Options, pricing and what a game can return
Start with a game, add only what you need, and check the numbers against your own stores.
Price estimate
ROI calculator
It uses your locations and the fees from the estimate above. Pick a case, then change any number to match your stores.
Where the starting numbers come from
- Average check, $12. Bojangles reports $11.06 in its 2023 franchise disclosure, and Nation’s Restaurant News puts KFC at $12.65 and Chick-fil-A at $13.95 (Bojangles FDD summary).
- Margin on extra sales, 60%. The median food cost at limited-service restaurants is 32.4% (National Restaurant Association), less card fees and packaging.
- Redemption, 15% to 40%. A free-entrée win-back offer saw 12 to 13% (Paytronix), and KFC reports 40% for rewards won in its app game (Antavo). Both are vendor figures.
- Spend on an extra visit, $8 beyond the free item, and a third of win-back guests coming back again (Paytronix).
- Visit streak, one in five redeemers finishing four paid visits in 30 days for a free entrée that costs $3.50 to make. This share is my assumption. Paytronix reports that a casual-dining visit challenge raised visits 54% (Paytronix) and that 85% of quick-service guests who reach a fourth visit keep coming (MediaPost). Both figures are vendor-reported. Regulars who would have come anyway also claim the reward, and the calculator counts that cost.
- Sign-up clicks, 10% to 25% of players. Spin-to-win pop-ups turn about 13% of visitors into sign-ups (Justuno). The dashboard counts clicks to your sign-up page, and your email or SMS provider counts the finished sign-ups.
- Extra visits, 15% to 50% of redemptions. In a Carl’s Jr. game, about a quarter of prize redeemers were lapsed members and a quarter were new (CataBoom). This is the number to measure, and a few stores held back as a comparison group will show it.
Every option and its price
One-time prices are paid when the plan is approved and on launch. Monthly prices start at launch.
| Option | What you get | One time | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcade game | A round of about a minute built on your menu, played from a link or QR code, with optional rewards and visit streaks, store limits, counter redemption, the sign-up button and the dashboard | $7,500 | $500 |
| Custom 3D game | Your restaurant in 3D with your menu, your stores and your people, up to four players online, and everything in the arcade game | $25,000 | $500 |
| Email and SMS sign-up | A button on the reward screen that opens your own sign-up page with the player’s chosen store attached. Your email or SMS provider handles consent | Included | None |
| iOS and Android apps | Both apps, published under your developer accounts. Apple charges you $99 a year and Google $25 once | $6,000 | None |
| Extra languages | The full game in French, Spanish or both, alongside English, with players choosing their language | $2,000 each | None |
| Seasonal levels | A new level for a menu launch or an event | $3,000 each | None |
| Launch trailer | A gameplay video cut for social, made with the game | $1,500 | None |
The two formats
Both can carry rewards and sign-ups, and both can be made in English, French and Spanish. Play the arcade example or the 3D example.
| Arcade game | Custom 3D game | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A round of about a minute built on your menu, such as catching an order, a delivery race or a runner past your stores | Your restaurant in 3D, like the example, with your menu, your stores and your people |
| How people play | Quick rounds while they wait in line or scroll | Shifts of a few minutes, with days and levels that build on each other |
| Players | One at a time | One to four, online with a room code |
| Your stores | Each store has its own link and QR code, and players pick a store when they win a reward | Stores appear in the game as days, levels or places on a map |
| Good for | Getting started or a single promotion, at any number of locations | A flagship game customers come back to and franchisees share |
| Build time | About three weeks | About six to eight weeks |
| Price | $7,500 | $25,000 |
How the rewards work
Rewards are optional. Head office sets the campaign and each franchisee can tighten it for their own store, from the dashboard, at any time.
| Setting | Who sets it | What it controls | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger | Head office | What a player has to do to earn the reward | Score two stars |
| Reward | Head office | The item or discount they get | A free side |
| Per player | Head office | How often one player can earn it | Once a week |
| Store ceiling | Head office | The most any one store can hand out | 20 a day |
| Total | Head office | The most the whole campaign can hand out | 5,000 |
| Start and expiry | Head office | When a coupon can first be used, and for how long | From the next day, for 7 days |
| Store limit | Each franchisee | Their own limit, by the day or the week, up to the ceiling | 15 a day, or 60 a week |
| Hours | Each franchisee | When coupons can be used at their counter | 2 pm to 9 pm |
| In or out | Each franchisee | Whether their store takes part at all | In |
| Pause | Both | Stops new coupons straight away, for one store or all of them | Pause today |
At the counter
The game can connect to your POS, so the coupon rings in like any other. If you’d rather keep it separate, the player shows the coupon on their phone, and staff tap Redeem, type the store’s four-digit code and ring in the discount, with no scanner or training needed. Either way the coupon can’t be used again, and the dashboard records which store took it. The store code is on the franchisee’s dashboard and can be changed at any time.
