Live events and seasons

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Plan the year

A live event is something in the game for a limited time: a race weekend, a festival, a collaboration. A season is a few months of new content around a theme, often with a battle pass, which Course 1 explained. A calendar plans both months ahead, so every team knows what ships when.

Events on the App Store

Apple's In-App Events are "timely events within apps and games". Each gets a badge, such as Challenge, Competition, Live Event, Major Update, New Season, Premiere or Special Event.

An event "can last up to 31 days and be promoted up to 14 days before its start date."

Quick check

Kai's Bloom Festival starts on 20 May. What is the earliest it can be promoted as an In-App Event?

  1. 6 May, 14 days before
  2. 20 April
  3. The day it starts
Show the answer

6 May, 14 days before

In-App Events can be promoted up to 14 days before they start.

A calendar that works

Apple shows events "On your product page", in search results, and "In editorially curated selections and personalized recommendations", up to 10 at a time.

Kai's calendar for Shard Garden has one big event a month, a small one every week, and quiet weeks between so the team can rest and fix things. Each event lists its art, code, store listing and support plan.

The season plan

Each Shard Garden season has a theme, a story, new seeds and pots, two big events and a pass. Kai fixes the plan eight weeks before launch, so art, code, translations and store listings are ready in time.

Apple's New Season badge covers "new content, storylines, or media libraries to build on established content", such as "a battle pass or themed content in a game".

Pick the badge

A three-day race where players compete for the top of the leaderboard. Which badge fits?

  1. Competition
  2. Premiere
  3. Major Update
Show the answer

Competition

Apple: Competition is for activities where "users compete against one another for the highest ranking or to win rewards".

Room for a life

Shard Garden's events can be finished on any 3 days of the week. A player who joins a season halfway gets extra progress, so the free track never needs daily play.

A season ends well: the last two weeks are announced, unused progress turns into coins, nothing a player paid for disappears, and the next theme is teased. Then the team counts who finished, who bought the pass and who came back.

Design the rule

A player bought the season pass but was ill for three weeks. What should Shard Garden do?

  1. Give catch-up progress so they can still finish
  2. Nothing: they missed it
  3. Charge them again next season
Show the answer

Give catch-up progress so they can still finish

A pass is a promise. Catch-up keeps it fair for players who can't play every day.

Quick check

Items a player paid for can disappear when the season ends.

Show the answer

False

Shard Garden's rule: nothing paid for ever disappears.

A crowd to talk to

Every event brings a rush of players to the studio's community.

Bolt says: Next: community at scale.

Fact-checked 12 October 2026