CASE STUDY

Thank You Tree

Farmville 3

Designing a social engagement system that transformed passive co-ops into active communities—using behavioral design, visual feedback, and weekly progression.

My Core Ownership

  • UX flows and interaction design

  • Behavioral mechanics and reward loops

  • Co-op engagement system architecture

  • Prototyping and validation with game design

  • Weekly goal progression framework

Duration

5 months

Team

Akshay Gujarathi (Game Designer)
Neelanjan Saha (Developer)

OVERVIEW

Quick Context

FarmVille 3 had a co-op problem. Players joined co-ops but rarely helped each other—treating the feature as a solo experience with occasional requests rather than a collaborative community.


I designed the Thank You Tree, a visual and behavioral system that made helping others emotionally rewarding and progress visible. The feature used social reciprocity, visual feedback, and weekly goals to transform passive members into active supporters.

Released in November 2023, the Thank You Tree became a permanent co-op feature built on one simple loop:
help others → earn recognition → see progress → get rewarded.

Thank you tree state progression and reward unlock mechanism

THE PROBLEM

Co-ops existed, but collaboration didn't

FarmVille 3 had co-op functionality, but players weren't using it meaningfully. This wasn’t new—across the FarmVille franchise, inactive co-ops had been a long-standing issue.

What the data showed

Players joined co-ops but rarely helped

Forums were filled with complaints about inactive members

Helping felt invisible and unrewarded

Donation limits made generosity feel constrained

Engagement dropped after initial excitement

The core issue wasn’t lack of features—it was lack of feedback and motivation.

DESIGN DECISIONS & CORE WORK

Building a reciprocity loop through visual progression

The core insight: collaboration fails when it’s invisible.

Instead of adding more rules or penalties, I focused on motivation—making contribution visible, social, and personally rewarding.

The tree wasn't just a progress bar; it was a social signal.

It was a status symbol, a feedback mechanism, and a weekly goal system combined.

The behavioral framework

Visual representation of contribution

A tree placed directly on the player’s farm that decorates as they help others. Ribbons turn invisible acts of help into visible progress.

Weekly goal structure

Goals reset weekly, creating a recurring reason to engage. Players who reach bloom maintain it into the following week.

Scaled rewards for scaled effort

Larger contributions earned more ribbons—rewarding meaningful help over passive actions.

Social visibility and pride

Bloomed trees were visible to visiting players, signaling helpfulness and commitment to the co-op.

UI explaining the flow of the feature to players

System logic — how helping actions translate into ribbons, tree progression, and rewards

Designing the ribbon economy

I partnered with the game designer to define:

  • Where ribbons came from

  • How many were needed per bloom stage

  • How to prevent farming or exploitation

Ribbon sources

  • Orderboard help

  • Resource donations

  • Letters from co-op members

  • Active participation and check-ins

Thresholds were tuned to require 4–5 days of consistent helping—not grindable in a single session, but achievable with regular play.

Mapping different actions to varying ribbon allocation to maintain maximum retention

Mapping the complete experience

I designed the end-to-end experience so the system felt integrated, not bolted on.

Discovery & onboarding

The tree appears naturally on the farm with a lightweight tutorial.

Earning ribbons

The tree appears naturally on the farm with a lightweight tutorial.

Tree progression

Ribbons automatically decorate the tree; progress is always visible.

Bloom moment

Reaching the goal triggers animation, celebration, and rewards.

Weekly reset

Bloomed trees persist; unfinished ones reset—balancing motivation without punishment.

High-level experience flow — how playing leads into progression over a week.

Accounting for player variance and edge cases so the system works not just for ideal users, but real ones.

Trade-offs & Constraints

Trade-offs & Constraints

IMPACT

What happened & what I learned

What shipped

  • End-to-end UX for the Thank You Tree system

  • Ribbon earning mechanics across co-op actions

  • Weekly goal and reset framework

  • Visual progression states and bloom animations

  • Reward tiers tied to contribution level

  • Integration with existing co-op and economy systems

Released November 2023 as a phased rollout and later adopted as a permanent co-op feature.

What Worked

  • Solved a long-standing co-op engagement problem across the FarmVille franchise

  • Turned invisible helping into visible social progress

  • Created a recurring reason to return to co-op play each week

  • Encouraged contribution without penalties, enforcement, or pressure

  • Scaled across different player types without fragmenting the economy