No chance, no purchase
Everyone who meets the condition gets the same reward, and nobody has to buy anything to play, so the reward isn’t a contest or a sweepstakes. Players don’t need an account.
Compared with the alternatives
What restaurant brands pay for the closest things on the market, from published price lists.
| Option | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Template game tools | $119 to $925 a month, and from $500 a month for restaurant-focused platforms | A spin wheel, scratch card or quiz with your logo on it, the same game other brands run |
| Loyalty and promotion platforms | $25 to $350 per location per month | Points, offers and apps. Most don’t include a game of your restaurant |
| Custom game studios | $15,000 to $30,000 for a simple 3D web game, more for anything bigger | A custom game, usually without the coupon system, store limits or reporting |
| Roblox brand worlds | $50,000 to $400,000 | A branded world inside Roblox, built for national chains |
| This | $7,500 or $25,000, then $500 a month | A game made for your brand on your own link, with optional rewards, store limits and per-store numbers |
Start with a pilot
Measure it in a few stores before rolling it out to the rest.
- Pick the stores
Run the game in five to ten stores for a month, and hold back a few similar stores for comparison.
- Agree on success first
Before launch, we write down what counts: extra visits compared with the held-back stores, redemptions and sign-ups.
- Decide from the numbers
At the end of the month you can roll it out, change the reward or stop, with the store-by-store numbers in front of you.
Timeline
For a custom 3D game. An arcade game follows the same steps in about three weeks.
- Week 1
You get a one-page plan covering the game, the stores and the reward. Building starts when you approve it. If you want the apps, we request the D-U-N-S number your company needs for them now.
- Weeks 2 to 5
A playable build each week at a private link, so you and your team can play it on your own phones and send changes.
- Week 6
Rewards and store limits set up, redemption tested at the counter of a pilot store, and the apps sent to Apple and Google for review.
- Launch
The link and QR code go live. The apps are published once Apple and Google approve them, which usually takes a few days.
What I need from you
- Your menu, with item names and photos or descriptions
- Your store list with addresses
- Logo files and brand colours
- The reward you want to offer, if any, and the limits for it
- The stores for the pilot
- One person who can approve the plan and the builds
- For the apps, an Apple and a Google developer account in your company’s name (I’ll walk you through both)
Questions
Do customers need to download anything?
No. The web version opens from a link or a QR code in any modern browser. The apps are there for brands that want a listing in the App Store and Google Play.
How do customers find the game?
From a QR code on cups, bags, receipts and table tents, and from your social posts, email list, app and website. Each store also gets its own link and QR code for local posts. A coupon won in the store can start the next day, so it’s used on a later visit instead of on the order they’re already buying.
Does it need rewards?
No. Without rewards the game is a branded game your customers play between visits, with the sign-up button and the dashboard. Rewards can be switched on later for a launch or a slow season.
Can I start small and add things later?
Yes. Apps, extra languages and seasonal levels can all be added after launch at the same prices. Most brands start with the arcade game as a pilot in a few stores, then roll out.
Who pays the monthly fees?
Usually the brand fund, since the franchisor chooses the game and sets the campaign. Franchisees pay for the free food at their own counter, and each one sets their own store’s limit, so they decide how much that can be.
Can people cheat their way to free food?
Coupons are issued by the server, not by the game on the player’s phone, and each one works once. Players don’t have accounts, so someone with a second phone could earn a second coupon. That’s why the store and campaign limits exist: the most a promotion can cost doesn’t depend on catching anyone.
How do we know the visits are new?
That’s what the pilot is for. A few similar stores sit out for a month, and their traffic is compared with the stores that ran the game. The dashboard reports redemptions by store, which makes the comparison simple.
What about kids and privacy?
Games are made for players 13 and up. Players are anonymous, and email or SMS sign-ups happen on your own sign-up page, so the game never stores contact details.
Can a franchisee stay out, or limit their store?
Yes. Each franchisee gets a login for their store and can stay out, set a lower limit by the day or the week, choose the hours coupons can be used, or pause for a day.
Do limits count coupons won or coupons used?
Coupons won. A store with a limit of 20 a day and a 7-day expiry can see at most 140 coupons come back in a week, and that number is known before launch. Pausing stops new coupons, and the ones already won stay good until they expire.
What happens if something breaks?
You email me, and I fix it. Hosting, fixes and updates are what the monthly fee pays for, and the game runs on Cloudflare’s network, the same one that serves this site.
Does it work with our loyalty program?
It runs alongside it. Game rewards are their own coupons with their own limits, and the sign-up button can open your loyalty app’s sign-up page instead of an email list.
Who owns the app listings?
You do. The apps are published under your developer accounts, and I’m added as a team member so I can build and update them. I publish my own iOS game, See the Field, so I know the review process.
Tell me about your restaurant.
A few sentences about your brand and your locations is enough for me to tell you which option would fit and what it would cost. If a game won’t help, I’ll say so.