldn’t get from an official character introduction.

Engagement and Enthusiasm Surpasses Expectations
As Fans Express Their Love in Different Forms

What did you think when you first saw the responses?

Megumi　I was surprised by the sheer amount of enthusiasm fans poured into their posts. They surpassed my wildest expectations. I thought we’d see some screenshots with an accompanying sentence or two, but right from the start, we were getting full-fledged presentations with what can only be described as essays!

We’d originally meant to showcase just a few player comments during the one-and-a-half-year Flipperversary livestream, but we were so blown away that we decided to expand the segment so we could discuss these posts in detail.

We noticed it wasn’t just the five-stars fans were enamored with. There were plenty of units who weren’t as rare or had less screentime, but got plenty of love.

Megumi　That surprised me, but I think it’s why this event was so interesting. In most games, it’s the ultra-rares or the units that contribute most to the meta who are popular, but that’s not always the case for World Flipper. Even when discussing the same character, different people were drawn to different things. Some featured original art, some highlighted different facial expressions, while others did talk about in-game performance or abilities. It helped me realize just how much love World Flipper gets from its amazing fanbase.

Were there any posts that stood out to you in particular?

Megumi　There were so many! But if I had to say, the most passionate entries left the deepest impression. Some players submitted several posts or posts that were so long they had to make several threads. The first time we held the event, we split the submission schedule up by unit race. Some fans decided to give us an entry per race, and some submitted even more than that!

Amazing. (Laughs) You can really feel the love, can’t you?

Megumi　Even after the event ended, we were seeing posts like, “I know submissions closed, but I’m going to post about my favorite character just because I want to.” It drove home that these people weren’t just writing in for a prize. They really loved these characters.

We also had fans trying to get their favorites made into seasonal units, which made me chuckle. When we were still accepting entries, we hadn’t yet announced that characters like Estariel, Amelia, and Selgir were getting seasonals. So whenever I saw a post about them, I’d think to myself, “Well, I’ve got some good news for you…”

Event Logistics And Dev Reactions

Did you face any difficulties when holding this event for the first time?

Megumi　We had trouble deciding on the size and duration of the event because we couldn’t predict how many submissions we’d get. In the end, we settled on splitting up the first three rounds by unit race, with each having its own submission period. But that creates its own issues, like “What if one round gets far more or far fewer entries? Will the different deadlines throw off players?”

Did splitting up submissions by unit race itself pose any problems?

Megumi　We have units who are more than one race, and we initially weren’t sure what to do with them. For example, if your favorite is Human/Sprite, but the submission period for Humans starts tomorrow and the submission period for Sprites ends today, when do you post? It just invites confusion.

We ended up sorting through all our units, picking out the ones with multiple races—Flora/Sprite, for example. We then made sure all these entries could be submitted on the same day.

That must’ve been tricky. Were there any other things that were hard to work out?

Megumi　Actually, other than the schedule, we left most guidelines fairly vague. We were hoping this would encourage participation by putting less pressure on the players, but we see now that most fans took this as an opportunity to express themselves in creative and varied ways.

I understand the dev team also looked at the entries. What were some reactions?

Megumi　They were taken aback by how fans caught on to even the minutiae. They were seeing posts about tiny details slipped into unit episodes or single lines of dialogue, and realizing how much their work is appreciated. I heard the team talk about how happy they were certain characters were popular, and how fun reading the posts generally was.

The World Flipper team, devs included, don’t really get a chance to talk about how much love we pour into the characters. This event helped us realize that every carefully crafted detail is nonetheless appreciated, and that’s inspiring.

You’d mentioned that the posts touched on a variety of topics, including character design, lore, and dialogue. I’ll bet every member of the team felt appreciated, whether they be an illustrator, writer, or planner.

Megumi　Absolutely. A lot of the illustrators were overjoyed when some aspect they put a lot of time and effort into attracted attention. And a few were amused when they saw fans take out magnifying glasses and read into details that the illustrators themselves had kind of just thrown in.

That’s the kind of experience you can only get from an event like “Pour Your Heart Out.”

Megumi　Agreed. After everything was over, one of the devs said that the event was very “World Flipper.” As head of promotion, that meant a lot to me. I’m proud my team remained true to the vision we’ve had for World Flipper since day one—to respect the individual tastes of each and every fan.

“Pour Your Heart Out” Returns for the Second Flipperversary, Bigger and Better than Ever!

The event came back—new and improved—for World Flipper’s recent second anniversary. What changed?

Megumi　The major difference was that submissions were no longer sorted by unit race. The first time we ran the event, we saw that people were having difficulty meeting the earlier deadlines. This time, any entry could be submitted at any time during the event.

How did players respond when you announced that the event would return for the second Flipperversary?

Megumi　As soon as we made the announcement, fans were raring to go. The excitement was infectious. I could hardly wait to start looking over the entries!

The posts were just as amazing this time around, weren’t they?

Megumi　For sure. Because we didn’t split up the submission schedule, entries of all different kinds poured in almost immediately. Only half a year had passed since the first “Pour Your Heart Out,” so we figured most fans wouldn’t have switched to a new favorite. But people were excited to be posting about the same unit again. It makes you realize just how much these characters are loved.

There were plenty of entries about new units as well, or characters cropping up more in the main quest. That told us our player base is still very active. We’re hoping these posts will encourage others to dip back into the story or try reading new unit episodes.

What kind of entries were featured during the second Flipperversary livestream?

Megumi　Since we knew the second time around to expect a wide variety of submissions, we expanded to segment to feature illustrations and images, in addition to written comments.

We spotlighted not only the most elaborate entries, but also those that offered unique takes or showcased units that surprised even us. We hoped the variety would help spark interest in different characters, or introduce new ways to enjoy the game.

There were tons of great entries we couldn’t get to due to time constraints, but you can check them out by searching “#ワーフリ推しキャラプレゼン” (#Pour Your Heart Out) on Twitter.

More Events Looming
On The World Flipper Horizon

Do you plan on holding more events that, like “Pour Your Heart Out,” encourage active fan participation?

Megumi　We do. We want to encourage players to interact with the team and contribute to the community.

Careful planning is only one aspect of an event. Success hinges on fan participation. These events are interesting because players are reintroducing the game to us, discovering things that the team has overlooked. With future events, I hope we can convey to our player base how grateful we are.

This dialogue between player base and team really is a defining aspect of World Flipper.

Megumi　I’m happy you agree. I’m not involved in the development of the game itself, so I can’t promise more interesting features or anything like that. The promotion team is here to help fans fully explore the existing magic of World Flipper. There will always a degree of distance between the devs and player base, but we’re here to bridge that gap. We listen to voices from both side of the divide and figure out how to enhance the experience for everybody.

Do you have any final comments for the player base?

Megumi　I’d like to start off by expressing my gratitude. Lots of mobile games out there are celebrating various anniversaries, but it takes a lot to keep something running for one or two years. None of this would’ve been possible without your support.

Over the course of these two years, our player base has grown more diverse. There are those who’ve been here since day one, and those who joined the community only yesterday. And so expectations for the game keep growing and changing. I’m sure that as we hit more milestones, we’ll see even bigger changes. Going forward, I’d like to stay flexible and open-minded, so as to keep our fans engaged in both the game and our events.

Your World Flipper adventure has only just begun!